Luke 5:27-39
27After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, "Follow me." 28And he got up, left everything, and followed him.
29Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting at the table with them. 30The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" 31Jesus answered, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; 32I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance."
33Then they said to him, "John’s disciples, like the disciples of the Pharisees, frequently fast and pray, but your disciples eat and drink." 34Jesus said to them, "You cannot make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? 35The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days." 36He also told them a parable: "No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise the new will be torn, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine, but says, 'The old is good.'"
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3 comments:
Sometimes when Jesus speaks in parables I feel like I don't get it either. It reminds me about how much I still have to learn about God. It is easy for me to know things about God and speak intellectually and theologically about God. I learned a lot in seminary and you can pick up a pretty good education at your local book store. But, what about how all of that learning really transforms who God is in me.
I think we can ask several questions from this pericope. First, who are the outcasts and tax collectors in our society. And, what is the old wine we might be missing out on? Or perhaps even better what is the old wine of our church. Is it the liturgy? I love that we say each week the Nicene creed just to remind ourselves we are not a lone in our faith. Or, some people really enjoy the old hymns. What is it that keeps us coming back to this old wine? This traditional service?
For me, this passage highlights the centrality of transformation in the Gospel of Jesus. To accept Him into our hearts means changing everything, not only how we think and view the world, but even the very essence of who we are. We cannot just pretend to graft Jesus' teachings onto our "old" (unenlightened) brain, but rather we are called to some mystical transmogrification: Our brain, our heart, our body, our very soul must all become "new", enabling us to receive His gifts without bursting apart at the seams!
Liz,
I liked reading what you had to say and I agree that we need to be washed in the water of the word as it were and wholly transformed to become new creations in Christ.
And Jill,
I think modern day tax collectors and sinners are those who want to be with Jesus and turn from their old ways, but it's not a once and done deal. We have to continually commit our lives to him otherwise we become the Pharisees and the scribes doing nothing but complaining and feeling better than others.
I'm kind of confused about the wine thing because it seems like Jesus is commending the new, but then v. 39 to me sounds like the old wine is better than the new. Is that just to say that once you're accustomed to the old i.e. entrenched in old habit patterns, that you won't desire the new? Like the proverbial, you can't teach an old dog new tricks?
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