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"

 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 of Him by 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 bed 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.   Levi is also known as Matthew (author of the Gospel that bears that name).  He answers Christ's call to "Follow Me" and leaves his occupation as a tax collector to become a disciple.  My study bible says that from the beginning of His ministry, Christ has been a friend of tax collectors and sinners (see the Pharisees' complaint again Him, further along in today's reading).  Levi was possibly one of the tax collectors prepared for Christ by John the Baptist (see the reading Teacher shall we do?).

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/Matthew gives a great feast to express his joy and gratitude to the Teacher.  My study bible calls the guest register a stirring demonstration of the fruit of Jesus' love and forgiveness.  And Christ here clearly expresses His purpose, for which He is sent:  "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."   And He puts it in the context of medicine, with Himself as Physician; repentance, then, is for whole health of our being, for addressing our sicknesses.

 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.'"  My study bible calls Christ's earthly life a time of joyous blessings.  But there will come a time when His followers will practice the fast, as He says.  The true wedding feast is the union of Christ with His Church, to be fully realized at His Return.  Jesus uses the illustration for the religious authorities of wine, the new vintage being prepared.  He addresses their discomfort with the unfamiliar aspects of His ministry, such as dining with tax collectors and people known for their sins.  My study bible notes that Jesus' final saying to them, "And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better'" is found only here in Luke's Gospel.  It illustrates several things:  the difficulty with which the new covenant would be accepted, the inner resistance a person faces in turning from a sinful way of life, and the general stubbornness of the human heart.

Everybody wants to follow what they are used to, what they already know.  This is our nature:  we know what we have already learned and experienced.  But this is also the nature of sin.  In patristic commentary, sin is often mentioned as akin to paralysis:  we're stuck in something.  It's a way of life, a habit, something we might like to break but find ourselves "paralyzed" to change.  Interestingly enough, modern science also sees our brains as functioning in the same way, with medicines such as Prozac designed to help us to break thought patterns formed within our own biochemistry, and so combat rumination and the resulting depression.  But our Physician's medicine is repentance, which literally means "change of mind" in the Greek.  Repentance is a way of turning around, changing direction, following a different set of commands.  It is the antidote to our spiritual illness, which quite often is the root of emotional and physical illness as well.  Christ has announced to the Pharisees that His own ministry is one of change.  He likens it to "new wine" -- a vintage that is being fermented with enzymatic action, one that needs time to age, and certainly a true taste for those unfamiliar with it to come to know and to understand its goodness (Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who trusts in Him! - Psalm 34:8).  The change that He is bringing is that His work as Physician is all about change and transformation, and His Holy Spirit works within us, in a kind of enzymatic action, to help us bring about that change (see 13:20-21 in which Jesus likens the kingdom of God to leaven; the word for leaven in Greek is ζύμη/zyme, the root of our modern word enzyme).  Clearly the Gospel is already setting out for us the startling nature of the changes that God brings into our world through the Incarnation.  He is Physician, a note that the Gospel of Luke, written by a disciple who was a physician himself, will repeatedly teach.  He is here to heal the sick, and the sick need to change their patterns of life for healing.  What the process, action, and results of healing a sickness might mean can often mean change for all of us, and for all of those in the environment of the person who needs to heal.  Jesus sets us out with the right understanding:  the new vintage might not be what we already know or expect, and yet we will see how good it truly is.