Introduction:
Is Jesus “woke”? In other words, is He someone who is sensitive to or aware of the injustices experienced by the marginalized? If Jesus were walking on earth today, gathering disciples, would He do so along DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) ethical standards? Would he try to choose people from different groups just to have them in His group?
Now, I don’t know that Jesus would use those terms at all. If his accusers were using today’s terminology, I wonder if they might label him as such.
What was His standard for calling the people He called? What should our standard be based on His example?
I hope to address some of that today as we consider “the radical invitation of Jesus, from exclusion to celebration.”
Background:
Over the last few weeks, we’ve witnessed Jesus ministry around the sea of Galilee as he called Simon to be his disciple, ministered to a leper and a paralytic and challenged the Pharisees and Scribes.
Today, we get to see an invitation that Jesus makes to an unlikely disciple, which produced conversations that challenged His critics and forces us to consider our perspective. Let’s look together at Luke 5:27-39.
Luke 5:27–39 ESV
After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered 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.”
And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’ ”
Today, as we consider this passage, we’ll look at four things that Jesus does:
Calling the unlikely
Celebrating community
Challenging His critics
Changing perspectives
Let’s begin by considering Jesus’…
Calling the Unlikely (27-28)
The passage begins with “After this” - following the things that Jesus did just prior - cleansing the leper, healing the paralytic, Luke tells us that he went out (from that house) and saw or noticed a tax collector. Now as much as we may not like paying taxes, tax collectors in their day were considered by some to be traitors because they - sided with Rome and collected extra money in order to become wealthy. Tax collectors were marginalized in that society - rejected by their people - the Jews, and were scorned by the Romans because they were Jewish. There was little consolation for them except in their wealth and in their network of associates.
I think it’s important for us to pause here for a moment to consider this group of people and people who are marginalized in our day. You see, there is no past that is beyond the transforming love and work of Jesus. Levi’s marginalization and even potentially his past greed was something that Jesus could overcome. For some of us, our pasts may be filled with shameful acts or decisions. We may feel like we have done too much wickedness or evil. Maybe we can say with the psalmist: Psalm 38:4 “For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.”
Friend, if you’re not yet a follower of Christ, recognize that no sin, no act, no so-called identity is beyond the saving and transformational love of Jesus. He won’t condone sin. He also doesn’t condemn you for it because He ultimately took your condemnation. Come to Him.
So Levi was marginalized by so many and yet Jesus called this unlikely person. He was not the ideal candidate, but he was called, nonetheless.
What’s more - Levi, like Simon, left everything. He closed up his tax booth, left his profession and all that he knew in order to follow this one who treated him with dignity and love.
We state that God’s love is unconditional - but do we really believe it in the way we reach out to people?
Are we expecting people to make changes in their lives BEFORE coming to faith?
Who might we have determined is unable to be saved?
But as Levi responds to Christ, he does so with exuberance as he throws a party for Jesus, celebrating his new found community.
Celebrating Community (29-30)
Levi is celebrating being with Jesus in order to honor Him in his own way. Celebrating being invited and included. Celebrating being seen. And yet this party is not just for Jesus and his disciples and Levi, this party is for others as well. Levi has been so touched by the love of Jesus that he wants others to experience that.
This is not unlike the woman at the well that Jesus met in John 4 who went back to her people and said…Come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did - could this be the Messiah?
This community that Jesus is creating is different than what people were experiencing in their day. Maybe even different than what we experience today.
Jesus demonstrated radical acceptance…Again, I don’t think he is condoning misbehavior or sin, but he is separating the individual from their iniquity. Inviting this sinful one into a relationship so that He can sanctify him.
Application:
Do we rejoice in our times together as a family - as a community? Are you participating in a community group? (reach out to the host or to me and I’ll be happy to get you connected)
Are we inviting others to join in here or in our groups?
The fact that Jesus was participating in this celebration caused some of the religious leaders to notice - asking some questions. So in verses 31-32 we see Jesus…
Challenging the Critics (31-32)
It wasn’t difficult for the Pharisees to get a little nosey and poke their heads in Jesus’ business - asking the disciples why He would eat and drink with sinners.
Jesus replied that it’s not the righteous who need repentance, but the sinners. It’s not the well who need a doctor, but the sick. And who better to spend time with than ones who need His forgiveness and healing the most?
A bit later on, Jesus will remind us of his mission - Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”” - Yet He is modeling that for us here.
Application
We may so fear the appearance of evil and as a result we avoid talking to or hanging out with some people - and yet that’s exactly what Jesus modeled for us. I don’t think he was there just for a party, he was there at this party as a light, a messenger. Would you go to a party like this? I hope I would.
How do we treat other believers when they may be doing things that seem to cross boundaries?
