Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus by Robert Farrar Capon

Author:Robert Farrar Capon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2009-10-21T04:51:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

Death and the Party

THE TRANSITION TO THE GREAT BANQUET

ascinatingly - considering in particular that Jesus at this point is consciously and deliberately on his way to death - the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters of Luke (Aland nos. 214-221) have, as their principal motif, the image of the party. Chapter 14 begins with a sit-down dinner in the home of a leading Pharisee - a dinner at which Jesus does a number of bizarre things: he performs an unacceptable healing on the sabbath, he criticizes his fellow guests' social behavior, he dispenses odd, if not nonsensical, advice on parry-giving, and he tops off the occasion by confusing everyone with the parable of the Great Banquet. In the rest of the chapter, he lectures the crowds that follow him on the cost of the paradoxical "party" he is about to give the world in his death and resurrection; and in chapter 15, he regales us with no fewer than three parties: one each for the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son. All in all, he clearly links the theme of the party, both explicitly and implicitly, with the mystery of death, lastness, and lostness that he has been adumbrating all through this final journey to Jerusalem.

This combining of "death-talk" with party imagery is not uncommon in Scripture (to recall only the climactic instance of it, think of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb Slain in the final chapters of Revelation). But it occurs most frequently as a twist that Jesus gives to certain of his parables. He has already included a wedding reception in the parable of the Watchful Servants, and he has introduced the notion of an eschato logical dinner party at the end of the parable of the Narrow Door. And in the Prodigal Son and the King's Son's Wedding, he will make a completely literal connection between death/lastness and the party. But before moving on to the parties at hand in Luke 14, I want to say a few words about the material at the end of chapter 13 that forms the bridge to them.

Immediately after he has told the parable of the Narrow Door, some of the Pharisees warn Jesus to get out of town: Herod, they tell him, wants to kill him. This is crocodile solicitousness on their part, of course: they themselves have been after Jesus' scalp for almost as long as he has been preaching (since Mark 3:6, in fact). Nor does Jesus respond in any worried way to their rattling of his cage. He is on his way to Jerusalem for the express purpose of being killed; his first reaction to their fake concern, therefore, boils down to little more than a snappish "So what?" "Go and tell that fox," he says, "`Look, I cast out demons and do cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I shall finish my work [teleioumai, be brought to my completion: coupled as it is here with "the third day" the word is a clear reference to Jesus' death].

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