Luke 5:27–39 (ESV)
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.” 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.’ ”
June 29, 2007. Does that date ring a bell for you? That was the day that Apple released their first iPhone. What about November 22, 1963? That was the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
How about December 17, 1903? That was the day that the Wright brothers made their first successful flight of an airplane at Kitty Hawk.
All of those dates are watershed moments in history that changed our culture. There are more to be sure and we could talk about the scope of change that resulted from those events but, overall, things changed.
In our passage there is one overarching point that is being made; because Jesus has come, things are changing. Something new is breaking into the world. In Jesus, the long anticipated and hoped for new covenant spoken of by the prophets, and promised by God, is here!
And the old ways of doing things just won’t fit with the new life that is breaking into the world through Jesus. That’s the point that Jesus is making as He tells the little parable about cloth and wineskins. As N.T. Wright aptly notes, “you have to take the new thing whole or not at all.”
God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness are here in the flesh and this new life and new day are for all who entrust their lives to Jesus.
That’s something we see in practice in Levi’s life (also called Matthew and the author of the Gospel which bears his name). Remember who Levi was before he met Jesus. He was a hated tax collector. They were hated because they collaborated with the Roman authorities and often charged too much and pocketed the rest for themselves.
Tax collectors were lumped in with sinners and any good religious person would do all that they could to distance themselves from those of questionable moral and spiritual health. But not Jesus. Jesus saw Himself as a doctor who had come to heal the sick and a doctor can’t do their work without being in the presence of the sick. So in Levi and in the party that is thrown in Jesus honor, we see firsthand God’s mercy, love and forgiveness being poured out through Jesus to those who are in desperate need.
In Jesus things are changing, the kingdom of God is breaking into the world and from now on, everything, everything is different.
As I think about the passage, it’s easy to see where we are challenged. There is our old life and our new life in Christ. Which one are you living in? Do you find yourself moving back and forth between the two? If you do, you’ll soon discover that you’ll be frustrated and unsatisfied with either.
Or are you taking steps to explore your new life in Christ and follow Jesus on this great and challenging adventure as the kingdom of God continues to unfold and impact the world?
As C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”
God bless you and know that you are constantly in my prayers.
Scott