27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
A Question About Fasting
33 And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” 36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’” Luke 5: 27-39 ESV
Luke 5: 27-39
A tax collector named Levi - The other gospel writers refer to him in this way, as Levi, and probably out of respect for this being his old life. He very humbly let's us know in the gospel under his other name, Matthew, that he is this man, the tax collector, the lowest form of life in the mind of his fellow Jews. To everyone around he is more of a sell out, a liberal, somebody willing to kiss up to Rome if it provides an avenue for him to get rich.
Leaving everything, he rose and followed Him - The other disciples received the same call and many left a successful fishing business, but Matthew's case is particularly interesting because it involves much more wealth. When Jesus said one of His disciples would betray Him, my guess, if I were of the twelve, would have been that it was going to be Matthew. He has the world (Rome) on his side, has money which gives him power, affords him a more comfortable, luxurious life, and Jesus keeps talking about things like having no place to lay His head and denying one's self. Jesus runs the worst campaign and marketing strategy of all time, "follow Me", and then He goes to the cross. Do you see why salvation is of the Lord? This is why charlatans preach the prosperity gospel; it's far more attractive to our fallen natures. Charlatans always focus on James 4:2b, but leave out 4:3; they teach you to ask for the wrong things, and they encourage the wrong motives.
…26Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” 27“Look,” Peter replied, “we have left everything to follow You. What then will there be for us?” 28Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, in the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.… Matthew 19: 26-28
…2You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures. 4You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.… James 4: 2-4
And Levi made Him a great feast in his house - He was a man of means, and his response to knowing Jesus was wanting all of his friends to meet this guy as well. This is the response the religious elite did not have; this is the response the self righteous could not possess. I am going to throw a dinner party in honor of my new Boss, my friend, and I want everyone to meet this guy of guys, this teacher, this man who was worth leaving all I possess to follow. I was a tax collector, an extortionist, a traitor to my people. Jesus didn't pick me because I was part of the "moral majority or minority", He knew who I was, and He knew that it was worse than what was on the surface. Jesus knew my every thought, the darkest places of my soul, and yet granted me repentance, and said, "follow Me". I learned that I was an enemy of God, of Christ, that I was barreling towards eternal damnation, and that I shared this same fate with all the rest of humanity; I was lost. This man held the cure to my anxiety and my indifference. I looked around at my stock pile of money and stuff and I thought, what does anything temporal have in comparison to eternity? If God designed me to be a certain way and I have now gone outside of His design, how will I ever reach my potential, how will I ever know the best? Matthew now believes the God he believes in, and this is one of his first acts as a believer, and it is to evangelize his friends. Let me introduce you to the Word become flesh, please, meet my friend, Jesus. If no one knows that you met Him, then I have to ask, did you meet Him?
…28Then the woman left her water jar, went back into the town, and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30So they left the town and made their way toward Jesus.… John 4: 28-30
Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners - This is the response of the Pharisees to Jesus. They don't need to meet Him and prefer that others don't. These religious leaders think they are the moral bar when in fact it is the people they look down on that really are for them. Think about it, they look at the tax collector and say, "I'm not a tax collector", and at the prostitute, "I'm not a whore", and when we are looking for someone worse than ourselves then that is the real bar for us, and it fluctuates up and down. God's bar is Christ and they want it removed; He exposes them for the frauds they are, and they won't come to Him even though He is the balm for every sore, the righteousness you need to stand before an all consuming fire. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego didn't survive the fire because of their own holiness or ability, no, someone else was in the furnace with them.
9What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin. 10As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one. 11There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.… Romans 3: 9-11
…29Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination. 30 Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”… Acts 17: 29-31
I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance - This is the gospel, and if you cannot except what God calls sin as sin, and confess it as so, well then you are self righteous like the Pharisees. They have seen God's law which was meant to convict them of sin, to point them to a need for a righteousness outside of themselves, hence the Lamb without spot, the sacrifice of blood because without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Instead of being convicted and repenting they became moralist, and created a religion based upon the opinions of men. "Well, my buddies say I am a good guy, my children praise me, my wife smiles around me sometimes, and I my business is doing good, so that means I must be good or at least good enough." They even manipulated the law, cheated others by writing work arounds and all the while ignoring the fact that God looks upon the heart, and that there is none righteous, not even one.
