Quarantine or Recovery

Series on Luke

III The Initiation

B The Authority of His Ministry

5 Over the Despised

Text: 5:27-39

Introduction

Levi is another name for Matthew. The gospel of Matthew records this same identical incident in Matthew 9:9-13, and uses his name Matthew, rather than Levi. Also in chapter 10 of Matthew’s gospel in a list of the Apostles, he refers to himself as “Matthew the tax collector.” This man who enthusiastically answered Jesus’ call to follow became one of the 12 Apostles who are the foundation stones of the Christian church, and the author of our first gospel. If you examine the reputations of the men Jesus chose to travel with Him and learn and grow, they are not impressive. These men are all from the lower strata of society. Peter and his brother Andrew were fishermen. James and his brother John were sons of Zebedee who was himself a fisherman, and they would have carried on with that trade after their father. Simon the Zealot was a political activist, although that was not his ‘profession’ as such. It is believed that Judas Iscariot was possibly an early type of ‘banker’ or ‘accountant’ as he was the purse-keeper for the disciples. Four fishermen, a money changer, a rebel, and a despised tax collector following a carpenter. Fishing scenes are rarely represented in ancient Greek culture, a reflection of the low social status of fishing. The poet Homer says of fishermen, “Ay, for of such fathers you are sprung as neither hold rich lands nor tend countless sheep.” Fishermen formed a distinct class. The strenuousness of the work ruled out the weak and indolent. They were crude in manner, rough in speech and in their treatment of others. Bankers were not loved because they charged exorbitant interest and Jesus even cast the money changers out and said they had made His Father’s House a den of thieves. Zealots were feared. They were what would now call extremists. And, of course, the tax collectors worked for the Roman occupation and were considered traitors. Thus we begin with the observation of Paul in I Corinthians 1:26-29, Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. I ask you to consider now the significance of the booth, the banquet and the byword.

I The Booth

Our story begins with the call of Levi in verses 27 and 28, After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. The response of Levi to the invitation is indeed remarkable and certainly presumes the spread of knowledge about Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit in Levi’s heart. When we later read in Luke 18:9-14, the parable of the Pharisee and the publican we see what a remarkable thing this response is: To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” What an amazing difference between the attitude of these two men. It could only be wrought by the Spirit of God. But to me it is the booth that is most remarkable. I say this because the booth was very public and conspicuous. Everybody knew about the tax collector’s booth. It was a despised place. It is at Levi’s place of business that Jesus calls him and this is inviting the criticism of the self righteous scribes and Pharisees. The conflict will escalate to the cross.

II The Banquet

The banquet is another inducement to criticism by the religious rulers. Jesus is glad to be there because it is an expression of appreciation from Levi, and notice that the people who come are the kind of people who will respond to Jesus’ message, and we read in verses 29 and 30, Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” Table fellowship in the ancient world meant mutual acceptance. A number of Jesus parables picture the consummation of the kingdom as a great supper. This is the significance of verses 33-35, They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.” Jesus answered, “Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.” The time for banqueting is when Jesus is with us at the table. He was with them in His earthly ministry and He will be with us again when the kingdom comes in its fulness at the marriage supper of the Lamb. The critical Pharisees and teachers of the law were in the business of building fences. Their commitment to ceremonial purity and misunderstanding of what God expected from them led them to shun outsiders and criticize anyone who tried to relate to and engage with those whom they considered sinners. They believed in quarantine, but Jesus believed in recovery. Their mission was separation, but Jesus mission was salvation. Even though their Old Testament Scriptures, especially the Psalms taught that the Gentiles would inherit the blessings of Abraham as well as the Jews, they did everything to prevent that from happening. We read in Psalm 117, Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Here all nations are urged to praise the Lord for His love to them as well as Israel. It is a great mystery how they could sing Psalms like that and still end up expending all their energy in excluding people from the blessing. It is even worse news that it still happens. A missionary of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Harvey Conn, went to Korea in the 1960’s. He sought out sinners in the bars and brothels. The Korean church was scandalized. How could anyone do that. But sinners came to Christ, and he was successful in showing them that this is what Jesus would have done.

III The Byword

And Jesus answered the question in verses 31 and 32, Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Notice first that the question is not addressed to Jesus, but to His disciples. Jesus steps forward and answers for His followers because, after all, none of them were trained scholars or religious leaders and the question was intimidating. Of course, Jesus was not intimidated. He beautifully describes His mission, and it should have been the Pharisees’ mission, but it was not. Jesus even says to them in Matthew 23:15, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are. I have called this a byword because “byword” means two different things in our language. It can either mean a familiar saying, a proverb, a worthy observation, or an object of scorn or ridicule. In this case it is both. Verses 36-39 present two metaphors of the newness of the kingdom. The nature of Jesus’ mission would cause scorn to be heaped on Him, but it is also the most precious and wonderful good news. Jesus’ mission is not to sew a patch on the old ways but to change them. The wine of His kingdom will not fit into the old forms, it must be poured into new wineskins, which represent new forms. He told them this parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’” The last verse is aimed directly at the Scribes and Pharisees. They think the old wine is better. They believe the old ways should be preserved. However Jesus has come to institute the fulfillment of the Old Testament in the New. The byword is good news because we are all sin-sick and need a doctor, and Jesus can heal us through His atoning sacrifice and resurrection. It is good news because as Paul reiterates, “There is none righteous, no not one,” and if Jesus is not a friend of sinners, then he can find no friend among us. Remember this precious byword forever. Take it with you in life and in death. It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.