the role of the lukan parables in terms of the purpose of luke's gospel

construal of the Journey to Jerusalem Metanarrative 39
is as follows:
a) 9:51-56 a’) 19:28-48 The decision to go to Jerusalem and Jesus arrives in Jerusalem
b) 9:57-62 b’) 19:11-27 Three Sayings for would-be followers and Parable of the three
Retainers
c) 10:1-20 c’) 19:1-10 Peace or Judgment Pronounced over Houses and Cities
d) 10:21-24 d’) 18:31-43 The Hidden, the Revealed, and the Ability to see it
e) 10:25-42 e’) 18:15-30 On inheriting Eternal Life
f) 11:1-13 f’) 18:1-14 Teaching on Prayer
g) 11:14-36 g’) 17:11-37 Evidences of the Kingdom among you
h) 11:37-54 h’) 17:1-10 Judgments against Religious Hypocrisy, and Occasions for
Stumbling VS. Occasions for Faith
i) 12:1-41 i’) 16:16-31 Collected Teachings for Disciples and Crowds
j) 12:42-48 j’) 16:1-15 Parable of the Shrewd Manager
k) 12:49-53 k’) 15:1-32 On the Necessity of Repentance
l) 13:10-30 l’) 14:1-24 Eschatological Reversals in Stories and Sayings and in the
Dinner Party
m) 13:31-35 Lamenting Jerusalem.
After framing a chiastic structure of the Journey, he, according to the fictive argument of
Luke’s literary strategy, examines three sayings for would-be followers in 9:57-62 in light of
Parable of the three Retainers in 19:11-27. Both the sayings stories and the parable answer
the question “what is required of a follower?” That is to say, a follower must be willing to
take great risk in the business at hand, or discard unsuitable things for his service. In this case,
both are parallel with Deut 1:34-40 and 31:1-13. The respective sayings of Deuteronomy
contain the announcement to the generation of Israelites that they are not qualified to enter
into the promised land because of their lack of trust in God, and include the confirmation of
the promise that the Lord will go before them and destroy all his enemies. For this reason,
Reid is convinced that Luke has employed the Deuteronomic story to frame his travel
narrative in that he contrasts boldness and fearfulness among followers, and also promises to
destroy all enemies. Finally, he elicits help for the preacher from the vantage point in which
theology of a text is viewed in two ways, the advantage that deals with the gospels as
biographers of Jesus, and histories of Christianity. That is, on the one hand Jesus’
pronouncements are truisms providing for a variety of situations, on the other Jesus’ sayings
and stories are structured rhetorically for “an argument intended to thematize the essential
39. Metanarrative used in critical theory refers to a grand overarching account, or all-encompassing story. The
story of the whole Bible, for instance, can be called Metanarrative, a grand narrative in terms of the history of
salvation.
221