…6When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and said, “Surely here before the LORD is His anointed.” 7But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the LORD does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the LORD sees the heart.” 8Then Jesse called Abinadab and presented him to Samuel, who said, “The LORD has not chosen this one either.”… 1 Samuel 16: 6-8
42Nevertheless, many of the leaders believed in Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue. 43For they loved praise from men more than praise from God. 44Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in Me does not believe in Me alone, but in the One who sent Me.… John 12: 42-44
The disciples of John fast often - These men held outward appearance in high regard. There is nothing wrong with fasting, but they did it in order to appear more holy for the praise of men. They were all about the show.
16When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. 17But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18so that your fasting will not be obvious to men, but only to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.… Matthew 6: 16-18
No one puts new wine into old wine skins - This is something they would understand technically, but probably miss the application. Jesus is bringing in the new covenant; the old covenant of the law and works should have taught them the reality of their utter bankruptcy. He came to fulfill that covenant by being the Passover lamb to which it pointed, the sacrifice pleasing to God. The fact that they thought they were somehow made righteous by what showed their unrighteousness was totally delusional. It's like the parable of the patch, if He wanted to fix Judaism then you would need preshrunk cloth otherwise when a patch made from new cloth shrunk it would create another tear. Again, the intent of the Old Covenant, "do this and you will live", was to demonstrate the state of their hearts, that they were fundamentally flawed, or as R. C. would say, "radically corrupt", and the answer, the fix for this was outside of themselves and their traditions. Jesus is the new wine skin, the gospel, the only Way for men to come back into fellowship with God.
…82My eyes fail, looking for Your promise; I ask, “When will You comfort me?” 83Though I am like a wineskin dried up by smoke, I do not forget Your statutes. 84How many days must Your servant wait? When will You execute judgment on my persecutors?… Psalm 119: 82-84
And no one puts new wine (oinos) into old (palaios) wineskins (akso) - This is a fact everyone knew. The new wine would ferment, expand the wineskin and cause it to burst! Remember that Jesus is using illustrations of pairs of things that do not mix, all pointing out that the old way of Judaism does not mix with the new way of the Gospel. Jesus came to bring new life to all who trust Him.
As an aside it is fitting that Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding feast (Jn 2:11+), foreshadowing that He had come to earth to inaugurate the "new wine, " the "good (best) until last" wine (John 2:1+), the "new wine" of the New Covenant, the Gospel of grace, which would replace the "old wine" of the Old Covenant (cf Heb 8:13+).
The natural man likes his old ways.
He likes his old wine -- that is, his old religion.
-- J. Vernon McGee - Precept Austin
THOUGHT - Are you adding anything to the Gospel in your walk of faith? Do you think that you can merit God's favor tomorrow by performing some "good work" today? E.g., are counting on your quiet time in the mornings to earn you favor with God?, etc, etc. That is a "syncretistic Gospel" and will produce futility and frustration in your sanctification process because it will grieve/quench the Spirit Who is our Sanctifier. As Paul wrote to the Galatians "This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith (OBVIOUSLY BY FAITH)? Are you so foolish? (YOU ARE IF YOU THINK YOU WILL BE SANCTIFIED BY THE FLESH!) Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected (BEING SANCTIFIED) by the flesh? (see Gal 3:2-3+). Are you keeping a list of do's and don'ts? Jesus would say "DON'T!" You cannot mix the old wine of works with the new wine of grace!
Robertson on old wineskins - Not glass “bottles” but wineskins used as bottles as is true in Palestine yet, goatskins with the rough part inside. “Our word bottle originally carried the true meaning, being a bottle of leather. In Spanish bota means a leather bottle, a boot, and a butt. In Spain wine is still brought to market in pig-skins” (Vincent). The new wine will ferment and crack the dried-up old skins - Precept Austin
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