Mauro Pesce and Adrianna Desto, Encounters with Jesus: The Man in His Place and Time.

Fortress Press, 2011. Chapter Five In Jesus Leaves Home (the title of this chapter) our authors wish us to learn that Jesus travels from home and to homes, along with the travels of his followers, bears more significance than generally granted. The views of our authors are fleshed out in their exegesis of, for instance, the parable of the Prodigal Son, which, they suggest shows how Jesus saw the relationships between the rural households and the city (p. 106). How so? It demonstrates Jesus wish to communicate a certain condemnation of attraction to life in the city common among the young. Likewise, Jesus disciples are called to homelessness in the sense that they also must leave their households, their responsibilities as members of families, and their security as members of such households. So Jesus calls adult males (not children or the elderly) to replace their natural ties with discipleship. Jesus called them to a relationship that was personal, not mediated by third parties (p. 111). The parade example of their case is presented in P. and D.s examination of Luke 9:59-60. Here, Jesus demands that he [the person addressed] detach himself absolutely from the totality of the household. [and naturally this has] consequences for the relationships in the household if the son were to obey Jesus call (p. 113). So Jesus demands instantaneous and immediate detachment (p. 113). The remarkable thing in all this of course is the fact that Jesus comes to divide families by his call to follow. Some will follow fully and leave everything behind and others will remain sedentary in their households but they are commanded to demonstrate the same level of commitment.

Of course this means that there will be conflicts within families and between family members. Again, then, we have to wonder exactly how much of Jesus own family history informed his challenge to others who would be his disciples. Or as P. puts it in connection with Luke 14:26, Such words seem to have a wider reference than the question of discipleship: they could be taken as the paradigm of his [i.e., Jesus] entire personal experience (p. 116). Jesus leaves home. He expects the same from his followers if they are rejected like he was. In this section, we have seen how the itinerant disciples were obliged to separate from their households. We shall now look at the texts that speak of those who welcomed Jesus group while remaining in their own houses (p. 120). And that is precisely how P. and D. round out their presentation in the current chapter. Quite insightfully do they observe (of Mt 10:11-13) that The itinerant disciples must accept the sedentary disciples who continue to live in their own households, and must accept the hospitality these persons offer them (p. 122). And why did he demand such of them? Jesus required his followers to travel without any private means of support because it must be clear to those who received them that they would never be able to give anything in exchange - neither hospitality nor material goods nor political protection nor social integration (p. 125). This crowd following him- they were absolutely dependent on him, just as he was absolutely dependent on God.

Jim West Quartz Hill School of Theology