"The Pharisees aren't upset with Jesus because he's eating and drinking at a party. If he really is the Messiah, inaugurating God's Kingdom, then they expect feasting and celebration. They don't have a problem with the party, they have a problem with the guests. Jesus is actively inviting the 'uninvited'. He's including just the kind of people who shouldn't be included."
--
For Jesus ‘feast’ was not just a ‘metaphor’ for the kingdom. As Jesus announced the feast of the kingdom, He also brought it into reality through His own feasting. Unlike many theologians, He did not come [simply] preaching an ideology, promoting ideas, or teaching moral maxims. He came teaching about the feast of the kingdom, and He came feasting in the kingdom.
- Peter Leithart, “Blessed Are The Hungry”
--
It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of the table fellowship for cultures of the Mediterranean basin in the first century... Mealtimes were far more than occasions for individuals to consume nourishment. Being welcomed at a table for the purpose of eating food with another person had become a ceremony richly symbolic of friendship, intimacy and unity. [So much so that] when persons were estranged, a meal invitation opened the way to reconciliation.
- S. Scott Bartchy, “Table Fellowship”
--
Robert Karris says: ‘In Luke’s Gospel Jesus got himself killed because of the way he ate’ (Eating Your Way Through Luke’s Gospel). When Jesus eats with Levi, the message is clear: Jesus has come for losers, people on the margins, people who’ve made a mess of their lives, people who are ordinary. Jesus has come for you. The only people left out are those who think they don’t need God: the self-righteous and the self-important.
- ibid.
--
Preacher: Jonathan Smith
Series: Meals With Jesus
Passage: Luke 5.27-39
Subscribe: apple.co/2Jht9Cs
More: www.reddoorchurch.com.au
