Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§12.5 The Kingdom of God
legend (1 Kgs. 10.1-10), but in Jesus' ministry there was something greater! Jonah
was famous for the success of his preaching in Nineveh (Jonah 3.5), but in
Jesus' ministry something greater was happening! The implication is that the
Galileans' failure to follow the lead given by the queen and the Ninevites made
them the more culpable. We today may recoil at such a high self-esteem attributed
to Jesus' mission. But it would be unwise to discount the tradition's testimony
to Jesus' own remembered evaluation of his mission on that account alone.
The similar note of a markedly changed situation, of something new, which
decisively relativizes previous or normal practice is also struck in another small
collection of parabolic sayings preserved in Mark 2.18-22 pars.
Matt. 9.14-15
14 Then the disciples of John
came to him, saying,
'Why do we
and the
Pharisees fast (often), but vour
disciples do not fast?' 15 And
he said to them, 'The wedding
guests cannot mourn as lone as
the bridegroom is with them.
The days
will come when the bridegroom
is taken away from them, and
then they will fast'.
Matt. 9.16-17
16 No one puts a piece of
unshrunk cloth on an old cloak.
for the patch Dulls awav
from the cloak,
and a worse tear is made. 17
Neither do thev out new wine
into old wineskins; otherwise.
the wineskins burst,
and the wine is spilled, and the
wineskins are destroyed;
but they put new wine
into new wineskins, and so
both are preserved.
Mark 2.18-20
18 Now the disciples of John
and the Pharisees were fasting;
and people came and said to
him, "Why do the disciples of
John and the disciples of the
Pharisees fast. but vour
disciples do not fast?' 19 And
he said to them, 'The wedding
guests cannot fast while
the bridegroom is with them.
can they? As long as they have
the bridegroom with them, they
cannot fast. 20 The days
will come when the bridegroom
is taken awav from them, and
then thev will fast on that day'.
Mark 2.21-22
21 No one sews a piece of
unshrunk cloth on an old cloak;
otherwise, the patch pulls away
from it. the new from the old,
and a worse tear is made. 22
And no one puts new wine into
old wineskins; otherwise, the
wine will burst the
wineskins, and the wine is
destroyed, and so are the
wineskins; but new wine is
for new wineskins.
Luke 5.33-35
33 Then they said to
him, 'The disciples of
John frequently fast and pray,
like those of the Pharisees, but
yours eat and drink'. 34
Jesus said to them, 'You cannot
make wedding guests fast while
the bridegroom is with them.
can you?
35 The days
will come when the bridegroom
is taken awav from them,
then thev will fast in those
days'.
Luke 5.36-38
36 He also told them a parable:
'No one tears a piece from a
new cloak and puts it on an old
cloak; otherwise the new will
tear, and the piece from the new
will not match the old. 37
And no one puts new wine into
old wineskins; otherwise the
new wine will burst the
wineskins and will be spilled,
and the wineskins destroyed. 38
But new wine must be
put into new wineskins'.
Matthew and Luke appear to be dependent on Mark for their tradition,
though we note in the case of all three characteristic features of oral retelling.
That is to say, several of the pecularities of each make better sense as free
retellings of the tradition which retain the main point in more or less the same
441