Lectionary Year C
August 5, 2001
Luke 12:13-21

Step II: Disposition

Step II - Disposition

A. Genre

(JFC) This pericope seems like it could be reporting something like a press conference that expands into some self-reflecting, self-consideration, self-searching and dreaming by one of the reporters present, assuming that reporters might readily be conditioned to be greedy. It turns into a soliloquy wherein the protagonist goes through some aggrandizement and reality checks to accommodate his fantasies. Then, the conclusion makes the point of the parable by bringing in God's vantage point on the subject addressed, possessionism. Jeremias (The Parables of Jesus) writes that verses 16-20, "we have an eschatological parable." William Barclay (And Jesus Said) calls it, "one of those parables which spring directly from their context." While Barclay emphasizes much too much the context of elements other than those it seems to me this whole passage emphasizes, his premise might be worthy of consideration in a broader sense. What think ye? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone?

B. Personal Interaction

(JFC) My first question asks, is Jesus using sarcasm here or what when he responds to the man in the crowd's request? Or, is he just trying to employ a transition into the point he wants to make and knows needs to be made there that day with those folk? Then, is the parable a little too subtle for hoi polloi to get it on first hearing? And, what about that "eat, drink and be merry"? Is it an idiom, popular in their vernacular? And, does such a parable about a wealthy citizen make its point with the majority of those in the crowd, who are most likely far short of being wealthy? Furthermore, is the parable merely a vehicle deserving little more than passing and temporary attention? Is the point of the text greater than the point of the parable? I think it might well be so.

C. Organization

(JFC) This lection seems to have five different scenarios. The first verses (13f) set the stage, a crowd gathered to whom Jesus speaks and one member of it asks him for a favor. He apparently immediately refutes his right/propriety to agree to do the task requested. In the second scenario (verse 15), immediately, evidently, he gives some (unasked for) advice and just as instantly tells a parable, the third scenario, verses 16-19. He quotes several sentences of monologue in the parable followed by the fourth scenario, God's intervention to set a more proper perspective on the topic addressed (verse 20). Finally, for the fifth scenario, Luke, or is it God who concludes the lesson.

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