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, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 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?”
Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
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.”
Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”
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. 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. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’” Luke 5:27-39
"After this:" verses 1-26; The huge harvest of fish after the professional fishermen thought their day was was a wash-out. At the authoritative word of Jesus, they let down their nets again and caught so many fish their nets began to break. These were Simon (Peter), James and John, His first disciples. They were already beginning to understand His power. They left everything to follow Him. Their priorities had permanently changed. Multitudes were gathering wherever He went, to hear His teaching. There were Pharisees and lawyers from the entire region, as well as regular people, crowding around to listen to Him preach, when the friends of the paralytic opened a hole in the roof to gain access to the healer, Who announced the forgiveness of the man's sins as he healed him. This caused quite a stir, to be sure. This man was clearly claiming equality with God. This must be blasphemy! Jesus assured them of His authority to forgive sins, and the healed man walked away, glorifying God.
This brings us to Levi the tax-gatherer. We know him as Matthew. He wrote the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus chose another disciple who was not only a common man, but a tax-gatherer! They were some of the most despised individuals alive. They were considered traitors to their own people because of their occupation, which involved not only taking taxes for Rome, but skimming for themselves. These men were not high on the social scale among the Jews. Levi, like the fishermen, left his collection table and followed Jesus. Then he threw a party for Jesus and his friends. His friends were also not on the a-list. Sinners. Ceremonially unclean. Prostitutes. Not to be publicly associated with. So, natch, the Pharisees have a question: Why would Jesus and his disciples eat and drink with such people? Jesus had an answer for them:
People who are well don't need a doctor. I'm not here to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Next question: why aren't your disciples fasting? This is common practice among the disciples of John and the Pharisees. Answer: I am here with them! This is time for celebration, not fasting. When I'm gone, then they will fast.
This is a new phase of God's program. It isn't wise to patch an old garment with new cloth. It just won't match, and it won't blend. You will damage the new while not helping the old. Old wineskins are not suitable for new wine. The fermentation of the new wine will burst the old, stiff skins and you'll lose it all. People accustomed to the old do not desire the new, for they are satisfied with the usual taste and texture. This was spoken by our Lord to illustrate that the new teaching of the grace of Christ cannot be contained within the old forms of the law.
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1:17
God the Son has begun His earthly ministry. It bears no resemblance to what the religionists of the day would have expected. There are no points. He came to save, to teach, to heal, to lay down His glory for the sake of fulfilling the law and to atone for the sins of the whole world. He didn't call elitists or self-righteous Pharisees to accompany Him on this mission, but common fishermen, tax-gatherers and those who knew they were unclean and in need of a Savior. Those are the people who could hear His message. Those are the people who followed.
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