Jesus' Table Practices

Peter J. Leithart, January 10, 2004

Joel Green points out that the TEXT of Luke actually displays the table practices of Jesus. In Luke 14, the scene is a meal in the home of a leading Pharisee, yet several people show up that we don't expect to be at the home of a leading Pharisee: Jesus, and the man with dropsy (who would be considered marginal if not positively unclean). Luke's cast of characters, in short, his "dramatis personae" is a textual display of the table fellowship of Jesus. All the wrong people at the table; all the wrong people in the text.