07_Biblica_2_AM_B_Kilgallen_Layout 1 30/01/13 13:17 Pagina 595 595 WAS JESUS RIGHT TO EAT WITH SINNERS AND TAX COLLECTORS? have asked: they have repented. And, as always, the repentant person was no less an interest for the “people of this age” who rejected John and Jesus because of their methods, both their call and their identities. What might we make of the fact that immediately following Jesus’ words we are to read the story about a sinner (a`martwlo,j) forgiven her sins and about a Pharisee who is little forgiven? It would not be amiss to note that we are presented with a repentant woman, which suggests that Jesus, so recently mentioned as a “friend of sinners and tax collectors”, has suc- cess in his method of bringing about repentance. Certainly, the story means to exemplify the proverb, “Wisdom is justified by her children” 12, but we cannot ignore the means whereby this child has justified Wisdom; also, we can presume a new moral life for this repentant woman. Thus far, we have been given the motive for which Jesus associates with sinners, and a reference at least in a general way to the success of this association as found in the repentant who have responded to Jesus and to John, but we continue to look for an explicit example of repentance. III. Jesus and the Pharisees and Sadducees (chap.15) Once again, in chap. 15, we meet the same criticism against Jesus that he fraternizes with sinners; this time, the objection is phrased: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them” (15,2). It is Pharisees and Sad- ducees who criticize now, and who make up part of the audience of Jesus; the other part is, indeed, sinners and tax collectors. Clearly, what Luke had offered his reader in chapters 5 and 7 did not exhaust his interest in this matter; the criticism deserves further reflection, and this time it will be with one of Jesus’ favorite rhetorical methods: the parable. Practically all of chap. 15 is a long presentation by Jesus, which con- sists of three parables with only occasional, but crucial, comment by him (vv. 7 and 10). The first two parables are strikingly similar in form, though not identical in content 13; quite different for a number of reasons is the third, that usually titled “The Prodigal Son” 14. NOLLAND, Luke, 353: “The touching display of affectionate gratitude 12 shown to Jesus by this woman off the street well illustrates the claim of v. 35 that Wisdom is justified by her children”. Note for instance in the second parable the omitted reference to the 13 “ninety-nine who need no finding” of the first parable. Perhaps this omission is explained by saying that the source for the first parable, but not the second, is drawn from Q. “Doppelgleichnis und Sohnparabel, die inhaltlich verwandt waren, 14 durch Unterstreichung der Freude über das Wiedergefundene zur Apologie Jesu gegenüber Gegnern und zu einer Einladung zur Mitfreude zu machen”, W. WIEFEL, Das Evangelium nach Lukas (THzNT 3; Berlin 1988) 281. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati