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

 

Feast in the House of Levi (retouched), Paolo Caliari, Il Veronese, 1573.  Galleria della Academia, Venice

 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 when Jesus was in a certain city, a man who was full of leprosy saw Him; 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 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.   My study bible says that Levi (also known as Matthew) answers Christ's call, "Follow Me."  He leaves his occupation to become a disciple.  It notes that from the beginning of Christ's ministry, He has been a friend of tax collectors and sinners -- one of the Pharisees' complaints against Him in today's reading.  Levi quite possibly was one of the tax collectors prepared for Christ by John the Baptist, as referenced in Luke 3:12.

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/Levi's joy and gratitude.  My study bible calls the guest register a stirring demonstration of the fruit of Jesus' love and forgiveness.  Let us note Jesus' own characterization of His ministry as ultimately healing:  He is the Physician to the sick.  Repentance is restorative, healthful medicine for what ails us.

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 says that Jesus' earthly life is a time of joyous blessings.  But there will come a time when His followers will practice the fast, such as in Lent when we do so in preparation for Easter and Christ's promise of return.  The day of the Messiah was seen as a wedding feast, a time of joy and gladness.  Here Jesus declares Himself to be the Bridegroom.  Christian fasting is called a "bright sadness," as it is a way to learn self-control in preparation for the 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.'"  My study bible says this last saying of Christ, "And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better,'" is reported only by Luke.   It illustrates several things:  the difficulty with which the Jews would accept the new covenant, the inner resistance that a person faces in turning from a sinful way of life, the general stubbornness of the human heart.

I really like that Christ characterizes Himself as Physician, thereby His entire ministry as healing, restorative, setting-aright.  The important thing is that we understand our faith in His gospel mission and ministry as such.  How does your faith help you to heal the ailments that beset humanity?  In the Eastern Orthodox tradition there is the important understanding of what is called "theosis."  This is a term that describes a growing union with Christ that defines the journey of faith, and the mystical reality of grace at work in us.  It is a way to describe the transforming reality of faith, and the healing work of the Physician, a way to understand the power of spiritual fruitfulness such as St. Paul describes in Galatians 5:22-23.  In this understanding, repentance -- which, in the Greek, μετάνοια/metanoia, simply means "change of mind" -- becomes an ongoing process, a the progressive characteristic of a lifetime journey of faith.  That is, as we grow in our own faith and dependency upon Christ, so we are also transformed in the light of Christ.  This has to be understood as a process of grace at work in us, God coming to us and making a home in us as Jesus declares in John 14:23.  It is not simply a conscious mental or intellectual process of following the rules, or reasoning out what is good behavior and what is bad.  As we have seen from all of Jesus' healings, faith works at deeper levels within us than we can know, in some sense "cooperating" with the grace of God.  At some depth level within ourselves, we give our "yes" to God and to the energies of grace at work.  In this mysterious action, fostered through prayer and worship, reading the Scriptures, and all the ways in which we support and nurture our faith, is a process of change and transformation.  It encourages us to grow, to develop the virtues understood as fruits of the Spirit, to "change our minds" about the ways in which we think, the values we've accepted, the habits we need to change.  This is "repentance," the medicine of Christ for all of us who are in some way sick, who contend with what's wrong or bad for us, and need help from our Physician to come to terms with what real health would look like in us.  It's that long process of how we reconcile with our Physician, the One who comes to call us to healing, and out of what is bad for us.