Day 14, New Wine requires New Wineskins, Luke 5:27-39

For Jesus to forgive sins brought Him in contention with the religious leaders (5:21).  What happened with Levi (Matthew) did as well.  Jesus had touched the leper (5:13), something no one would do.  How He treated Levi was also something no one else would do.  One, He called Levi to follow Him; having a tax collector on the team was unheard of.  But then to go to Levi’s house and hang out with all his tax collecting friends was just too much for those scribes and Pharisees who had come to Capernaum from all over (5:17).

Separation from the nations was built into the Law of Moses.  Intermarriage with pagans was forbidden; some foreigners were barred from the temple.  This had became a real issue in the days of Ezra when drastic measures were taken to undo marriages with pagans and to limit pagan practices in the Jewish culture.  

By the time of Christ, this separation had become extreme in Judaism.  Not only were they guided by the 613 laws of the Torah; a collection of oral laws (the Midrash) had been recognized that imposed regulations that enabled the people to properly keep the Torah.  In addition there were teachings of the Rabbis, often contradictory teachings, which explained what could and could not be done.  

The point of speaking of this is to say that by this time all tax collectors, along with others, were deemed to be sinners.  A good Jew was to have absolutely no contact with them, especially sharing friendship that would lead you to eat a meal with them in their home.

Now let us consider carefully Jesus’ response to this.

·        5:31-32: The Jewish lifestyle worked against His own calling.  If He was going to call sinners to repentance He had to be with them.

·        5:34-35: John’s disciples observed the Jewish traditions because John’s was a ministry saying the King is coming.  Jesus’s disciples didn’t do all the traditions because they were with the King, or, as Jesus said, the Bridegroom.  Jesus spoke of His Messiahship.  What He was saying was, if you acknowledge the truth of who Jesus is, then it will change your life.  

·        5:36-39: These challenges to the traditions of the Jews were all part of something new.  Jesus ministry was in preparation for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the New Covenant and its blessings.  He did not come to put a patch on what Judaism had become; nor did He come to put the new wine of the new covenant in the old covenant form.  As verse 39 indicates, what Jesus was doing with His followers was in anticipation of the day, after His death and resurrection, when the Spirit would indwell all believers.  He was beginning to prepare them for what would come.

So let us learn from Christ.  Let us be careful lest our physical separation from sin leads us to a physical separation from the sinners, the ones God loves and for whom Jesus died.  Let us live as those who, like Christ, are filled with the Spirit.