Luke 5:27-39

Turn to Luke 5. I found out last week that a friend of mine is preaching through Luke’s gospel as well though he is preaching his on Sunday mornings. He is about two weeks in front of us. He started chapter 6 this past Sunday morning and we are finishing chapter 5. Let’s read the passage and then go back over it.

27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. 29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

33 They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.” 34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”

36 He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’” (Luke 5:27-39)

Luke tells us that this took place after the events we read about last week. In those verses we saw Jesus teaching in someone’s house, perhaps it was Peter’s, when he was interrupted by four men digging a hole in the ceiling above him. The four men had carried a paralyzed friend to Jesus to be healed. When they realized that the crowds were so large they would be unable to get the man to Jesus, they carried him up onto the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching and making a hole in the roof, they lowered the man down to Jesus. Jesus then told the man that his sins had been forgiven.

The religious were taken aback. Who did Jesus think he was? Only God can forgive sins. I think this is the point Jesus was trying to make because he then said that in order to prove he had the ability to forgive the man’s sins that he would also heal him. Luke tells us that the people were filled with awe and talked about the amazing things they had just seen.

After this, Jesus went out and seeing Levi sitting at his tax booth invited him to become a disciple. “Come,” Jesus said, “and follow me.”

Levi was his Jewish name. It’s the name his parents gave him. The name suggests some things about him. First, it suggests that he was from the tribe of Levi. Remember, the Levites had been selected by God to be the priests for the nation. Was this the dream of Levi’s parents? If so their dreams went unrealized. Levi decided to become a tax collector.

Today, we know Levi better as Matthew. While none of the gospels tell us this, some believe Jesus gave him the name Matthew which means “gift of Yahweh.” Who but Jesus would consider a tax collector to be a gift from God? Everyone else cursed when they saw him but Jesus saw the potential in him and invited him to become a disciple. We’re told that Matthew immediately responded. He got up and began to follow, leaving everything behind.

When we read that Matthew left everything it means something different than when we read about Peter, Andrew, James, and John leaving everything in verse 11 so they could follow Jesus. They left their boats but were able to come back to them. In a few chapters we’ll read about Jesus getting into a boat with his disciples, whose boat was it? In John 21, Peter, wondering what he should do, went fishing in his boat. They left but they had the ability to return. When Matthew left his tax booth it was for good. There was no returning and taking his job back up. Too, tax collecting was lucrative job that paid well. Tax collectors were often the wealthiest people in the community. It’s one of the reasons they were so hated.

A heard a preacher, talk about visiting Israel. As they traveling the countryside their tour guide pointed to what he called the Wailing Wall. Knowing that the Wailing Wall is in Jerusalem the preacher asked what he meant. The tour guide clarified his statement saying that it was the tax office. No one enjoys paying taxes and the Jews despised it because the taxes went to pay for the Roman government. As a result, they hated the tax collectors.

They considered the tax collectors to be traitors because they were helping this foreign power. They also considered the tax collectors to be thieves because that is in fact what they were. The Roman government dictated how much revenue they wanted from a certain region. It was then up to the tax collector to collect it. If he was able to collect anything above what the government required he was allowed to keep it. The system encouraged overcharging and there was nothing the people could do about it.

Really, the tax system wasn’t that bad though. If our income tax was as low as that of the Roman government we’d all rejoice. The Roman income tax was only 1%. That doesn’t sound too bad. The problem was that wasn’t the only tax. There was also a poll tax or imperial. Every adult noncitizen had to pay the tax. You paid this tax for the privilege of living in the Roman Empire. Then there was the agriculture tax of 10% on any crop you grew. You were allowed to give them 10% of the crop or you could sell the crop and give them the money. There was a 20% tax on oil and wine. Then there were shipping and toll taxes. At every major intersection you had to pay a tax for using the road system and you were taxed for whatever you were carrying. And the taxes continued. So you can see why the tax collectors were among the wealthiest in the community, the most crooked in the community, and among the most hated in the community. And this is who Jesus invited to become a disciple. He was not the person most would have invited. It would just be assumed that Matthew would have no interest. But Matthew was interested. He got up from his table, left everything behind to follow Jesus and never looked back.

