Monday, December 6, 2010

Letter To Laodicea (part 45)

With what must have been the rapt attention of all present, Jesus continues upon His discourse, going on to speak directly to the host of the meal and saying “When you host a dinner or a banquet, don’t invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors so you can be invited by them in return and get repaid” (14:12b).  Naturally, this cuts across all social norms, and in the end, the scenario that we will see and hear Jesus going on to construct has a great deal of bearing on the word that will be spoken to the church at Laodicea.  Such divergence from expectation is par for the course when it comes to Jesus, as witnessed by His constant presence at banquet tables with “tax collectors and sinners.” 

The fact that Luke’s record has such words being spoken by the one that is presenting Himself through a messianic lifestyle, while at a banquet, having recently made mention of the messianic banquet in which people from “east and west, and from north and south” will “take their places at the banquet table in the kingdom of God” (13:29b), means that these words from Jesus have rather grandiose implications.  Though these words were said to be directed to the host, who was a leader of the Pharisees, it is impossible that they were not also meant for the wider audience by which Jesus was surrounded.  When mention is made of the messianic banquet, the point of reference is the twenty-fifth chapter of Isaiah.  There we are able to read “The Lord Who commands armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain.  At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine---tender meat and choicest wine.  On this mountain He will swallow up the shroud that is over all peoples, the woven covering that is over all the nations; He will swallow up death permanently.  The sovereign Lord will wipe away tears from every face, and remove His people’s disgrace from all the earth.  Indeed, the Lord has announced it!  At that time they will say, ‘Look, here is our God!  We waited for Him and He delivered us.  Here is the Lord!  We waited for Him.  Let’s rejoice and celebrate His deliverance!’” (25:6-9) 

Because ideas about the coming kingdom of God were prevalent in Jesus’ day, and as the messiah was expected at any moment (which is indicated by the preponderance of messianic movements surrounding the time of Christ), thoughts of Isaiah’s messianic banquet would have been common and relatively widespread (though certainly not uniform in nature).  Indeed, we can imagine that any time a potential messiah figure sat down to a banqueting table, that thoughts of the grand eschatological banquet would be dancing upon the hearts and minds of those present.  This would be especially true if that messiah figure was utilizing the terminology of the advent of God’s kingdom, as Jesus was in the habit of doing. 

In looking at the passage from Isaiah, and doing so in the context of what Jesus has said in the thirteenth chapter in regards to people coming from all directions to join in the banqueting table, along with what He has said to His current host about who should be invited to his banquets, we are struck by the phrase “all peoples.”  This catches our attention because it echoes God’s promise to bless all people through the seed of Abraham (Isaac and Israel).  This particular promise in Isaiah is directed to an exiled Israel whose disobedience has become a barrier that has been erected between God’s promise and the intended Gentile recipients (all peoples). 

The imagery of the banquet that we see in Isaiah is taken from an ancient coronation ceremony where, following the installment of a new king, a sacrifice would be offered, with this accompanied by a celebratory feast.  For Isaiah, the feast follows the end-time enthronement of Israel’s God on Zion.  This feast, however, is marked by the fact that it is designed to transcend Israel’s national and ethnic boundaries, being extended to all people.  In addition and perhaps most importantly, this banquet, which celebrates the consummating establishment of the kingdom of heaven, is accompanied by the permanent eradication of death, pain, and sorrow (the shroud, the woven covering), with all tears wiped away by the sovereign Lord.  This feast, in essence, is the consummation of the covenant with Abraham that had been drawn up by the God of all creation.   

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