Big Idea: The joyful inclusiveness of Jesus’s ministry contrasts with the joyless ritual of formal religion.
Understanding the Text
The note of controversy that came into Luke’s story with the accusation of blasphemy by scribes and Pharisees against Jesus in 5:21 is now further developed in two scenes in which he is criticized first for mixing with people regarded as irreligious and second for not imposing a proper disciplinary regime on his disciples. The impression thus grows stronger that Jesus’s whole approach to religion is fundamentally different from that of the scribes and Pharisees, and the Sabbath controversies in 6:1–11 will underline this difference. This theme will lead up to his eventual confrontation with the authorities in Jerusalem.
But alongside the controversy, and indeed largely responsible for it, is a growing sense of the sheer joy and exuberance of Jesus’s message and ministry, which bring the hope of liberation for those who are oppressed, as was first set out in the Nazareth manifesto (4:18–19). Luke’s characteristic theme of salvation is being progressively filled out as the story develops.
Historical and Cultural Background
Mark locates the call of Levi in Capernaum, which was the border post between Galilee and the tetrarchy of Philip across the Jordan. Levi’s “tax booth” there would probably be concerned with the customs duties levied on goods in transit between the tetrarchies of Philip and Antipas as well as across the lake. But the presence in the town of “a large crowd” of other tax collectors suggests that in this thriving town there were also those responsible for the taxation of the general population.
Jews disliked tax collectors not only because they were known to get rich by charging arbitrary amounts above the official dues (see 19:8) but also because they represented and were answerable to an oppressive and (despite Antipas’s part-Jewish pedigree) pagan regime. This made them unclean in the eyes of the religious purists, and no respectable teacher would be seen in their company. Luke makes a great deal of Jesus’s controversial openness to tax collectors; see 7:29, 34; 15:1, and note especially the parable in which a tax collector is the unexpected “hero” (18:9–14) and the story of the “chief tax collector” Zacchaeus (19:1–10).
Interpretive Insights
5:27 by the name of Levi. The story is clearly the same as that of “Matthew” in Matthew 9:9–13. The fact that Mark and Luke tell this story like that of the calling of the other apostles (Mark 1:16–20) and yet do not mention Levi in their lists of the Twelve suggests that “Matthew” (whom they do list among the Twelve) and “Levi” were two names for the same man.
5:28 left everything and followed him. The same was said of Simon, James, and John in 5:11. See comments there for the implications of this statement as a model for discipleship. As a member of the itinerant group, Matthew/Levi would have little chance to return to his profession after hosting the “great banquet” of 5:29.
5:29 held a great banquet for Jesus. Luke uses the same term in 14:13 for what appears to be a special meal with formal invitations. Levi’s profession had made him wealthy enough to be a generous host. Not only were his professional and social associates invited, but also Jesus’s disciples along with Jesus himself (5:30 is Luke’s first use of the term “disciple”; he will introduce the disciples more formally in 6:13–16). This looks like a deliberate attempt by Levi to introduce Jesus and his circle to a particular sector of society, with Jesus as the guest of honor. This is the first of several scenes in Luke’s Gospel set at meals.
5:30 Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Maintaining ritual purity was a central concern of the Pharisees. To enter a tax collector’s house was perhaps a formal breach of purity, and certainly no respectable religious teacher would mix socially with such people (note the addition of “and sinners” to underline the point). Sharing a meal was an important mark of social identification.1
5:31 It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. Similar proverbs are attributed to some ancient philosophers. A healer must expect to get his hands dirty.
5:32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The contrast between the self-satisfied righteous and the repentant sinner is typical of Luke; see the parables of the two sons (15:11–32) and of the Pharisee and the tax collector (18:9–14). Only Luke includes the phrase “to repentance,” an important caveat: Jesus offers spiritual salvation, not mere acceptance for those who have failed morally.
5:33 They said to him. The questioners are left unidentified. The third-person reference to “disciples of the Pharisees” makes it unlikely that these are the same objectors as in 5:30. It is perhaps a topic raised at the dinner table.
John’s disciples. Given the initial impact of John’s revival movement (3:7–18), it is not surprising that we hear of groups of his followers continuing long after his death. See 7:18–19; 11:1; John 4:1–2; Acts 18:25; 19:3.
often fast and pray. Our knowledge of the ascetic discipline of the “Baptist” movement comes only from this text, though 7:33 attests the popular view of John as an ascetic. Pharisaic groups fasted for two days each week (18:12; Did. 8:1). A religious movement that did not impose such a discipline was easily dismissed as frivolous (compare the popular estimate of Jesus in 7:34).
5:35 the bridegroom will be taken from them. The wedding imagery depicts the new life of the kingdom of God as one of joy and celebration. But the “taking away” of the bridegroom follows on from Simeon’s imagery of the sword (2:34–35) as a pointer toward Jesus’s eventual violent death, for which the growing note of official disapproval is increasingly preparing us.
in those days they will fast. There is no suggestion that fasting per se is wrong, but rather that it is simply inappropriate to the present time of celebration. For Christian fasting, see Matthew 6:16–18.
5:36 the patch from the new will not match the old. In Mark and Matthew this saying focuses on damage to the old cloth, but Luke’s version stresses incompatibility. New and old in religion do not mix.
5:37 the new wine will burst the skins. Here the theme of damage is added. The (powerful, effervescent) new wine represents the gospel message and those who embrace it; they cannot be confined within the worn-out structures of formal religion. The parable is left uninterpreted, leaving readers to think out for themselves what sort of religious structures may be required for the new wine of the kingdom of God.
