A FEAST, AND A QUESTION OF FASTING.
Luke 5:27-39.
I. The Call of Levi, and the feast at his house (Luke 5:27-32).
Wherever we live, under whatever regime, tax collectors are unpopular. It was no different in first century Israel, where Levi’s trade involved collaboration with the Romans, and the constant suspicion of theft. Levi was a man alone, and Jesus called him alone.
Yet within this account of the call of one man is included the call of every one of us. Jesus says, “Follow me” (Luke 5:27), and like Levi - putting all argument and debate aside - we must quietly obey. As is later explained, Jesus came not to call the “righteous” but “sinners” to repentance (Luke 5:32).
Not only did Levi follow Jesus, but he took Him home. Hospitality is not only a common courtesy, but a means of sharing Jesus with others. It is inevitable that the people around our table are going to be people like us, so this is as good a place as any to begin our evangelism.
The other guests at Levi’s table inevitably met with the disapproval of certain religious teachers. These “Pharisees” addressed their narrow-minded comments to Jesus’ disciples (Luke 5:30), trying to undermine the believers’ new-found faith. It is Jesus’ answer, however, which embraces us all: He did not come for those who THINK they are righteous, but He came to bring those who KNOW they are sinners to repentance (Luke 5:31-32).
II. A Question of Fasting (Luke 5:33-39).
It is a strange thing that Jesus’ interlocutors asked, “Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink?” (Luke 5:33). It is unfortunately typical of religious people to be performing some ritual without actually knowing why they did it!
The only time when the Law COMMANDS fasting is in the ‘affliction of soul’ associated with the Day of Atonement (cf. Leviticus 16:29). This is apt, as it immediately associates fasting with repentance and forgiveness.
However, where the law commands just one fast per year, that on the Day of Atonement, the Pharisees would fast twice a week (cf. Luke 18:12). This would be on the market days, on Mondays and Thursdays, so that the hypocrites could strut around with their disfigured faces and draw the maximum amount of attention to themselves (cf. Matthew 6:16).
Nevertheless, Jesus does seem to assume that His followers will sometimes fast (Luke 5:35; cf. Matthew 6:17-18).
Yet a true fast will also lead the liberated person to seek relief and liberty for others. They will give bread to the hungry, shelter to the outcast, and clothes to the naked (cf. Isaiah 58:6-7). This is ‘pure religion and undefiled’ (cf. James 1:27).
The Pharisees’ ritual of fasting twice a week (cf. Luke 18:12) has nothing to commend it to those who are entering anew into a relationship with Jesus. And although the disciples of John the Baptist had cause enough to fast on account of the execution of their teacher, it was hardly appropriate to enforce fasting on those who were walking with the Lord during the time of His incarnation. He would be taken away from them soon enough, and THEN they would fast (Luke 5:35)!
It is interesting that Jesus speaks here of Himself as the heavenly Bridegroom (Luke 5:35). This is a role ascribed to God (Isaiah 62:5; Hosea 2:16), but also to the Lamb of God (Revelation 19:7; cf. Revelation 21:2). Jesus is doubtless the Bridegroom in Solomon’s Song of Songs.
Why would the Bridegroom’s friends mourn while He is with them (Luke 5:34)? Jesus is intimating His own death when He says, “But the days will come when the Bridegroom will be taken from them, and then they will fast” (Luke 5:35).
The two metaphors which Jesus introduces here, of a new patch on an old garment and of new wine in old wine-skins (Luke 5:36-38) serve to warn us about mixing things that differ.
When we begin to follow Jesus, we enter into a whole new way of life. To seek to superimpose our relationship with Jesus on top of even the best of ‘religious’ structures and strictures is to sew a piece of new cloth upon an old garment, or to store new wine in old wine-skins: it just will not work.
And Jesus takes note that, even with the introduction of the new, there will be those who refuse even to taste the new. They wrongly deduce that “the old is better” (Luke 5:39). How hard it is to convert traditionalists!
