Tom Mount – September 22, 2024

 

Jesus recruits Levi and is called out on hanging with sinners: Lk 5:27-32

27 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, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.

29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 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?”

31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

  • Jesus calls Matthew-Levi, from his toll booth. Lukan theme: sinners repent, follow Jesus (cf. 5:1-11; 19:1-10).
  • Matthew’s response, invites his friends. In ANE, sharing a meal meant friendship. Pharisees refused to eat with the ‘am ha-aretz, the “people of the land” for fear the food was not kosher and properly tithed.
  • Jesus’ brilliant reply: only sick people need doctors!

Jesus called out on fasting: Lk 5:33-39

33 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.”

34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”

36 He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”

  • Pious Jews fasted on Monday and Thursday of each week (cf. Lk 18:12).
  • Wedding celebrations involved the groom fetching his bride from her father’s home and bringing her to his home for a week or two of celebration with wine, feasting and, finally, sexual intimacy. Fasting would be inappropriate.
  • 35: This was Jesus’ first hint of his rejection and departure (cf. 9:31,51).
  • “Parable,” v.36, parabole, “figure of speech.” Point of all three figures: the unavoidable clash between old and new. In the first two, the point is that Jesus didn’t come to introduce a souped-up form of Judaism but something new: the Kingdom of God. He fulfilled the old. The third points out how hard it is for traditional Jews to accept the new way of the Kingdom.

Jesus twice called out on the Sabbath: Lk 6:1-5 and 6-11

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. 2 Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

3 Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”  5 Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

6 On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. 7 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. 8 But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there.

9 Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”

10 He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. 11 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.

  • The disciples are accused of doing work (harvesting grain) on Sabbath. Cf. Ex 34:21; Lev 19:9-10.
  • The Sabbath was supposed to be a blessing to people (largely agrarian; non-Israelites too). But the Pharisees turned this blessing into a it a burden (Mt 23:1-4).
  • Jesus cites the story of David fleeing for his life (1 Sam 21:1-6): human life takes precedence over ceremonial law.
  • “The Son of Man is Lord of Sabbath” – Jesus is Lord of Torah, covenant, etc. Jesus came to fulfill the old and bring in the new. He is our Sabbath (Heb 4:9-11).
  • Irony: they break the Sabbath by plotting his death while accusing him of breaking it.
  • “Stretch out your hand” – a physical impossibility. But Jesus tells the man to take a step of faith, then Jesus will do a miracle.