Unit One:
And all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to Him, to hear Him. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, This one receives sinners and eats with them. And He spoke to them this parable, saying,
Luke 15:1-3
Notice that this unit continues with the same focus the previous chapters contained – namely the opposition of the Pharisees and the leaders of Israel. Jesus welcomes the tax collectors and sinners and lets them come near Him. Actually He is accused of receiving them and eating with them. No doubt that was true. There have been a series of invitations to dinner or lunch with the Pharisees and now they are upset with Jesus because He is impartial and not exclusive. In this case He befriends tax collectors and sinners and eats with them in the same way He did with the Pharisees. These people are commoners and riff raft. They are not worthy and it is an affront to the Pharisees to think He would do that. So they start murmuring and complaining about it. These were people with whom no respectable Jew (read religious Jew who followed the Mishnah – the extra laws of the Pharisees) would relate. These people came with the expressed purpose of listen to Him, hear Him. They were coming because of Jesus. That must have been difficult for the Pharisees to handle. These were clearly people with ears – á la the last verse of chapter 14. They wanted to hear what Jesus had to say.
Were these people really sinners? Well yes they were because “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. But here in the text the word sinners should perhaps be in inverted commas – “sinners”. Sinners by who’s standards? It’s the Pharisees’ perception that is in focus here. They call these people “sinners” while considering themselves righteous and above the Law.
Really? ALL the tax collectors and sinners were coming? Is this the use of hyperbole for effect to tell us many were coming habitually or was it true that every sinner was seeking after Jesus? You decide.
The action of “coming near” is in the imperfect tense which suggests they were continually doing this. The reaction of the Pharisees murmuring was also in the imperfect tense a habitual thing, on going in the extreme.
The major feature I want to draw your attention to in this Gem is “and He told them this parable”. Which parable? The parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin or the parable of the lost son? Which one is meant by the use of “this parable”? The simple answer is all of them. Normally when Jesus tells a parable the gospel writer repeats before each parable told, “and He told them this parable”. Or “and He told them another parable”. In this case we have one utterance in the singular [parable] and seemingly all three units are part of the one parable. When Luke records “and He told them this parable”, this parable grammatically refers to all three.
- the lost sheep
- the lost coin
- the lost son
This is one parable with three parts that all hang together. When you realize that you will start to notice some things about it. It is not a coincidence that we have here three examples of lostness all combined in one parable. Lost . . . lost . . . lost.
If you have read the passage a number of times you have probably seen already how certain elements are repeated throughout.
Next Gem we will look at the repetitions and the patterns. Yes another short Gem today. You have had some long ones so I am keeping this one short. But it would help you to take another read through the whole chapter in search of repetitions, patterns and other elements. Pay careful attention to the detail. Incidentally this is one time when Robert Estienne got the chapter divisions right. He nailed this one well. Yes Luke 15 stands alone.
To borrow the idea from Philip Wagner and put a Vail twist on it:
If we do what others aren’t willing to do in our quest to probe the depths of the Bible, we’ll have greater understanding than others have.
Ian
Especially if we ask the Author’s help, who stands behind us as we read.
Ian Vail
How deep is your desire for the Word of life? Is it equal to your love for God or does it get easily reprioritised when other “important things” come along?
Ian Vail
Do you drink deeply at the fountain of living water or just rinse and spit?
Anon
The quality of your life is determined by the Word of God that you consume DAILY.
Kenny Goh