Barrier-Breaking Banquet: An Exegetical Study of Jesus’ Meal with Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10)In the Background of the Hellenistic Banquet Traditions

More than in any other gospel we see in the gospel of Luke that Jesus partakes at dinner with different groups of people pharisees and Tax collectors alike. The author of the Third gospel places these meal narratives at important stages of his gospel. “Barrier-breaking banquets” attempts to understand how and why Luke models the meals of Jesus after the popular Hellenistic meal tradition - symposium. Luke 19: 1-10 would be exegetically analysed against this background and an attempt is made to grasp the meaning of the story of zacchaeus for the Indian Christian community for whom communal meals could play a pivotal role to break the existing barriers.