Big Idea: “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (19:10).

Understanding the Text

After the scene at a Pharisee’s table in 14:1–24 (cf. 7:36–50; 11:37–54), the focus turns to the much less conventional meals that Jesus enjoyed with social and religious outsiders. This theme was earlier raised by the meal in Levi’s house (5:27–39) and by the “sinful woman” who disrupted another more conventional meal (7:36–50), and it has been reflected in Jesus’s subversive ideas about who should be at the messianic banquet (13:28–29; 14:15–24). The issue for Jesus is not simply a matter of table etiquette, but rather of God’s plan of salvation, which will be gloriously summed up at the table of an arch-sinner in 19:10. So a trio of parables here challenges the reader to rethink who is ul…