Matthew then held a banquet for Jesus and the other disciples. Matthew naturally invited his friends who would have been other tax collectors. Luke says he invited tax collectors and some others. The religious leaders will define the others as “sinners.” Matthew wanted his friends to meet Jesus too. It’s a great lesson in evangelism. We are most effective at leading to Jesus those we already know. It was a good thing and Jesus was pleased to attend. As one commentator explained:

We cannot call people to repentance if we are never with them. We cannot reach sinners without going where sinners are. They are not likely to come where we are. They find our parties boring. They find our fun boring. That’s okay. We expect them to. They have tastes for this world, while we have tastes for heaven. Those differing tastes are not easily joined together, so it creates a burden for us to cross a bridge to reach them without adopting their tastes. That is what the Lord does here. The Lord Jesus attends Levi’s party with the spiritual well-being of sinners in mind. The Lord does not sin with them; rather, he seeks to save them. We must follow his example. . . .

However, the Pharisees and teachers of the law were not as excited about Jesus eating at Matthew’s house and complained about it to the other disciples. Why would Jesus eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners. Notice how they are lumped in together – tax collectors and sinners. It’s not that the religious leaders had never sinned but the tax collectors and those known as sinners were worse.

I’ve told you about my brother getting into trouble. It’s not that I never did anything wrong but that when he did it he let everyone know about it. He did it boldly and proudly. This was the attitude of the “sinners” of that day. We don’t label them sinners but we might still identify some of them today. The religious leaders couldn’t understand why Jesus would want to have anything to do with them. Why would he with them and drink with them?

Eating a meal with someone was seen as an intimate activity and when you understand their eating practices you understand why. Like some cultures still today, they all ate from common dishes and they didn’t have any problem with double dipping. Therefore, they thought to eat with someone was to be one with them. For Jesus to eat with these sinners was not just an overt signal that he was accepting their lifestyles but he was also becoming one with them. They couldn’t understand so Jesus explained it to them.

Jesus explained that sick people need a doctor. They were sin sick and need someone to help them. If that didn’t help, Jesus then said that he had not come to help the righteous but the unrighteous. The righteous didn’t need to repent but the sinners did. And what better way to lead them to repentance than by getting to know them.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t respond well to someone I don’t know trying to correct me. I respond much better to someone I know and that I know loves me. Then I know that they know me and want what’s best for me. Jesus was simply getting to know them that he might share the truth with them. It must have worked because we read in Luke 15 that tax collectors and sinners were gathering around him to hear him teach.

Not having a response for Jesus’ answer, the religious leaders ask another question. They want to know why Jesus and his disciples didn’t fast. John the Baptist and his disciples fasted. The Pharisees and their disciples fasted. Why weren’t Jesus and his disciples fasting?

The Old Testament law required one day of fasting a year on the Day of Atonement. By the first century, those who were religious fasted one day a week and the really religious fasted twice a week. In the Sermon on the Mount criticized the way they fasted.

1 Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. . . 16 When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:1, 16-18)

Jesus said they were only fasting in order to be seen by others that they might impress them. This is made obvious by the fact that the days they chose to fast each week were Monday and Thursday. These were the regular market days, days when the most people would be in town to see them. Jesus said they would disfigure their faces. We don’t know what they did specifically, but they wanted to show everyone how spiritual they were so they made sure everyone knew they were fasting. What’s really funny about it is not only was the fasting for only one day but it wasn’t even for twenty-four hours. They fasted from sunup to sundown. Once the sun went down they could eat again. They missed at most two meals.

Something else, religion has a way of spiritualizing somberness. The unspoken rule is the serious and solemn you are the more spiritual you are. Is that true? Do you have to feel miserable to be holy? I don’t think so but the religious leaders weren’t excited about this banquet Jesus and the disciples were attending and it wasn’t just because of who they were attending with. We catch that in Jesus’ answer. He relates their request for fasting to a wedding. Who fasts at a wedding? Perhaps if you aren’t excited about the person your child is marrying you are somber but everyone else is celebrating. It’s a time to rejoice and have a good time. He asks if the groom’s friends are supposed to fast and be somber while the groom is rejoicing. The answer is of course not. They are to rejoice with him. Jesus doesn’t call himself the groom but we know from other passages that he is. While he is with them it is a time of joy. Then time will come, after he has gone, when it will be right to mourn, but it wasn’t at that time.

