Table Fellowship in the Gospel of Luke

Criticism of Jesus

5:29-32 Levi the tax collector serves Jesus a banquet and the Pharisees and their scribes ask, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners." Jesus responds, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but hose who are sick' I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance."

7:33-35 In response to the Pharisees' rejection of John's baptism: "For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, "He has a demon'; the son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children."

15:1-2 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."

Jesus and Table Fellowship

This outline is based upon an article by Dennis E. Smith, "Table Fellowship as a Literary Motif in the Gospel of Luke," Journal of Biblical Literature 106 (1987) pp. 613-638.

Smith compares the motif of table fellowship to the Greco Roman traditions of the symposium. I will be disregarding much of his analysis and will highlight the elements of his discussion and where they appear in Luke. I will provide only a summary of each pericope to avoid reproducing what will seem like most of the Gospel of Luke.
* My additions to Smith's list.

Table talk as a mode of teaching

7:36-50 While dining with the Pharisees, a woman anoints Jesus feet with oil.

11:37-54 Jesus denounces the Pharisees and Lawyers at a meal at which he is a Pharisee's guest. Eats with a leader of the Pharisees on the Sabbath and heals a man with dropsy and then speaks on hospitality.

14:1-35 Jesus dines with a leader of the Pharisees on the Sabbath and heals a man with dropsy and preaches on Hospitality and Humility.

Negative references to table fellowship or eating:

Rank at table as a symbol of status

9:46-48 The disciples argue about which one of them was greatest. In Matthew 20:20-28 John and James mother asks if her sons can sit at Jesus' left and right in his kingdom.

14:7-11 In the parable of a wedding banquet the quest who sits down at the place of honor will be disgraced by being asked to move and the one who sits in the lowest place will be honored by being invited to move up.

Luxury as an exclusive activity

12:13-21 The parable of the rich fool who builds larger and larger barns to store his crops.

12:41-48 The parable of the unfaithful slave who eats and drinks while beating the other slaves

16: 19-31 The story of the rich man who feasts sumptuously each day while Lazarus, the poor man, sits at his gate and how the roles are reversed after death.

17:27-28 Jesus compares this generation to those who were eating and drinking and marrying before the flood and the people of Sodom who were eating and drinking etc.

Positive references to table fellowship or eating

The abundance of the eschatological banquet

5:33-39 When the Pharisees ask Jesus why he and his disciples do not fast like those of John, Jesus responds, "You cannot make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you?" He follows up with the parables of the patched garment and the new wine in old wineskins.

6:21 Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.

9:10-17 The feeding of the 5,000 ends with twelve baskets of broken pieces.

11:3 Give us today the bread of tomorrow.

*11:5-13 Preaching about perseverance uses examples of the neighbor seeking three loaves of bread for a house guest and a child who asks for a fish.

13:27-30 The people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God. Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.

14:15-24 the parable of the great dinner in which the expected guest cannot come and the master invites the poor, the cripples, the blind and the lame.

Table service as a symbol for divine service and worship

1:53 Mary sings, "he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty."

4:38-39 Peter's mother-in-law is healed and gets up and serves Jesus and the disciples.

* 6:1-5 Jesus is criticized for plucking grain on the Sabbath. He lets the story of how David at the bread of the Presence and claims, "the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath."

7:36-50 While dining with the Pharisees, a woman anoints Jesus feet with oil.

7:55 After Jesus heals Jairus' daughter, he instructs the parents to get her something to eat.*

10:38-42 Martha serves (diakonein).

12:35-40 The parable of the servants waiting for the master to return from the wedding banquet.

Table fellowship as a symbol of community

5:29-32 Levi the tax collector gives a great banquet for Jesus along with other tax collectors.

15:11-32 The banquet in the Parable of the Prodigal son.

19:1-10 Zacchaeus, the rich tax collector, responds to Jesus inviting himself to his house by giving away half of his possessions to the poor.

22:14-23 The institution of the Lord's supper becomes the principal symbol of Christian fellowship.

24:35 Jesus is made known to the disciples on the road to Emmaus "in the breaking of the bread."

Note: In Luke 1:15, John the Baptist like Samuel is the subject of a Nazarite vow and abstains from wine or strong drink. This vows makes the comparison between John the Baptist's asceticism and Jesus' eating habits more pronounces.