Are we making the most of the opportunities in front of us?
There may be opportunities for you and I go to parties or hang out with colleagues after work or get involved in leagues with people who may not be the best influence. I think it’s okay to participate. But do so as light.
Pickleball - am I witnessing? Am I willing to engage in conversations that go beyond techniques or scores? Am I taking an interest in other people? (Experience the other day playing and sat next to some guys - they began to ask me questions about my life and whether or not I receive spiritual care. I was convicted because they clearly seemed a bit curious and yet this was not the first time that I had conversations with these guys, but they brought up spiritual things, not me).
Golf - do I interact with gospel intentions?
Birthday parties - are we sharing, taking an interest?
Who are the sinners around us that need forgiveness? Have we so isolated our selves from so-called sinful people that they don’t have an opportunity to see Jesus through us?
Note of caution - if God has saved you from some entangling sins or vices, be careful as you witness in environments where you may be tempted to stumble. Bring a brother or sister with you or ask them to pray for you, or find another way to be a light.
Now, there will be times when other brothers or sisters in Christ will do things, even Christ-honoring things, in ways that rub against our comfort zones. Jesus was certainly doing that here at this party. As if barging in and asking a question wasn’t enough, the Pharisees press on and challenge Jesus a bit more, stating:
Luke 5:33 “…“The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.””
In Jesus’ response, He is essentially forces them to change their perspectives.
Changing Perspectives (33-39)
Let’s look again at verses 34-39:
Luke 5:34–39 “And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’ ””
One of the things that Jesus does so well is to use brief stories, pictures, and metaphors as a way of communicating truth. Here, it seems like He is essentially getting at two truths with these three metaphors.
The Joy of Faith in Christ - the wedding
In a Jewish wedding, there were typically three major sections or divisions.
The first is the contract where the parents of both the bride and the groom come to an agreement that their children should marry. The marriage officially begins here, though it has not been consummated as the couple doesn’t live or sleep together.
The second is the time of preparation where the groom would prepare a place for himself and his bride, often with or near his parent’s home. During this time, the bride would be on the lookout for when her groom would return. The groom would return only when his father determined that the residence was fully ready.
The third part of a wedding was the celebration. During this time the groom would return and the official ceremony would begin. Consummation would take place after the ceremony.
Jesus seems to be referring to this ceremony - this time of return. His point is that the groom (Jesus) and his bride (the church or his people) are together - that is a time for rejoicing, for feasting, not a time for fasting.
Now, Jesus is not forbidding the practice of fasting, He is simply saying that the time for fasting was not while He was with them.
But he goes on to talk about a second truth, that is…
The reality of the new covenant
In talking about the new covenant, He does so with analogies of garments and wine skins. But let’s take a step back for a moment.
Jeremiah 31:31–32 ““Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.”
This old covenant was essentially the covenant that the Pharisees and scribes were living under and promoting. Sure, they wanted people to be concerned with faithfulness to God and obedience to His ways, but they were more concerned with an appearance of faithfulness than they were with true delight in the One who provided the covenant.
But, as we’ll see when He institutes the Lord’s Supper in the end of Luke, Jesus is doing something new with His life and ultimately in His death, burial, and resurrection. Jeremiah gives us a bit more of hint of that:
Jeremiah 31:33–34 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.””
So Jesus uses the metaphors of garments and wine skins to talk about the new covenant - the new thing that God is doing, as we read about earlier in the service.
So this garment of the new covenant can’t be torn off to patch what was broken by God’s people in the old covenant. The new garment of the new covenant is itself new. In a similar way, the new wine of the new covenant can’t be housed with the legalism of the old covenant. The new wine is housed in it’s own new receptacle - that is in Jesus.
This is why, as people who are part of the new covenant, we don’t participate in the sacrifices and the ceremonial laws of the old covenant. Jesus has fulfilled all of that. We are still called to live holy lives, to be set apart and different.
Thabiti Anyabwile reflected on it in this way:
Exalting Jesus in Luke Faith in Jesus Begins a New Era (5:36–39)
We cannot have the gospel with just a little touch of law and legalism. We cannot have the law with just a few ounces of “Jesus” poured in. The gospel is an entirely different garment—a complete garment in itself. The gospel requires the fresh wineskins of New Testament Christianity for the fresh wine it brings. Those who drink the old religion of self-righteousness will not enjoy the new wine of the gospel (v. 39). There’s something about legalism and self-righteousness that is natural to us. We are tempted to cling to it and to reject the new vintage that is altogether different.
