Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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.
27 39. The Call and Feast of Levi. On Fasting. The New and the Old
27. and saw ] Rather, He observed.
named Levi ] It may be regarded as certain that Levi is the same person as the Evangelist St Matthew. The name Matthew (probably a corruption of Mattihijah) means, like Nathanael, Theodore, Doritheus, Adeodatus, &c., ‘the gift of God,’ and it seems to have been the name which he himself adopted after his call (see Mat 9:9; Mat 10:3; Mar 2:14).
at the receipt of custom ] Matthew may have been a tax-gatherer for Herod Antipas who seems to have been allowed to manage his own taxes and not for the Romans; but even in that case he would share almost equally with a man like Zacchaeus the odium with which his class was regarded. For the Herods were mere creatures of the Caesars (Jos. Antt. xvii. 11 6). Probably the ‘custom’ was connected with the traffic of the Lake, and in the Hebrew Gospel of St Matthew ‘publican’ is rendered ‘ Baal abarah ’ ‘lord of the passage.’
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
See the notes at Mat 9:9-13.
Luk 5:29
Made him a great feast – This circumstance Matthew, or Levi as he is here called, has omitted in his own gospel. This fact shows how little inclined the evangelists are to say anything in favor of themselves or to praise themselves. True religion does not seek to commend itself, or to speak of what it does, even when it is done for the Son of God. It seeks retirement; it delights rather in the consciousness of doing well than in its being known; and it leaves its good deeds to be spoken of, if spoken of at all, by others. This is agreeable to the direction of Solomon Pro 27:2; Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth. This feast was made expressly for our Lord, and was attended by many publicans, probably people of wicked character; and it is not improbable that Matthew got them together for the purpose of bringing them into contact with our Lord to do them good. Our Saviour did not refuse to go, and to go, too, at the risk of being accused of being a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners, Mat 11:19. But his motives were pure. In the thing itself there was no harm. It afforded an opportunity of doing good, and we have no reason to doubt that the opportunity was improved by the Lord Jesus. Happy would it be if all the great feasts that are made were made in honor of our Lord; happy if he would be a welcome guest there; and happy if ministers and pious people who attend them demeaned themselves as the Lord Jesus did, and they were always made the means of advancing his kingdom. But, alas! there are few places where our Lord would be so unwelcome as at great feasts, and few places that serve so much to render the mind gross, dissipated, and irreligious.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Luk 5:27-28
And saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom
A publican
Publican was the name given to an employe of low degree, whose duty it was to get in the tribute money.
He was the agent of the farmers-general, great personages who lived by their depredations, after the publicans themselves had kept back an exorbitant percentage on the money levied. The Talmuds often betray the scorn felt for the publicans. Their testimony was not accepted in a court of justice. Probable that the publicans were allowed no more rights than the heathen, and that the Court of the Gentiles alone was open to them. (E. Stapfer, D. D.)
The Jews, who bore the Roman yoke with more impatience than any other nation, excommunicated every Israelite who became a publican; and the disgrace extended to his whole family. Nobody was allowed to take alms from one, or to ask him to change money for them. They were even classed with high-way robbers and murderers, or with harlots, heathen, and sinners. No strict Jew would eat, or even hold intercourse, with them. (Dr. Geikie.)
AT THE RECEIPT OF CUSTOM.
From fishers net, from fig-trees shade,
God gathers whom He will;
Touchd by His grace all men are made
His purpose to fulfil.
But not alone from shady nooks,
Fresh with lifes noontide dew
From humble walks or quiet books,
Calls He His chosen few.
Out of the busiest haunts of life,
Its most engrossing cares,
Its mighty travail, daily strife,
Self-woven golden snares–
He for His vineyard doth provide,
His gentle voice doth move
The worlds keen votaries to His side,
With its persuasive love.
ST. MATTHEW THE APOSTLE.
At once he rose, and left his gold;
His treasure and his heart
Transferred, where he shall safe behold
Earth and her idols part;
While he beside his endless store
Shall sit, and floods unceasing pour
Of Christs true riches oer all time and space,
First angel of His Church, first steward of His grace.
(J. Keble.)
The call of St. Matthew
Matthew was the son of Alphaeus, or Cleopas who had married the sister, probably the elder sister, of our Lords mother. Not unlikely that he was the Cleopas who walked to Emmaus (Luk 24:13-35). A holy family–Israelites indeed. To such a family, what calamity could be more terrible than that one of the sons should become a publican, a renegade to the Hebrew faith, a traitor to the Hebrew commonwealth? Levi had taken service with the Romans. Day by day, in their own city of Capernaum, he was to be seen sitting at the receipt of custom. Whenever boats came into the little port, it was his duty to take dues of them. Whenever a caravan reached the city, he had to take toll of the goods with which the weary camels were laden. And these tolls and dues were paid, not into the Jewish treasury, but into the purses of the Roman knights. For the true publicani were Romans of wealth and credit who farmed the taxes of a province. In the collection of these taxes they commonly employed natives of the province, who were, as a rule, infamous for their extortions. Only the lowest and most profligate of the people would accept so degrading an office. What led Levi thus to wound and put to shame those who loved him so well? It may be that the very austerity of their piety alienated him from them. It may be that he was simply thoughtless and pleasure-loving. It would be a keen joy to the Lord Jesus to give joy to such good people as His uncle and aunt and cousins, to restore peace and union to the family in which He had lived so long. This was His pleasant errand this morning as He left the house in which His mother dwelt with her sister, and Cleopas, and their children, and passed through the city to the shore of the lake. As He passed through the official quarter, He saw Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom. Possibly He had not seen him for a long time. In all likelihood Matthew had hitherto slipped out of His way. But now at last He sees him sitting at his post. What a Divine constraining power there must have been in the words of Him who spake as never man spake! As He looks at Matthew, He says simply, Follow Me; and His cousin, so hardened and degraded by his sins, rises, leaves all–his work for the moment, his official post and wage–and follows Him as though drawn by an irresistible power. Hitherto he had been called Levi, after the son of Jacob. And the word Levi simply meant link. But Jesus had found and saved him; and He brings him back to the old home a new man with a new name. Henceforth Levi, now a true and strengthening link, is to be called Matthew, i.e., the gift of God; the very moment he rises to the level and meaning of his old name, a new name, a new ideal is given him. A true gift of God was this recovered son to the wounded and sorrowful hearts of his father and mother end brethren. Matthew, then, was the scapegrace of a holy family. Father, mother, brothers, sisters were ashamed of him. Yet even he was not beyond the reach and sway of Christ. (S. Cox, D. D.)
THE CALL OF MATTHEW.
Arise and follow Me!
Who answers to the call?
Not Ruler, Scribe, or Pharisee,
Proud and regardless all.
Arise and follow Me!
The publican hath heard;
And by the deep Gennesaret sea
Obeys the Masters word.
Thenceforth in joy and fear,
Whereer the Saviour trod,
Among the twelve his place was near
The Holy One of God.
His is no honour mean,
For Christ to write and die;
Apostle, Saint, Evangelist,
His record is on high.
(Dean Alford.)
Following Christ
I. THE REALITY OF THIS CONVERSION proved by–
1. The change of occupation in obedience to Christ.
2. The sacrifice endured.
3. His identifying himself with Christ.
4. His concern for his fellow-men.
II. LET US TRY OURSELVES BY THESE TESTS.
1. What is Christs power over us?
2. What sacrifices are we making for Christ?
3. How do we identify ourselves with Christ?
4. What are we doing to bring others to Christ? (W. W.Patton, D. D.)
God calls busy men to do His grander work
God calls busy men to do His grander work. Moses, the shepherd; Shamgar and Elisha and Gideon, the farmers; James and John, Andrew and Peter, the fishermen; Matthew, the tax-collector; Luke, the physician, &c., &c. This same Jehovah-angel appears also to Joshua. The case of the Roman Cincinnatus, called by his people from the plough to be dictator of Rome, and saving it from the enemy, is also in point. Many of Gods most distinguished workmen have been called from scenes of the humblest labour. It was when toiling over a shoemakers bench that Careys soul was filled with a zeal for missionary labour. Yet he became one of the most successful missionaries of his age. By his labours a magnificent college was erected at Serampore, sixteen flourishing stations were established, the Bible translated into sixteen languages, and the seed sown of a moral revolution in India. Morrison, another laborious missionary, was once a maker of shoe-lasts. Henry Martyns father was a Cornwall miner. John Williams, of Erromanga, left the blacksmiths shop to teach the is landers of the Pacific the way of life. Dr. Livingstone supported himself through a course of study by working in a cotton mill. (Teachers Storehouse.)
Following Christ fully
In the diary of the lamented Dr. Livingstone was found the following passage, written thirteen months before he died:– My own Jesus, my King! my life, my all I have given Thee; I dedicate my whole self to Thee. Accept me, O gracious Father, and grant that ere this year has gone I may finish my task. In Jesus name I ask it. Amen. There is the key to the life of Dr. Livingstone.
The call of Matthew
I. CHRIST CALLS.
1. We cannot tell what preparation may have been previously made for this abrupt summons. If Matthew was son of the Alphaeus elsewhere named, then his connection with our Lord would account for it.
2. In any case we are sure that our Lords appeal was reasonable. Resting on grounds intelligible to St. Matthew.
3. The call involved sacrifice. He was following a lucrative calling, and he had to abandon it.
4. Our Lords calling is always substantially the same.
(1) It bids us leave the world.
(2) It bids us follow Him. Whatsoever is inconsistent with a close earnest following of Him must be abandoned.
II. MATTHEW OBEYS. Mark the brevity, yet sufficient fulness, of the account given. This was all that was required of him, and he did it.
1. Great difficulties lay in his way.
(1) His manner of life.
(2) The peculiar character of his employment.
(3) Perhaps also acquired habits in connection with his employment.
2. Yet his obedience was ready and prompt.
(1) No rashness. He certainly knew what our Lord asked, and what he was bound to render. Christ repressed those who came thoughtlessly.
(2) On the other hand, no vacillation or hesitation.
III. THE REALITY OF HIS ADHESION TO CHRIST. This was shown–
1. By the evident sacrifice he made. An example to all who hear Christs voice, and follow Him. No royal road to perfection. Jesus by suffering conquered, and all who follow Him must enter into the spirit of sacrifice.
2. By his seeking for Christs communion. He made Him a great feast. (W. R. Clark, M. A.)
Matthew before, daring, and after his conversion
Matthew is of the number of those saints who, once living in sin, gained heaven by perfect repentance. As a true penitent he deserves our veneration, which we shall best exhibit by learning from his life what we should do, and what avoid, in order to gain heaven.
I. THE OCCUPATION OF MATTHEW BEFORE HIS CONVERSION.
1. The occupation of a money-changer, which is perilous.
2. The trade of a usurer, which is vicious.
3. The office of a toll-collector, which was odious.
II. THE SUPPER PREPARED BY MATTHEW FOR THE LORD.
1. The reasons for which he prepared it.
(1) To show his true joy, and to give an evidence of his willingness to forsake all things and to follow Jesus.
(2) He would do the little He could, in order to gain the love of
Jesus.
(3) To give other publicans an opportunity of becoming acquainted with Jesus.
2. The reasons for which Jesus accepted the invitation to the supper.
(1) To afford pleasure to Matthew, to encourage and reward him.
(2) To exhort also other publicans, and to give them grace.
3. The reasons for which the Pharisees grumbled, and reprimanded the disciples.
(1) To deceive the disciples, by making them distrust their Master, and to turn them from Jesus.
(2) Because they envied Jesus.
III. THE HONOURS OF ST. MATTHEW AFTER HIS CONVERSION.
1. He became an apostle.
2. An evangelist.
3. A martyr.
LESSONS.
1. Let sinners learn from St. Matthew conversion without delay.
2. Let the converted learn from him zeal.
3. Let the zealous learn from him perseverence. (Laselve.)
Great honour was put upon the simple work of the fisherman, and the keen pursuits of the custom-house, when Christ chose of fishermen and publicans to become His first disciples and His apostles. His parables, also, cast the same reflection of honour on all honest work. Let us then ask how our common business in warehouses and shops may bring glory to Christ.
I. IN BUSINESS MAY BE FOUND A SERVICE FOR CHRIST. May be found; but, alas! sometimes it is lost; often it is not even sought.
II. WE MUST NOT THINE TOO MUCH OF DAILY WORK, and set too great a price on it.
III. WE SHALL SEEK TO GIVE OF THE FRUITS OF OUR TRADING TO CHRIST. All we spend may be spent with express thought of Him; but to make full proof of our ministry, we shall seek for special expenditure in works of Christian philanthropy.
IV. WE SHALL BE WILLING TO GIVE UP, NOT ONLY THE FRUITS OF DAILY WORK, BUT DAILY WORE ITSELF, FOR CHRIST. It is not only to ministers that Christ says Follow Me. Others also are called to self-sacrifice. To say that business keeps me from Sunday-school teaching, or that business keeps me from visiting the sorrowful, and taking help to the needy, may not be a plea that ever covers neglect in the sight of our great Master, Christ. His word may be, Then have less business. Follow Me. It is possible that God calls one and another to make some sacrifice of apparent opportunities of making money, in order that there may be more time for spiritual service. Willingness to make sacrifice for Christ is essential to true discipleship. (T. Gascoigne, B. A.)
Matthew obeys Christs call
Some years ago I remember having my notice drawn by a little picture that hung in the window of an Oxford book-shop; it was a simple German lithograph, and it represented the call of Matthew. I do not know the name of the artist, but he seemed to me to have caught the whole spirit of the scene. In the centre was Matthew himself, eagerly leaving his booth, with treasures of untold money lying untouched on the counter for his helpers to reckon. Before the booth was the crowd of fishers and traders entering the seaside city, almost aghast at the sudden leaving of the business by one till then so strict in all his dealings with them, so ever ready to receive tribute. And just behind appeared a company of Christs disciples, not altogether unwondering at so ready a departure from all that wealth; half sorry for sacrifice so great; and yet half feeling, from what little they had learnt already of the Master, that He was worth the sacrifice. And in front was the Christ Himself, patient, tender, calling, waiting–the Lord of all, knowing calmly how life in the Fathers kingdom was worth any earthly sacrifice, that the Father could yet give to His own all they ever might have need of. (T. Gascoigne, B. A.)
Self-surrender
It is related in Roman history that when the people of Collatia stipulated about their surrender to the authority and protection of Rome, the question asked was, Do you deliver up yourselves, the Collatine people, your city, your fields, your water, your bounds, your temples, your utensils, all things that are yours, both human and Divine, into the hands of the people of Rome? And on their replying, We deliver up all, they were received. The voluntary surrender which you, Christian, have made to Christ is equally comprehensive; it embraces all you are, and have, and hope for. (H. G. Salter.)
Follow exactly
Two persons were walking together one very dark night, when one said to the other, who knew the road well, I shall follow you, so as to be right. He soon fell into a ditch, and accused the other with his fall. The other replied, Then you did not follow me exactly, for I have kept free. A side step had caused the fall. There is like danger in not following Christ fully.
