Similarly, Luke’s presentation of Jesus’ salt speech is also connected to His speaking of the kingdom of heaven. We have to pay close attention in order to grasp this, but as we do, we gain an extremely valuable clue that will ultimately enable us to reach a firm and viable conclusion to the question on which this study is premised, which is what it is that has Jesus so incensed and disgusted with the church of Laodicea. It is useful to notice that the setting in Luke in which Jesus speaks of salt and ears to hear is that of a “Sabbath when Jesus went to dine at the house of a leader of the Pharisees” (14:1a). It is said that there, “they were watching Him closely” (14:1b). This setting, by all appearances, seems to remain unchanged for an extended period of time, reaching from the first verse of the fourteenth chapter to the tenth verse of the seventeenth chapter. Though we do encounter what may feel like major transitional statements that introduce new settings, such as “Now large crowds were accompanying Jesus” (14:25a), and “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming to Him” (15:1), it is not necessary to presume that these are meant to deliver the reader into new scenery.
However, it seems that the very fact that we read about large crowds accompanying Jesus, and His turning to them to speak, precludes us from considering that the setting has changed. While we do not insist that the large crowds were dining with Jesus at the house of this particular leader of the Pharisees, we can reflect back to an earlier event in the life of Jesus as recorded by Luke that may enable us to get a picture of the scene here in the fourteenth chapter. In chapter five of Luke, we read about Jesus healing a paralytic. Presumably, Jesus is in a residence, though He may have been in the synagogue, though the latter is doubtful. Luke tells us that “on one of those days, while He was teaching, there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting nearby (who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem), and the power of the Lord was with Him to heal. Just then some men showed up, carrying a paralyzed man on a stretcher. They were trying to bring him in and place him before Jesus. But since they found no way to carry him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down on the stretcher through the roof tiles right in front of Jesus” (5:17-19). So here we have an instance in which Jesus is in a house, with crowds gathered around Him both in the house and outside of the house.
Naturally, Jesus’ growth in notoriety as His ministry progressed would only increase the number of people that would be around Him both inside and outside of the house of this Pharisee. If this is so, then in the course of His time at this house to which He had been invited, Jesus would merely have to step to the doorway of the house in order to address the large crowds that had been following Him. It is possible that the other potential scene-shifter presents us with a problem, but this is not necessarily so. There is no need to posit an altogether new scenario simply because we find that “all the tax collectors and sinners were coming to hear Him,” and that “the Pharisees and experts in the law were complaining, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” (15:1-2) This is addressed by the introduction to the scene that takes place at the beginning of the fourteenth chapter, and serves to explain why it is that the Pharisees “were watching Him closely” (14:1b), so as to see who it was with whom Jesus would associate.
Though there may be “tax collectors and sinners” at this house, it would not be incumbent upon Jesus to consort with them, and the Pharisees would take measures to make sure that they avoided this very thing. The fact that Jesus does not make an attempt to avoid this very thing is confirmed by the Pharisees. It seems obvious that the invitation that had been extended to Jesus was part of a larger movement to discredit Him and His mission as He makes His way to Jerusalem. Therefore, it is a relatively simple matter to determine that this section is an extended presentation of one particular event within Jesus’ ministry, with it occurring inside the longer travel narrative.
So here in this one setting we get a decisive look at much of Jesus’ theology, as He tells parables related to seeking seats of honor, great banquets, lost sheep, lost coins, compassionate fathers, prodigal sons, clever stewards, and the rich man and Lazarus. In the midst of all of these parables, and before making His statements about salt that are accompanied by His insistence of a need for ears to hear (again indicating practical application for His hearers according to present reality which can first be understood in their historical context and then universally applied to the body of believers), Jesus speaks of the need to carry a cross to truly be His disciple. In our own day, because we are so familiar with cross terminology, and because we are steeped in what it has come to represent, that we are not taken aback by its usage as would a first century hearer. In that day however, the cross, being Rome’s preferred instrument to inspire terror among a subservient populace, was not a symbol of the love and grace of God. Rather, for the Israel of God, as they figuratively labored under the heel of the Roman boot, it was a symbol of cursing, of exile, and of the continuation of the Deuteronomic curses in which Israel was not in control of its own land and therefore not in a position to determine their own future. This mention of a cross was shocking. Perhaps far more shocking and scandalous than the words by which it was preceded.
No comments:
Post a Comment