The blind and the lame

Luke is really about the failure to understand that God excludes no one. The phrase “the blind and the lame” is a synecdochic for all blemished individuals including such unique stories as restoring to life the son of the widow of Nain (7:11-17), the episode of the healing of the bent woman (13:10-17), the healing of the man with dropsy (14:1-6) and the healing of the ten male lepers (17:11-19). The Lucan Jesus extends his invitation to the messianic banquet to the “poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame” (14:15-24) with the warning that none of the original invitees “will taste my dinner.”

I suspect that this invitation to the messianic banquet is intended make clear that the prohibition contained in 2 Samuel 5:8 that “the blind and the lame shall not enter into the house of the Lord” has been nullified by the Lucan Jesus.

This is a work in progress.

Copyrighted 2008

Religion

Christianity

Gospel of Luke