Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§ 12.4 The Kingdom of God
the kingdom of heaven/God with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Matt. 8.11 /Luke
13.28-29). Here the kingdom seems to be equivalent to heaven or at least to the
idealised future state following the final consummation. Or again, the kingdom is
like a great (eschatological) banquet (Matt. 22.2-10/Luke 14.16-24), 236 or is the
future note clearly struck only by Luke's introduction (Luke 14.15)? 237 Matthew
would presumably agree, since he includes the parable of the maidens invited to
the wedding feast (Matt. 25.1-13). 238 But the theme evidently had particular importance
for Luke, since he adds to the parables encouraging watchfulness the
note that the returning master will wait on his faithful servants at table (Luke
12.37), his parable of the prodigal son reaches its (initial) climax in a great banquet
(15.24), and in his version of Jesus' promise that the twelve will be judges
of Israel he includes the assurance that they will eat and drink at his table in the
coming kingdom (22.30). 239
It is at this point that we should probably include the verse attached to the
other most prominent liturgical usage in the early tradition, the last supper. Mark
recalls Jesus as saying, 'Truly I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of
the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God' (Mark 14.25).
As usual in the Passion narrative, Matt. 26.29 follows Mark closely. But as also is
usual in the Passion narrative, Luke seems to have an independent tradition,
which gives a closely similar rendering: 'Truly I say to you, from now on I will
certainly not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God has come'
(Luke 22.18). 240 Here again the kingdom is understood as a future state, whether
as one into which Jesus would be transposed (Mark) or as one to come (Luke).
Jeremias describes the saying as a 'vow of abstinence' in view of the expected arrival
of the kingdom, 241 though in the Mark/Matthew version it could be a hope
for life beyond death (kingdom = heaven). 242 Marinus de Jonge has also ob-
236. The parable is generally traced back to Jesus; see, e.g., those cited by Hultgren,
Parables of Jesus 339 n. 28; Lüdemann regards even the Lukan version as 'inauthentic'; 'the
original parable ... is represented most clearly by Thomas 64' (Jesus 360). See also above, nn.
174 and 203. On the appended Matt. 22.11-13 see Jeremias, Parables 187-89.
237. As Beasley-Murray in effect notes, if hearers locate themselves at the point where
the summons is being given to the banquet, then the banquet is ready; take your seats! (Jesus
and the Kingdom 120-21).
238. Cited below, §12.4g.
239. See also below, §14.8a.
240. See above, §8.5c. Here too the quest for an original form may be unnecessary, not
to say misguided; cf. Meier's debate with Schlosser (Marginal Jew 2.303-306).
241. J. Jeremias, The Eucharistie Words of Jesus ( 3 1960; London: SCM, 1966) 182-84;
also Proclamation 137. In Luke 22.16-18 the 'vow of abstinence' includes food.
242. Cf. H. F. Bayer, Jesus' Predictions of Vindication and Resurrection (WUNT 2.20;
Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1986) 42-53; Casey, Aramaic Sources 242-47: 'We should not describe
it as a vow of abstinence, but rather as a prediction. Jesus knew that this was to be his last
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