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Contagious Holiness: Jesus' Meals with Sinners (New Studies in Biblical Theology)

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Not a book for cuddling into a comfy chair with tea and cookies, Contagious Holiness is a scholarly treatise which explores deeply into its subject. And if you think this subject is settled and unchanging, think again. Higher criticism- which isn't so high after all- has taken aim at Jesus and His eating habits. Blomburg sets out, most successfully, to show that Jesus quite deliberately ate with sinners-like you and me, and even better and worse folk-lovingly inundating them with His contagious holiness.

Number 19 in IVP's New Studies in Biblical Theology series, Contagious Holiness first looks at meals in the Old Testament, then during the intertestamental period, and how these meals impacted the New Testament era. The meat of this book is next considered, a deep discussion of the why's and wherefore's of Jesus' eating with sinners, and what His pervasive purity accomplishes. The conclusion discusses how the church, in a world where eating is degenerating into lonely fast food pig outs, can apply all these lessons to reach people for Christ. All of the footnotes appear conveniently within the text. An exhaustive bibliography and a couple of relevant indices helpfully close this volume.

Distinguished professor of New Testament and prolific author, Craig Blomburg capably keeps strictly to his subject and, while sometimes sending the lay reader to a dictionary, manages to keep his audience very interested. - Donna Eggett, Christian Book Previews.com

Contagious Holiness by Craig Blomberg is the third book from the New Studies in Biblical Theology series that I've read. The series has proven very challenging, but equally as rewarding. This installment was no exception.

The previous two books, Adopted into God's Family and Slave of Christ dealt with theological threads appearing all throughout the New Testament; namely the metaphors of adoption and slavery. After reading them, large portions of scripture gained a great deal of new meaning, simply because the metaphors used suddenly had more meaning. In Contagious Holiness the effect has not been as dramatic, or exciting.

Blombergs intent in writing was to explore Jesus' meals with sinners; who was he dining with? What was the dining experience like? Most specifically, his intention was to investigate recent claims that Jesus' mealtimes with sinners would have reflected the Hellenistic tradition of symposium. A social party or club, often characterized by excessive eating, drinking, sleeping, philosophical conversation and sometimes sexual entertainment--even orgies. If this were the case then Jesus' meals with sinners were not only with the worst of the worst, but in the worst of the worst scenarios, and what's more that would not demand repentance or life change.

Blomberg effectively searches the scriptures through the Old Testament, as well as non-canonical text, to investigate whether or not the Jewish culture of Jesus' day had become Hellenized to the point of participating in symposium. From there he moves to a thorough exegesis of all synoptic gospel accounts of Jesus sharing meals with others.

Blomberg's writing is dry, and sometimes slow, but this has been characteristic of this series thus far, and is worth putting up with.

While I didn't leave this book with a new perspective on scripture, I did leave with a more complete perspective on scripture--more specifically on Jesus' ministry. I wouldn't recommend this book to an average reader, but to someone wishing to delve more deeply into scripture, this book will be an encouragement, if you stick with it!

Notwithstanding its title, this book is not really about holiness (though its central insight on that topic is invaluable). Rather it is a book about the social and theological significance of meals in the Bible. The author sets out the current debate over whether Jesus' meals with sinners involved genuinely wicked people or simply those who did not live up to the overly particular standards of ritual purit y laid down by the Scribes and Pharisees. To arrive at his findings he surveys meals in the Old Testament, Jewish and Graeco-Roman meals in the inter-testamental period, and finally the core texts in the Gospels that deal with Jesus' meals with "sinners." The sixth and final chapter discusses some contemporary applications of Blomberg's finding that the practice of Jesus eating with sinners subverted the rules of ritual purity so that far from Jesus becoming contaminated by contact with sinners, it was they who became "contaminated" by contact with him! His holines rubbed off on them as they came into contact with his transformative presence.

It should not surprise us that with the arrival of Jesus the meaning of holiness should undergo a revolutionary change. In the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth, while there is direct continuity with Old Testament concepts of holiness there is also radical reinvention. For one thing the "location" of holiness is moved. "Holiness looks different now"; it looks like Jesus (see Stephen C. Barton, "Dislocating and Relocating Holiness: A New Testament Study," in Stephen C. Barton., ed. Holiness Past and Present (London and New York: T & T Clark, 2003), 197-98. ) In the holy character of Jesus there is a contagious power present to make holy all who come within its influence. Kenneth Walters sees this as the heavenly realm encroaching upon the earthly realm in the person of Jesus so that "where contact with God once meant destruction for any earthly being or object, contact with God in Christ now means sanctification and life." (Kenneth L. Walters, Sr., "Holiness in New Testament Perspective," in Kevin W. Mannoia and Don Thorsen, eds. The Holiness Manifesto (Grand Rapids, MI and Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans, 2008), 52.

Historically the church has "fenced" the Lord's Table so that entrance to fellowship with Jesus has been carefully guarded. The early church practice was to limit access to the Eucharist to the baptised. The Puritans looked for evidence of a conversion experience and this remains the usual practice among Evangelicals. Methodists have often taken an "open table" approach based on John Wesley's conviction that the Lord's Supper was not only a confirming but also a converting ordinance. (His own mother was brought to full assurance at Communion). He welcomed "penitents" (what we today might call "seekers") to come to the Table and thus take a step closer to saving faith. The practice of an "open table" has become a contentious one among some Methodists and a difficult stance to take in an ecumenical context where baptism is normally seen as the rite of entry to the Table, in keeping with the practice of the ancient church. In the argument from Wesley's practice of inviting people who had not undergone a conversion experience to approach the Table, it is often forgotten that those Wesley addressed were for the most part baptised as infants and could therefore be admitted to the Table as a way of confirming the grace received at baptism in a conscious act of faith. Those who argue for an open table on the basis that Jesus "ate with sinners" and that this is after all, his Table, not ours, make a more persuasive point. Do we exclude for the sake of maintaining clear marks of discipleship? Or do we include for the sake of bearig witness to Jesus' "contagious holiness"? Blomberg's book will be must reading for those who are seeking to answer such questions from a textual basis.

Blomberg offers a thorough survey of the Biblical role of meals and food, and he also surveys the same dynamic during the inter-testamental period. His book works toward the climax of Jesus' meals with both "sinners" and the religious. He examines the meals described in the gospels, explains them and exegetes them in depth. The book concludes with I think a too brief application chapter that resembles a summary of several of the emerging church books I've read. Blomberg offers some subjective experiences of churches using meals as outreach and fellowship tools, as well as churches doing initiaties with community meals.

The book is well written and the Biblical exposition is thorough and scholarly. The approach of the book is too academic I think to be considered moving or inspiring; although, it is still enlightening. It certainly demonstrates the usefulness of meals in ministry.

Blomberg addresses the Lord's Supper in a cumbersome manner in the final chapter. I wish he would have taken more time and care to include a separate section on the relation of the Lord's Supper and its continuation in the church to his thesis. He seems to even mention it apologetically not wanting to turn off readers from a non-liturgical tradition.

The book is actually 180 pages of text followed by sources and indexes.