07_Biblica_2_AM_B_Kilgallen_Layout 1 30/01/13 13:17 Pagina 592 07_B 592 JOHN KILGALLEN significant dinner arranged by Levi (Matthew) in the wake of his obedi- ence to the call of Jesus to him: “Follow me” 6. The response of Jesus to those finding fault with him for this meal fellowship explains the intention of Jesus here: “I have come to call sinners” (5,32). What is lacking, so to speak, though easily inferred, is that Jesus thinks that mingling with sin- ners and tax-collectors is a means to his goal, a method of leading these sinners to repentance 7. Jesus gives no explicit expression of this means to conversion, leaving the reader to supply for himself how just Jesus was in the way he chose to lead sinners to repentance 8. Certainly, there are no explicitly reported choices of means here to gain repentance from din- ner guests, though obviously we should infer, without Luke’s guidance, that Levi, the convener of the banquet, practices works indicative of re- pentance. Indeed, the purpose of the story focuses not on means, but rather on a proper answer to the question put to him, “Why … ?” Jesus answered with “because” he, Son of Man, was sent to call sinners to repentance. His is a divine mission; this is his answer. But restricting himself to this “reason-for-acting” does not really explain why he has chosen this method to effect his desired result: why must he eat and drink with sinners in order to achieve his goal? Here, we should put into play what we had discussed earlier, namely that the Pharisees, too, sought the conversion of sinners. They share the goal of Jesus; it is a question, then, of means. The Pharisees would never have considered Jesus’ approach to sinners. Why not? We repeat reasons given earlier. It seems right to say that they, like many others, think that pentance through eating and drinking with them. Certainly Jesus criticized these people, as Luke has indicated, at dinners with calls, indeed extensive calls, to change their ways (7,36-50; 11,37-52; 14,1-24). Who would under- stand better than they the value of repentance? Such repentance, however, did not include abandonment of their holy practices; as Jesus said: “Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside? But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you” (11,40-41). Jesus ate and drank with every type of sinner. “In the criticism the present tense of the verb ‘eats’…implies a habitual 6 eating with such people … The criticism of Jesus may well have reached his ears already, since his attending such meals was a habitual practice”, M. MULLINS The Gospel of Luke (Dublin 2010) 200. “ … in Luke’s story the good news of Jesus’ identification with sinful hu- 7 manity is incomplete without the invitation to a reorienting of one’s life”, R. KAR- RIS, “The Gospel according to Luke”, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (eds. R.E. BROWN – J.A. FITZMYER – R.E. MURPHY) (Englewood Cliffs, NJ 1990) 693. “Le verbe, evlh,luqa (v. 32), a ici un sens messianique, et qu’il soit em- 8 ployé à l’aoriste chez Marc et Mathieu et au parfait chez Luc, il embrasse toute la vie de Jesus”, F. BOVON, L’Évangile selon Saint Luc 1-9 (Commen- taire du Nouveau Testament 3; Genève 1991) 252. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati