Luke 5:30

Luke 5:30

After Jesus called Matthew the tax collector to be a disciple, Matthew made a great feast to celebrate the good spiritual fortune that had come his way from the Christ. Many people were invited to the occasion. But once the Pharisees and other religious leaders saw the celebration, they were critical of it all. The Bible records their criticism and the answer that Jesus gave to them in Luke 5:30-35. It says, "But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with Publicans and sinners? And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but yours eat and drink? And he said unto them, Can you make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days."

In this incident the Pharisees had two main criticisms of Jesus. First they criticized Him for the company that He kept, and then they criticized Him because His disciples were not required to fast like the disciples of John the Baptist or other Old Testament prophets. Should a person be criticized for the company that they keep? That depends upon what their purpose is and what their actions are when they are with certain people. On the one hand the wrong kind of people can lead you astray, but on the other hand how will such people ever be helped if no one spends enough time with them to influence them for good? If you are strong and have a mature walk God, then you will be able to influence others for good, instead of having them influence you for bad. Of course, Jesus was strong and He came into the world to help people. He wanted to be around those who needed help. Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Jesus loves sinners: The prostitutes, the drug addicts, the homosexuals, the thieves, the murderers. Jesus loves them all. If Jesus were on the earth today much of His time would be spent with such people. What Jesus said 2,000 years ago is still true: "They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." Many of the faithful followers of Christ over the centuries came from those numbers.

There is a time for Christians to be with other Christians. That’s why they gather together in what we call church services. But there is also a time for Christians to be around the lost people of the world. That’s one of the reasons God left you on this earth when you became one of His children. You are supposed to be "in the world but not of the world." If you are in the world then you are to have some appropriate contact with those who are not yet in the Kingdom of God. Paul wrote to the Corinthians and said the same thing in First Corinthians 5:9-10. He said, "I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then you must needs go out of the world." When God wants you to go out of the world, He will take you all the way out.

But Jesus came into the world to save sinners, so of course He sought us out, not to partake in our sinful activities, but to show us a better way: the way of salvation. Jesus said to the Pharisees, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." There is none righteous, no not one; but there are some who think they are righteous. Going about to establish their own righteousness, they shall not find the righteousness of God. There are some people in this world who think that they are more righteous than others because they have not committed the gross sins like the abuse of drugs and alcohol or the committing of adultery. Such people may not know it, but they have sinned just as much as the others. They have committed other kinds of sins. They have committed the sins of selfishness and self-seeking. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God with all the heart, but these have loved themselves many times more than God. Jesus did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. If you think you are righteous, you will never repent of your sins, and you will never be called by Jesus.

The Pharisees criticized Jesus because His disciples did not fast the way that the disciples of John the Baptist did. In a way you could say that John the Baptist was the last prophet of the Old Testament, and of course Jesus gave us the New Testament: the New Testament that is based upon His shed blood for our sins. Some people have a wrong idea about true religion. Some people think that you can only be close to God if you are some kind of ascetic. Of course, that’s not true. It may be the will of God for some people to be that way, but it’s not God’s will for all. Paul said that he had learned to live with both abundance and scarcity. Both the rich and the poor can serve God in their own unique circumstances. God wants both to love Him, and to be thankful to Him for what they have or for what they have not. True spirituality is not defined by how little you have or by how much you have given up. It simply depends upon God’s call for you. Life has its ups and downs. Sometimes you may have abundance and sometimes you may not. The disciples may have enjoyed that particular feast, but the time would come when they mourn and lament because as we know, Jesus would be killed.

The Pharisees made a big mistake when they tried to compare the disciples of Jesus to those of John the Baptist. In a way you could say that John the Baptist was the last of the Old Testament prophets, but Jesus was the beginning of the New Testament. There is a difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is more harsh and more strict. The Old Testament has the law, which condemns you if you break the law in just one point. In contrast to that the New Testament offers forgiveness no matter how many times you may have broken the law.

Jesus spoke about the difference between the old and the new testaments. Jesus spoke about the difference between what people had been taught until He came on the scene compared to His teachings that He was now giving. The teachings that Jesus gave were a more complete revelation than was given in the Old Testament. God’s revelation is an unfolding revelation. After the Old Testament was given, there was still more to come. Because of Jesus we now also have the New Testament. The New Testament reveals for us more clearly the true meanings and significance of the Old Testament. That’s why the New Testament is full of quotations from the Old Testament. The New Testament is the best commentary ever written to explain what the Old Testament was really pointing to. In the time of the Old Testament there was the priesthood and the animal sacrifices and the temple worship. All of that was put into place by the will of God. But it came to an end. When God wanted, it was all changed. Instead of the temple worship we now have the gatherings of the believers in Christ, what Jesus called His church: the ones who have been called. That’s what the word church means. We now live in the age of the church, the age that is also called the age of grace. This age also will end eventually. A new age will eventually dawn upon the earth: the age of the Kingdom of Christ when He returns to the earth and establishes His kingdom.

But now in Luke Chapter 5 we are reading about the description that Jesus gave of the change from the Old Testament times to the times of the New Testament. Jesus spoke about the change that He had brought. He spoke about the difference between the old and the new. The Bible says in Luke 5:36-39, "And he spake also a parable unto them, No man puts a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise then both the new makes a tear, and the piece that was taken out of the new agrees not with the old. And no man puts new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. No man also having drunk old wine straightway desires new: for he says, the old is better."

Jesus is saying that some things are better to not patch up. Some things get too much out of date or become laden with too many errors, and it’s best just to start over than it is to patch up something that is beyond repair. All organizations eventually run their course. Even the mighty Roman Empire eventually fell, and was replaced by other governments. In our day some churches cannot be fixed. The problems are too deep, and the history of failure is too long. The traditions of man can ruin a religion that was once started by the hand of God. When that happens it’s best to do what Jesus said to do and start over. It’s what He did concerning the established religion of His day. Jesus did not try to fix the problems of the Jewish religion. But he did start something new. He started the church made up of all true believers from all nations.

Right after telling us that there were problems with the Jewish religion that could not be patched up, we are told about an incident in the first part of Luke Chapter 6 that shows one of the failures of the Jewish religion as it existed 2,000 years ago. The Bible says in Luke 6:1-5, "And it came to pass on the second Sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do you that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days? And Jesus answering them said, Have you not read so much as this, what David did when he was hungry, and they which were with him? How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone? And he said unto them that the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath."

One of the great failures of the Jewish religion during the time of Christ was that they had become too legalistic. They had become excessive in the way that they interpreted and applied the law to their everyday life. They were much too strict. They put burdens and restrictions on people that were unjust, if not downright foolish. One area especially that they abused concerned the Sabbath day. They gave too many restrictions about what was permissible on the Sabbath. Of course, Jesus did not have such restrictions even though He lived under the law, and He understood the law better than anyone.

Jesus used the Old Testament scriptures in order to show the Pharisees that they were wrong in how they applied the Old Testament teachings about the Sabbath. The Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking God’s law by picking grain from the fields for food on the Sabbath day. Jesus pointed out that King David had done a similar thing in the Old Testament when David took food that was supposed to be reserved only for the priests. If David had the authority to do so, then according to Jesus, Jesus also had the authority. Jesus called Himself Lord of the Sabbath. In addition to showing the error of the Pharisees, by associating Himself with King David and by calling Himself Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus was also making a not-so-subtle declaration of Himself as Messiah.

Jesus kept the law without failure. He was the only one who has ever done it; but Jesus did not restrain Himself from the free exercise of that which He had every right to do. The self-righteous, condemning, legalistic Pharisees made inappropriate interpretations concerning the law. They were wrong to be so strict. They should not have put such obligations and burdens on people. Even though He lived under the law, Jesus did not give in to their pressure. He enjoyed the freedom that He had. There is no license to do what is wrong here, but people can go to the other extreme. It’s wrong to do that which God condemns, but it’s just as wrong to condemn that which God allows. Jesus would have none of it, and He lived under the law.

Jesus did great things for us in regards to the law. In this incident He showed clearly that the law can be abused by trying to apply it too strictly. But Jesus would eventually do much more for us in regards to the law. That which we could not do, our hero has done for us. The righteous demands of God’s holy law were fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Now the righteousness of Christ is given to us freely by faith. We do not have to earn it: we enter into it through faith. In addition to that, the penalties that are due those who failed to keep the law fell on Jesus. Through faith in Christ we receive no penalty even though we deserved a judgment against us. It’s a wonderful thing that Jesus understood the law and its true significance. Are you under the law, or are you under the grace of God that is in Christ Jesus? Galatians 3:11 says, "But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for the just shall live by faith." The Bible says in Galatians 3:13, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us."

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