5:39 The old is better. This unexpected addition seems to turn the preceding imagery on its head. But perhaps that is the point: while Jesus offers new wine, most people prefer to stay with the old—a wry comment on the deadening effect of the religious conservatism represented here by the Pharisees.2
Theological Insights
The proverbial saying of 5:31 and Jesus’s programmatic declaration in 5:32 together set out the theology of salvation that underlies Luke’s whole Gospel, and that comes to its climax in the manifesto of 19:10: “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Sin and repentance are therefore at the heart of this message. But the ironical reference to “the righteous” in 5:32 warns us that repentance does not come easily to those who see themselves as already sufficiently religious. In this context, Jesus’s welcome to tax collectors and sinners is socially and religiously radical in itself, and his expectation that it will be among such outsiders that his message finds a welcome mounts an uncomfortable challenge against all more formal religion.
The same perspective runs through the parables of 5:34–38. It is easy for us to recognize in the old cloth and the old wineskins the rule-bound approach of Pharisaic Judaism, against which so much of Jesus’s teaching will be directed in this Gospel. But it is not only in Judaism that overly formal religion can occur, and large areas of Christian church history and of church structures today also show more resemblance to old wineskins than to the new wine of the kingdom of God. There are still “righteous” people in Christian churches who show little appetite for a gospel of salvation for the “sick.”
Teaching the Text
The pronouncement in 5:31–32 is the climax of the call of Levi and should be the central point of a message on 5:27–32. Jesus did not come to call those who consider themselves righteous (that is, the self-righteous), but rather those who recognize their need of him. Invite your listeners first of all to recognize that all of us should fit into the latter category. We all must come to God as sinners, desperately in need of the Divine Physician’s healing touch. We are saved by his grace alone, apart from anything we have done to earn that salvation (Eph. 2:8–9).
Listeners could then be invited to think about how Jesus’s involvement with people outside respectable religious circles might appropriately be followed in our own social and religious setting. What are some contemporary examples of ministries that similarly go outside the church’s comfort zone to reach those in most need? What could we do to expand our ministry in this direction? Are there dangers in such outreach? Why is it not more prominent in modern Christian ministry?
Luke 6:33–39 is one of the few passages about fasting in the New Testament and so may profitably be used to teach the nature and benefits of fasting. Was Jesus’s sidelining of fasting in this passage appropriate only to the time of his earthly ministry (while the bridegroom was still present)? What place, if any, should be found for fasting in modern Christian discipleship? You may even consider using this passage as preparation for a period of prayer and fasting for your congregation or Bible study group.
Yet while fasting is an important secondary point of this passage, Jesus’s primary point should not be missed. The coming of Jesus, the bridegroom, has brought in a whole new era in salvation history. The new wine of the gospel is incompatible with the old. Invite your hearers to consider what Jesus means by this. What aspects of the new wine of Christianity are incompatible with the old wine of Judaism? What are critical points of continuity that must be maintained between the two? Is Jesus contrasting purely ritualistic religion with a living and dynamic relationship with God? Or is something else at work here? Consider how the imagery of the patch and the wineskin might apply to the present situation in your church circles.
Illustrating the Text
Jesus calls and is welcomed by people from all walks of life.
Christian Ministry: Teen Challenge. This Christian recovery ministry, which later came to be called “Teen Challenge,” was started in New York by the late Dave Wilkerson (1931–2011). It is a well-known example of providing welcome. Wilkerson spent time in small pastorates in Pennsylvania. Late one night, he saw a picture in Life magazine of a group of teenagers in New York City charged with murder. He felt strongly called to go to minister to the gangs and addicts of this great city. His book The Cross and the Switchblade (1963), written with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, is the story of gang leader Nicky Cruz’s conversion. It became a best seller, has been translated into many languages, and was one of the most influential books of its time. It was later made into a film of the same name. Anecdotes from the book would be very helpful to illustrate this principle.
Biography: Jackie Pullinger. Not well known to American audiences is the story of Pullinger (b. 1944), founder of St. Stephen’s Society (a rehabilitation facility), who felt called to go to Hong Kong to reach out to drug addicts. Hundreds of those addicts have been brought to Christ as a result of her ministry, which is described in her book Chasing the Dragon (1980). Information about and interviews with her can be found online.
Film: Molokai: The Story of Father Damien, directed by Paul Cox. This beautiful film (1999) chronicles the story of Father Damien (1840–89), a Catholic priest from Belgium who went to work among the lepers on the island of Molokai and died from leprosy at the age of forty-nine. His courage and his outreach to the people are unforgettable.
Christ will not be held back in his outreach by the false expectations of Pharisaical religion.
Christian Nonfiction: Extreme Righteousness: Seeing Ourselves in the Pharisees, by Tom Hovestol. In this unusually insightful book (1997) Hovestol points out the commonality that the average evangelical Christian maintains with the Pharisees, who, as he notes, were not at all completely bad. He writes,
The Pharisees were well-meaning religious people. However, it was their essential goodness and godliness that was part of the problem they had with Jesus, and He with them. The Pharisees received such “harsh” treatment from Jesus not because they were so far from the truth but because they were so close. Yet, as is often the case, those who are furthest from the kingdom of God are those closest to it, who cannot see the forest for the trees.3
Anecdote: The Pharisaic reaction is well exemplified by the response of the Church of England to John Wesley and George Whitefield in their open-air preaching to miners, which violated regulations regarding preaching and parish boundaries. The formation of the Methodist Church (despite Wesley’s own reluctance) is an example of new wine needing new wineskins.