As Christians, we need to be careful to not expect people to obey the morality of the Bible before they experience the grace and mercy of forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Forcing adherence to biblical values does nothing to change hearts. It may only cause people to resent what they feel like are onerous restrictions. I think we should follow Jesus example as we proclaim the Good News of the Gospel and radically invite people to come to faith in Christ, to delight in Him and THEN walk in His ways. Invite them to come and taste the glorious vintage of new covenant wine. Invite them to put on the glorious garments that Christ offers in the gospel.
If I come to faith in Christ, I put on His life as a new garment. The more I live in His clothes, the more comfortable I become. They will only bend a certain way.
In a similar way, if my life becomes the wineskin housing the new wine of this covenant, I learn to adapt and adjust to the life that I’m called to in Christ. As I bask in His love and grace, immerse myself in His Word and His Ways, and as I’m discipled by His people, the wineskin of my life begins to resemble the holiness into which Jesus has saved me. I begin to desire the things that He desires - for me and for the world around me.
Think about this in the context into which this conversation is happening. Jesus and his disciples are having a meal with Levi and his tax collecting friends. I can imagine that for the disciples this might have been uncomfortable. And yet Jesus was enjoying this feast and this time together. We don’t get the privilege of know what was said, but even just being together demonstrated something beyond the legalism of the Pharisee’s ways. I think that as these people spent more time with Jesus, some would end up changing their professions, but others, would end up continuing in their roles in a more righteous and godly way. In this way, Jesus, as the divine physician, ministers among those who are spiritually sick, calling them to repentance.
Friend, if you have not yet experienced the deep and sacrificial love of Jesus, know that He has gone to great lengths to atone for your sins and mistakes. Yes, He wants you to live a holy and righteous life. He wants you to turn away from your sin, but He wants you to do so by receiving His grace and forgiveness. He wants you to be with Him, just as He wants to be with you.
Beloved, we need to be careful how we talk to and about people who are caught in sin. They may not know any better. We should not condemn them for their sinful actions until we’ve lovingly confronted them with our Savior. Tax collectors were despised. Who do you and I despise? Are we willing to dine with them and show them the love of Jesus? If not, maybe we are the ones who need to repent.
Closing thoughts:
Jesus does some radical things in this encounter.
Calling a guy like Levi to be one of His followers radically changed the way that people viewed discipleship. This unlikely follower shows that there is room in the Kingdom of God for all people. The fact that Levi left everything, helps us to see that Jesus is worth devoting our entire lives to Him.
The community that Jesus celebrated with helps us to see that our life together matters. That discipleship is caught as much or more than it is taught.
As people who have been followers of Christ for a long time, we can be tempted to expect people to embody the morality of faith before they receive faith. We need to be careful not to be Pharisaical about the New Covenant.
Tax collectors have a prominent place in Jesus’ ministry. Not because He is elevating their position, but I think it’s because they are so despised by that society that they felt there was little hope for them. Another encounter with a tax collector gives us some insight into the transforming work of the New Covenant and the saving grace of Jesus.
Luke 19:1–10 ESV
He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Is Jesus woke? Does He adhere to DEI values? Yes and no. He sees people for who they are and invites them to experience His transforming love. He goes beyond woke and DEI. He loves us in spite of our sin and then atones for our sin.
Let’s pray.
Benediction:
2 Corinthians 13:14 ESV
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Questions for reflection and discussion:
Read Luke 5:27-39.
How does the concept of Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners reflect His mission in the world?
In what ways can we demonstrate radical acceptance like Jesus did with Levi and the tax collectors?
Who in your life do you see as an unlikely candidate for God's grace, and how can you reach out to them?
What are the metaphorical meanings behind Jesus’ use of new and old wineskins?
How can we ensure that our own lives reflect the grace and mercy of Jesus when interacting with those who are marginalized?
In what ways can participating in community groups enhance your spiritual journey and relationships with others?
How can you create opportunities to invite others into the community of faith, particularly those who might feel excluded?
Sources:
Anyabwile, Thabiti. Exalting Jesus in Luke. Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary. Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2018.
Beeke, Joel R., and Paul M. Smalley. Reformed Systematic Theology: Man and Christ. Vol. 2. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020.
Bock, Darrell L. Luke 1:1-9:50. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999.
Ferguson, Sam “Compelling People: the allure of Christ likeness in an identity confused culture.” Cross Conference 2025.
Martin, John A. “Luke.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985.
McKinley, Mike. Luke 1–12 for You. Edited by Carl Laferton. God’s Word for You. The Good Book Company, 2016.
Robertson, A.T. Word Pictures in the New Testament. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1933.
Stewart, R. A. “Passover.” Edited by D. R. W. Wood, I. H. Marshall, A. R. Millard, J. I. Packer, and D. J. Wiseman. New Bible Dictionary. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996.
Wilcock, Michael. The Savior of the World: The Message of Luke’s Gospel. The Bible Speaks Today. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979.
