Table fellowship in Luke's gospel

Abstract

Luke was probably the most literary of all the Gospel writers. In particular, one of his favorite literary devices was his continual reference to meal symbolism with which he enriches his Gospel. Repeatedly throughout his Gospel, Luke reveals his dominant concern to table fellowship involving the hospitality of eating and drinking so as to provide the framework for his theological purposes. The Lucan Jesus tradition is consequently permeated with a wide spectrum of rich uses of the banquet motif, which range from its metaphorical use in the parables to stories about meals in which Jesus takes part. In this essay, we will introduce the Lucan motif of table fellowship and its strategic location within the narrative and we will then proceed to highlight the features of the Greco-Roman banquet exhibited in the Lucan meals. We next present our modest contribution by underlying any common factors emerging in the meal accounts narrated by Luke and present his first two meals in greater detail. Towards the end of this study we proceed to understand better the benefaction of sharing a meal with Jesus on a personal and on an ecclesial level. In our attempt to sketch a sufficiently detailed picture of Luke's multiple references to Jesus' table attitudes, which characteristically mould his Gospel, we learn that these references are not distinct isolated instances spread out throughout Luke's narrative. Each and every reference is rather a single piece pertaining to a beautiful jigsaw puzzle. It suffices our purpose to demonstrate Luke's beautiful jigsaw puzzle once we ensemble the disjoint pieces together. The hand of the Third Gospel writer in fact unifies these multiple references into a beautiful work of art and a rich literary collage. Eventually, our analysis hopefully exposes Luke's theological significance of meals and his well-defined story with the spotlight on Jesus' message.