Jesus then tells two parables, one about cloth and the other about wine skins. If you get a tear in an old garment you don’t patch it with new material. If you do, when you wash it, the new cloth will shrink and tear away from the old cloth making the hole even bigger. That makes sense to most of us. I remember when I was young and tore a hole in my pants how my mother would patch it. You could go to the store to but cool patches. You don’t find that today. I haven’t seen patches for sale in a long time. Today, you pay extra for the holes but back then you covered the hole up. We understand what Jesus was talking about.

The next parable is little harder for us because it involved making wine and putting it into wineskins. First, I don’t even know anyone who has made wine and second, they no longer use wineskins. The principle isn’t that much different than the first parable though. The leather used to make the wineskin will stretch some. Though already fermented when placed into the skin, the wine will still expand some and the leather will allow that. However, once the skin has expanded it can’t expand more. Placing more new wine in it will only cause the skin to break, thus ruining the wineskin can causing the wine to spill. You lose both the skin and the wine.

Then, Jesus ends the parables with this interesting comment:

And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, “The old is better.” (Luke 5:39)

While Jesus seems to contradict himself here, I think it is the key to understanding the parable and his answer to the religious leaders. Jesus is not saying that the old wine is better but that old is known and it is preferred.

The last year I was in seminary I worked at Dairy Queen. After a while I started recognizing a few of the customers. Not only did I recognize them, I learned their order because they ordered the same thing every time. There was one older couple that would come in every Saturday evening and he would order a fish sandwich. We’d start getting it ready as soon as he walked in the door. We would joke about it but I do the same thing. There are restaurants I frequent regularly where my order never varies. I order the same thing every Tuesday morning at McDonald’s. I’ll get a sausage biscuit, a hash brown, and a tea. A few weeks ago I did eat a chicken biscuit but only because they got my order wrong. I ordered a sausage biscuit but they gave me a chicken biscuit. I feel bad for the guy that ordered the chicken and got my sausage. We’re like that though. We liked the known and comfortable.

Turn to Jeremiah 31. The passage is too long to put on the screen. It’ll wear Mary Anne out.

So what was Jesus saying? He was saying that he didn’t come to reform the old but to bring something new. He didn’t come to add some stuff to the old covenant but to bring a new covenant. God talked about this new covenant in the prophecies of Jeremiah.

31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. 33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

Jesus talked about this new covenant in the upper room.

27 Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:27-28)

And Paul wrote:

He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:6)

In Genesis 15, when God made a covenant with Abraham, he had Abraham bring a cow, goat, ram, pigeon and dove. Abraham then sacrificed them to God and blood was shed. When God made a covenant with the Israelites at Mount Sinai sacrifices were made and blood was shed. In this new covenant the sacrifice is Jesus who shed his blood for our forgiveness. As Paul wrote the Ephesians:

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. (Ephesians 1:7)

The old covenant was looking to and pointing forward to the new covenant we have in Jesus. Jesus came to bring something new. He came to bring forgiveness and freedom from sin and the religious leaders rejected him because they were comfortable with the old. They preferred the way they were doing things. Jesus said he came to call sinners to repentance. Though that included the religious leaders, they couldn’t come to Jesus because they couldn’t see their own sin. They couldn’t see their need to repent. They could not accept the grace Jesus was offering because they were so committed to the following the law in order to be made righteous.

I’ll read just one last passage. Turn to Ephesians 2.

Even today there is a tendency to hang on the law. We like the law because it tells us what to do. We may have a difficult time keeping it but at least we know what we’re supposed to do. There are religious traditions that hang onto legalism for that reason. We cannot have the gospel and a little touch of the law and legalism. The gospel of Jesus is a completely new garment. The gospel requires new wineskins. Paul contrasted the two when he wrote to the Ephesians saying:

1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:1-10)

Jesus points us to God’s righteousness made available to us through faith in his grace.