Context.  Many commentators locate these three parables (Luke 15) within a larger section of Luke that asks the question “who will participate in the reign of God?” (13:10-17:10). The section includes the foundational formation of the disciples – but often via the encounter with the Pharisees in which the assumptions of right relationship with God are put to the question.  At issue is the question of fellowship in the community of God’s people. The setting for teaching about this fellowship is so often the meal setting where questions of boundaries and community play out in terms of admission, honor, and hospitality.  So often in this section the characters with the pericopes and parables are those who should attract respect and honor according to the conventional wisdom, yet within the parables of casualties of a reversal of values and misfortunes: “For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last” (13:30).  The gospel text for his week immediately follows the unit of saying on the reversals in the Reign of God (13:10-14:35).  Joel Green outlines the reversal sayings as follows: Continue reading →