Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE MISSION OF JESUS §12.5
(Matt. 11.16-19/Luke 7.31-35) has several important features, and we will have
to return to it more than once. Here we need merely note the difference implied
between the mission styles of John and Jesus. John's had a notably ascetic character
(Matt. 11.18/Luke 7.33); this certainly fits with the Baptist tradition in the
Synoptics (Mark 1.6 par.) and may find an echo in Josephus's description. 344 But
Jesus had a reputation for enjoying himself; this is attested not only by the controversial
Matt. 11.19/Luke 7.34, 345 but also by the contrast drawn in the little
parable which begins the unit (Matt. 11.16-17/Luke 7.31-32). 346 The parable itself
can certainly be regarded as typical of Jesus' teaching style. 347 The contrast
fits too with the expectation of Isa. 61.3 — 'a garland instead of ashes, the oil of
gladness instead of mourning' — and with the other teaching tradition already
referred to above (§ 12.5b). So there is no difficulty in recognizing here a memory
of one of Jesus' more vivid attempts to signal his own understanding of the difference
between his mission and that of John. 348
The conclusion from this rather lengthy probe into the tradition of Jesus'
own assessment of the Baptist and of the difference between them is clear. The
earliest churches did not see the issue as one which had arisen only in their own
time, but remembered it as a subject on which Jesus had spoken on several occasions.
One can well imagine these teachings being grouped together even during
the lifetime of Jesus, as his disciples, including former disciples of the Baptist,
were themselves confronted by the question of how the relation of John and Jesus
was to be understood. The point for us here is that the relation between the
two was conceived in terms of a significant transition having taken place. There
was a note of fulfilled expectation, of long-desired blessings now happening, of
344. John called for 'consecration (hagneia) of the body' (Josephus, Ant. 18.117);
hagneia usually has the sense 'purity, chastity', 'strict observance of religious duties' (LSJ
hagneia; BAGD hagneia).
345. See below, chapter 13 at nn. 183-84 and §16.4b(5).
346. Hultgren, Parables 204-206; 'It is difficult to imagine that the parable would have
survived without an explanation' (205).
347. Contrasting pairs is one of the most characteristic features of Jesus' parables; e.g.,
shrunk or unshrunk cloth, new or old wineskins (Mark 2.21-22 pars.), two ways (Matt. 7.13-14/
Luke 13.23-24), wise and foolish builders (Matt. 7.24-27/Luke 6.47-49), two sons (Matt.
21.28-30), wise and foolish maidens (Matt. 25.1-13), the prodigal son and his brother (Luke
15.11-32), and a pharisee and tax-collector (Luke 18.9-14).
348. The portrayal of Jesus as 'a glutton and a drunkard' (phagos kai oinopotes), both
words hapax legomena in the NT but clearly pejorative (there may be an echo of Prov. 23.20-
21), 'not likely to have been invented by his followers' (Funk, Five Gospels 180); the confusion
(among commentators!) regarding the phrase 'the Son of Man' should not count against that
logic (see below, §13.5 n. 184 and further §16.4). See also Meier's careful analysis (Marginal
Jew 2.144-56), though he follows Sanders too uncritically in regard to the 'sinners' (Matt.
11.19/Luke 7.34) (149-50); see again below, chapter 15 n. 224.
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