Sunday of the Flood (G)

Luke 5:27-39

²⁷ After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” ²⁸ And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.

²⁹ 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. ³⁰ And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” ³¹ And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ³² I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

³³ 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.” ³⁴ And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? ³⁵ The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” ³⁶ 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. ³⁷ 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. ³⁸ But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. ³⁹ And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’ ”

How long does it take for the “new” to become “old?” It is not that the old is bad or worthless, but that the new and the old are different. I have often wondered if you can not put new wine in old skins, can you put old wine in new skins? But either way the point is do not claim to put old patterns and designs on something that is being made new and fresh.

God has come to his people. He personally calls Levi to follow him. He then meets with Levi’s friends and network, so to find more potential followers. Jesus eats and drinks with sinners, because he has come to rescue sinners from their sins. He has not come to help the self-righteous lift their noses a little higher, which is what many of actually want.

Jesus Christ compares himself to a bridegroom. He is at a party celebrating and he reveals himself as the bridegroom of God’s people. He is making people new, and these people should not be put in old sackcloth. We should put on refreshed sackcloth and ashes repenting of all our sins. We are washed in the blood of Christ and made new, as God has forgiven you all your sins.