Luke 5:27 ¶ And after these
things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of
custom: and he said unto him, Follow me. 28
And he left all, rose up, and followed him. 29 And Levi made him a great feast in his own
house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down
with them. 30 But their scribes and
Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans
and sinners? 31 And Jesus answering said
unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
32 I came not to call the righteous, but
sinners to repentance. 33 And they said
unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and
likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink?
34 And he said unto them, Can ye make
the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?
35 But the days will come, when the
bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those
days. 36 And he spake also a parable
unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise,
then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the
new agreeth not with the old. 37 And no
man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the
bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. 38 But new wine must be put into new bottles;
and both are preserved. 39 No man also
having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is
better.
Levi is understood to
be the same person as Matthew based on the context in each of the gospels of
Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He is a tax collector and therefore hated among the
Jewish people with tax collectors or publicans
being considered great sinners.
It is impossible to
save people who don’t think they need to be saved. The self-righteous person,
like the Pharisee, believes they are inherently good and God, basically, is
lucky to have them on His side. The Pharisees fasted often but while Christ was
with them His disciples were not expected to live such a stringent lifestyle as
God’s very presence in the flesh should merit a time of rejoicing as at a
joyous wedding feast.
Isaiah had written
about solemn religious fasting that can be hypocrisy;
Isaiah 58:3 ¶ Wherefore
have we fasted, say they, and
thou seest not? wherefore have
we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your
fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. 4 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to
smite with the fist
of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day
for a man to afflict his soul? is it
to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a
fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? 6
Is not this the fast
that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens,
and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? 7 Is
it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor
that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him;
and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Then Zechariah wrote
when Israel was in captivity.
Zechariah 7:4 Then came the
word of the LORD of hosts unto me, saying, 5 Speak unto all the people of the land, and to
the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did
ye at all fast unto me, even to
me? 6 And when ye did eat, and when ye
did drink, did not ye eat for
yourselves, and drink for
yourselves?
There are a great deal
of comparisons to a wedding feast in the Bible. First, the Lamb of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ, will have a feast with His people when the Church is
translated at the end of this age.
Revelation 19:9 And he
saith unto me, Write, Blessed are
they which are called unto the marriage
supper of the Lamb. And he saith
unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
The Church, which is the
body of Christ on earth acting on His behalf in the world…
Colossians 1:18 And he is
the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the
firstborn from the dead; that in all things
he might have the preeminence…24 Who now
rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the
afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:
…made righteous by
Christ not by any merit of our own,…
Romans 5:18 Therefore as by
the offence of one judgment came
upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the
free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
Is the bride of
Christ...
2Corinthians 11:2 For I am
jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband,
that I may present you as a chaste virgin to
Christ.
Even the New Jerusalem,
where His people will dwell in eternity, comes down out of Heaven adorned as a
bride for her husband in a figure of speech called a simile where something is
likened to something else which it is not by the use of as or like….
Revelation 21:2 And I John
saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Jesus states that He is
the bridegroom here and in another context John the Baptist, whose disciples
still follow Jewish tradition in fastings and ritual, calls himself the friend of the bridegroom…
John 3:28 Ye yourselves
bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before
him. 29 He that hath the bride is the
bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him,
rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is
fulfilled.
There are many more
things to be said about the wedding and marriage analogies, but we’ll move on
for now.
Before we look at the parable Jesus relates it is important to
understand that at the time the King James Bible was translated a bottle did
not have to be just glass, as it is today, but any container that carried a
liquid, such as a leather bag. This can be confirmed by going to Lexicons of
Early Modern English online and doing a search by which you will find Thomas
Cooper’s 1578 Thesaurus Linguae
Romanae et Britannicae and Thomas Thomas’ 1587 Dictionarium
Linguae Latinae et Anglicanae and several other sources that refer to a
bottle as simply a vessel of some sort with glass bottle being used for that
specific container material. (4)
In the following a bottle can be rent or torn
so common sense tells you these wily Canaanites were not just carrying around
shards of broken glass.
Joshua 9:4 They did work
wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks
upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up;
The traditional
interpretation of the parable that follows beginning in verse 36 is that the
old garment and bottles represent Law and the Hebrew religion while the new
represent Grace and Christianity.
There are problems with
this interpretation as we know that Jesus did not come to overthrow the Law but
to fulfill it.
Matthew 5:17 Think not that
I am come to destroy the law, or
the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and
earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
…and Christian doctrine
is that the Law was fulfilled and is fulfilled in Him…
Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to every one that believeth.
Notice verse 39 as
well, with the preference for the old wine. Since the context in these chapters
is about Christ’s ministry and His choosing of disciples to spread His message
and the Pharisee’s objection to the way they handle religion it is also likely
that this is a reference to something else. The institutionalized and strictly
dogmatic religion of the Pharisees and their religious counterparts is to be
replaced by common, uneducated men and women who will live for God rather than
just go through the motions of ritual observance with no true friendship with
God. Like a modern fundamentalist who has more faith in his faith than he does
in God the religious elite of Jesus’ day put their faith in their rules and
regulations they made up over years of tradition than on obedience to God.
Jesus in places
condemns much of the whole body of religious teaching of that day as not of God.
Mark 7:1 ¶ Then came
together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from
Jerusalem. 2 And when they saw some of
his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands,
they found fault. 3 For the Pharisees,
and all the Jews, except they wash their
hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. 4 And when
they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many
other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots,
brasen vessels, and of tables. 5 Then
the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to
the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? 6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias
prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far
from me. 7 Howbeit in vain do they
worship me, teaching for
doctrines the commandments of men. 8 For
laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and
many other such like things ye do. 9 And
he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep
your own tradition. 10 For Moses said,
Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him
die the death: 11 But ye say, If a man
shall say to his father or mother, It
is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be
profited by me; he shall be free.
12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought
for his father or his mother; 13 Making
the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered:
and many such like things do ye. 14 And
when he had called all the people unto
him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing from without a man, that
entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those
are they that defile the man. 16 If any
man have ears to hear, let him hear. 17 And when he was entered into the house from
the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. 18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without
understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without
entereth into the man, it
cannot defile him; 19 Because it
entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught,
purging all meats? 20 And he said, That
which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed
evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit,
lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and
defile the man.
Jesus will send His
disciples out to restore the Israelites who’ve been taught these layers and
layers of man-made rules and regulations as opposed to what God really wants
from them.
Matthew 10:5 ¶ These twelve
Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the
Gentiles, and into any city of
the Samaritans enter ye not: 6 But go
rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of
heaven is at hand. 8 Heal the sick, cleanse
the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely
give. 9 Provide neither gold, nor
silver, nor brass in your purses, 10 Nor
scrip for your journey, neither
two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his
meat. 11 And into whatsoever city or town
ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence.
12 And when ye come into an house,
salute it. 13 And if the house be
worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace
return to you. 14 And whosoever shall not
receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city,
shake off the dust of your feet. 15 Verily I say unto you, It shall be more
tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for
that city.
Jesus is not
overthrowing the commandments of God. He is restoring the right worship of God,
the Old Paths, the old wine.
Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt
not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am
the LORD.
Deuteronomy 6:5 And thou shalt
love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Micah 6:8 He hath shewed
thee, O man, what is good; and
what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with
thy God?
Matthew 22:34 ¶ But when
the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were
gathered together. 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and
saying, 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38
This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
(4) Lexicons of Early
Modern English, University of Toronto, https://leme.library.utoronto.ca/search/quick
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