Here in Year C readings, our gospel suddenly moves from Luke 12:49-53 (last week) to this gospel, passing over 12:54-13:21. In between, the warnings and admonitions regarding the coming judgment that began with 12:1 reach their conclusion with a sobering call for repentance. Just as the debtor on the way to court (12:59) is warned to make every effort at reconciliation, so also Jesus uses the sayings about calamity in 13:1–5 and the parable of the unproductive fig tree in 13:6–9 to make the same point: 

• read the signs of the time and judge correctly; 
• repent now, the time is short; and
• be assured of the full measure of judgment.

The sayings from this gospel of Jesus follow upon the parables of the kingdom (Luke 13:18–21) and stress the same points as above, adding, that great effort is required for entrance into the kingdom (Luke 13:24) and that there is an urgency to accept the present opportunity to enter because the narrow door will not remain open indefinitely. 

One should also note that the stability of teaching in the synagogues has given way and returned to the travel motif that began in 9:51 when Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem.  Again he is passing through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. (12:22)

Another element lurking in the background is the 1^st century Jewish understanding to the eschatological banquet described in Isa 25:6–9, whose images and vocabulary are mirrored in the Lukan scenes. “Isaiah had described the end as a lavish banquet, a feast fit for royalty, yet prepared for all peoples; on that day it will be said by all the nations, including Gentiles, “Let us be glad and rejoice in our salvation” (v 9, LXX). Although Israel did not lose sight of Isaiah’s vision of the eschatological banquet, the question of its participants did evolve in Second Temple Judaism, narrowing considerably in some instances. The Targum [Aramic translation of the OT], for example, maintains the notion of a meal for all peoples, but transforms it into an image of judgment against them—a conclusion echoed in 1 Enoch 62. Among the Dead Sea Scrolls (wherein testimony for the tradition of the messianic banquet is strong) one finds evidence of the boundaries having been drawn even more tightly so as to exclude not only Gentiles but also blemished Jews. Taking into account this trajectory of interpretation, the query, ‘Are only a few people being saved’ may well be understood with reference to who among the Jews are to be regarded as the saved remnant.”  (Green, 528)

Might the parable for this Sunday seem a contradiction of the one Jesus told only two chapters ago in Luke’s Gospel (17th Sunday of the year). The question there was: if we ask, will we receive? Is there a difference between the asking (11:1-13) and the asking for admittance to the banquet in our text (13:25 ff.)?

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Image credit: Pexels | Farouk Tokluoglu | CC-BY