Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance

 After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office.  And He said to him, "Follow Me."  So he left all, rose up and followed Him.  Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house.  And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them.  And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, "Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." 

Then they said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?"  And He said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?  But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days."  Then He spoke a parable to them:  "No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.  And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.  But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.  And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.'"

- Luke 5:27-39

Yesterday, we read that it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."  Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed."  Immediately the leprosy left him.  And He charged him to tell no one, "But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded."  However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.  So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.  Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem.  And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.  Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him.  And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his be through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.  When He saw their faith, he said to him, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."  And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies?  Who can forgive sins but God alone?"  But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts?  Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Rise up and walk'?  But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins" -- He said to the man who was paralyzed, "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."  Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.  And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen strange things today!"

 After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office.  And He said to him, "Follow Me."  So he left all, rose up and followed Him.  Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house.  And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them.  And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, "Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."    Levi, also known as Matthew, answers Jesus' call, "Follow Me."  He leaves what he's doing as tax collector and becomes a disciple.  My study bible says that from the beginning of His ministry Christ has been a friend of tax collectors and sinners, which is one of the Pharisees' complaints against Him (and their scribes, as the text says).  It's possible that Levi was one of the tax collectors who came to John the Baptist and were prepared for Christ (see this reading).   Matthew's feast for all of his friends expresses his joy and gratitude.  My study bible says, "The guest register is a stirring demonstration of the fruit of Jesus' love and forgiveness."  Jesus' reply to the Pharisees gives us an entire picture of His ministry and its aims, to call all to healing and repentance, restoration.

Then they said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?"  And He said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?  But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days."  While Jesus is with His disciples and those who hear Him, it's a prefiguration of the great wedding feast of heaven, a time of great blessings and joy.  There will come a time when His followers will practice the fast.

  Then He spoke a parable to them:  "No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.  And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.  But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.  And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.'"  Jesus explains His startling ministry with a parable; everything begins anew with His ministry for healing and restoration, the calling of sinners to repentance.  The final sentence here, about the preference for the old, is found only in Luke.   It gives us a flavor of human nature, or of resistance to the new.  My study bible says it illustrates the difficulty with which the Jews would accept the new covenant, and also the inner resistance a person faces in turning from a sinful way of life -- as well as the general stubbornness of the human heart.  Perhaps it is an important reflection overall on Christ's ministry of paradox, the "strange things" people are seeing contrary to their expectations and given understanding (see yesterday's reading, above).   It fits also with Jesus' rejection at Nazareth, His statement that "no prophet is accepted in his own country."

What is it about the familiar and the accepted that has such a deep hold on us?  Does this have to do with neuroscience and the understanding of how our brains work?  We certainly form ingrained patterns of thinking; some modern anti-depressants may work to "break up" those patterns.  But psychologically we can see in the Gospels the understanding of the human heart and mind.  Jesus says here in Luke the Physician's Gospel:  "No one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.'"   There is no better psychological profile of human beings than the Gospels.  But what we're given here is the response of human beings to revelation of the divine.  As in yesterday's reading, when the people responded to Jesus' work of healing and forgiveness, they said, "We have seen strange things today!"  As noted in yesterday's commentary, this word for strange used in the text is one that is literally "paradox."   For the early Fathers of the East, there is no deeper truth than the paradox of the divine breaking into the worldly.  It is in this paradox that we find the truth of God who can't be contained, the action of God the Word in the world.  Jesus' ministry of healing and reconciliation, that which does not condemn but rather calls sinners to repentance, teaches us about God's love.  It doesn't fit with what people know already.  Why is He hanging out with tax collectors, of all people?  You can just imagine how despised such people were:  working for the Romans, oppressing their own people with the scandalous taxation, regularly taking more for themselves than was required by the foreigners in order to make a profit, backed up by occupying power.  And yet Matthew/Levi is called by Christ:  "Follow Me."  Clearly Jesus sees something in Levi when He calls him to discipleship.  Christ is the knower-of-hearts; He must read the repentance in Levi.  What is interesting is just how Christ puts His faith into human beings, and the picture of the Gospels isn't just the other way around (how we put our faith into Him).  Calling Levi is a bold move, and Jesus must be aware of how the religious leadership will respond.  He sees what they can't.  And that's perhaps where the great paradox is found, in that deeper seeing into the heart and depths of what it is to be human, and the relationship found there with Creator.  Matthew/Levi's longing is to be restored to such relationship, and thereby to right-relatedness with others.  Jesus' call to discipleship is not a call that embraces the sinfulness or sinful behavior that harms community.  But it is a call to healing, to a better way, to going back where we belong.  And that's the great paradox that is hard for people to accept.  They know Levi one way, but Christ knows him another way.  To get to that place of depth and healing is really to reach into ourselves in a place of true identity, a place that acknowledges who our Creator is and where we long to return in good grace and right relationship.  He pulls us back, in some sense, from the places where life has taken us and into our true selves, where we are truly at home, and where we can truly serve.  The wedding banquet is just that:  the time of feast and joy at the union of Creator and creature, a depth of self that is "home."  What we appear to be to others may be all kinds of things.  We may wander to many places searching for whatever it is we hope to find.  But Christ calls us to who we truly are, the place where we are set to rights, so to speak.  The question is if we can take Him at His word to "follow Him" and start on the road to discipleship, no matter what it looks like to other 'worldly' views.  So much depends on how we are called and Who's doing the  calling.  Do we have ears to hear?   The depth of reach in the call also holds the power to take us back.