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, 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 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" -- 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.  He answers Christ's call, "Follow Me," leaving his occupation as tax collector to become a disciple.  It's important that we understand the Jewish attitude toward tax collectors; they were appointed to work among their own people by the Romans.  Frequently they used the power and might of the Roman state to levy extra taxes for their own gain.  My study bible notes that from the beginning of Christ's ministry, He was a friend to tax collectors and sinners, which is one of the Pharisees' complaints against Him.  Levi might also have been one of the tax collectors who were prepared for Christ by John the Baptist (3:12-13).  

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."   This feast is an expression of Matthew's joy and gratitude.   Jesus gathers into community those who have been excluded, as we can read from the response of the scribes and Pharisees.  My study bible says that this guest register is a stirring demonstration of the fruit of Jesus' love and forgiveness.  

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."   My study bible comments that Jesus' earthly life is a time of joyous blessings.  He is the Bridegroom, the Christ, who has come to be with His people.  There will come a time when His followers will practice the fast, after He is taken away from them.  In Jewish practice, fasting was typically done twice a week (Luke 18:12), on Monday and Thursday.  In addition public fasts were regularly observed or occasionally proclaimed, especially on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:31-34) and in times of mourning.  But the day of the Messiah was seen as a wedding feast, a time of joy and gladness; this is the day that Jesus proclaims in this passage.  In Christian tradition, as we await our Bridegroom's return, fasting is not gloomy but rather a desirable "bright sadness" -- for fasting is a practice to gain self-control in preparation for our Wedding Feast.

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 speaks of a New Covenant, and people made new through God's forgiveness and redemption, a spiritual inclusion by adoption.  There must be room for this new dynamic thing that is happening through His ministry, and the expansion it will create.  My study bible notes the final verse here ("And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.'")  This saying appears only in Luke's Gospel, and it illustrates several things.  First it gives us a sense of the difficulty with which the Jews would accept this new covenant.  It also expresses the inner resistance a person faces in turning from a sinful way of life, as well as giving us a picture of the general stubbornness of the human heart.

So what is the New Covenant and what is it for?  Jesus gives us a great hint when He teaches that new wine must be put into new wineskins.  It is teaching us first of all that the nature of this new covenant is to expand, to open up, to include those who haven't been included before.  Just as Jesus sits with tax collectors and others who are excluded from community within the "old wineskin," so through a process of repentance they may be saved and included.  This is of necessity an expansion.  Moreover we know that this New Covenant and the message of the gospel will go out to all the nations, and there will be more people included in this new way of community with Christ.  The "people of God" will be expanded.   Under the old system, through sacrifice and other religious practice, atonement was possible and prescribed for specific sins, and an entire system of commands formed the Law.  But Jesus gives us a very important perspective on the New when He explains that "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."  Essentially, salvation is a process of healing.  Redemption becomes a means of setting right and setting free; it is also a way to inclusion and community.   Under the New Covenant, the people of God will be expanded.  Christ will open up a new way to be included, giving us a spiritual, mystical covenant, a reconciliation to God for all people.  But here in this stage of Luke's Gospel, we are given a start to an understanding of His orientation, a beginning of what it is to be "saved."  We witness the forgiveness of sin, and the entry into discipleship, as a form of healing.  Levi the tax collector becomes the one we know as Matthew the disciple, and author of the first Gospel of the New Testament.  Christ is our Physician, and He is here to heal.  His covenant continues to expand as we delve more deeply into what it is to be truly healed and reconciled to Christ, to grow in our faith and in our discipleship.  The problems we see and experience in our world, whatever their nature, are to be included in that healing and reconciliation.  We will always have "groups" we are told are inside and outside; this is our social human nature.  In the worldly way we human beings look at things -- and especially at other people -- there are those whom we include in our group and those whom we do not.  But Christ's reconciliation is one of love and care and healing.  He is the Bridegroom for all of us.  And this story in Luke gives us our first hint about how we think of the people of God, those who might belong and those who do not:  in Christ the way of discipleship is open to those who want to share this meal with the Bridegroom.  It is through His own sacrifice that we are invited in; His cup we are asked to drink with Him.  It is His judgment which tells us who may be in and who may be out -- and the one who is a tax collector one day may write our first Gospel the next.  Let us remember what it means to be healed, and that we all need this Physician.  It is important to know that even for we who believe, the Physician's ways may be something new to us on this journey of discipleship, that where we go and how we are changed may be something we resist, seems strange to us, or hard to accept.  The road of repentance is ongoing.  But this is also to be understood, for as Christ tells us Himself, and uniquely in today's reading, that "no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.'"