On the calling of St. Matthew
I. WE ARE TO LEAVE ALL OUR EVIL PRACTICES THAT WE MAY FOLLOW CHRIST. We must relinquish our former iniquities altogether, and without reserve. Suppose that St. Matthew, when Christ commanded him to become His follower, had answered, that he would attend upon Christ occasionally, when his occupation afforded him leisure: and that for the future, when employed in collecting tribute, he would commit acts of extortion only seldom. Would Christ have accepted such service? You muse surrender yourselves entirely to Christ. You must follow Him wholly. You must follow Him alone. When you reserve some favourite sin for your occasional gratification; is that to leave all for the sake of Christ? No man can serve two masters.
II. WE MUST RENOUNCE, FOR THE SAKE OF CHRIST, ALL OUR EVIL INCLINATIONS. This step is necessary to make repentance complete. St. Matthew not only relinquished his occupation, but abandoned it with gladness. You do not see him taking leave of his home with reluctance and sorrow. In conformity to this example every Christian is not merely to abstain, as by constraint, from sinful actions; but to glorify his God by cheerful obedience, and to bring his will under thankful subjection to his Redeemer. He is to be holy in thought, holy in heart, holy in his designs, holy in his wishes.
III. We, like St. Matthew, ARE TO RENOUNCE PRIVATE INTEREST, WHENEVER IT INTERFERES WITH OUR OBEDIENCE TO JESUS CHRIST. Behold a decisive proof of sincerity l He does not honour his Saviour with his lips only. He glorifies the Son of God by making large sacrifices for His sake; by immediately making every sacrifice which is required. He counts all things but loss that he may win the approbation of his Redeemer.
IV. We are to renounce our own righteousness; TO CAST AWAY ALL RELIANCE ON MERIT OF OUR OWN FOR ACCEPTANCE WITH GOD. Why did St. Matthew become a disciple of Jesus Christ? Why did he leave all to be with that man of sorrows? Because he beheld in that man of sorrows one who bare our griefs; one who bare the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. He recognized the appointed Saviour; the Lamb of God which took away the sins of the world.
V. We must, in the last place, FOLLOW OUR REDEEMER UNTO THE END. Such was the stedfastness of St. Matthew. He remained constantly with Christ until the evening before the crucifixion. On that evening he showed, in common with the other apostles, what man is, when the Divine grace withdraws itself, and leaves him to his native weakness. All the disciples of Christ forsook Him and fled. Of that guilty flight St. Matthew was a partaker. After the Resurrection, he received, in conjunction with the other apostles, pardon and strength from his forgiving Lord. When Jesus had ascended into heaven, we behold St. Matthew continuing closely in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and the brethren; and bearing his part as an apostle in the election of a successor to the traitor Judas. Boldly remaining at Jerusalem, when havoc was made of the Church after the martyrdom of Stephen, he proved that he was not of those who have no root, and in time of persecution fall away. And the early history of the Christian Church informs us that, in the face of danger and death, he persevered until the end of his days in preaching the gospel of his Lord. From every Christian patient continuance in well doing is indispensably required. (Thomas Gisborne.)
The duty of following Christ, as illustrated by the conduct of His disciples
But, in the event which succeeds, we have an instance of still greaterpower than that which is involved in the healing of any temporal disease. We find Him controlling not merely the elements of nature, as he had often done, or the circumstances which conduce to the health of our temporal frames, as in the instance of the paralytic man, but we find Him swaying the very elements of the mind and will, and proving that the moral and the intellectual powers of man are no less subject to His sovereign control. After these things, we are told, He went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and lie said unto him, Follow Me.
1. In the first place, the individual named Levi, who is spoken of by St. Luke, is said to have been a publican–a term which is explained in some degree, when it is mentioned that he was found sitting at the receipt of custom. It was thus that the name of publican became expressive, in their mind, of all that was abandoned and profane. There was nothing, for instance, in the character or condition of the individual before us to warrant his selection to this high and distinguished calling. There was no title existing in himself whereby he could claim it as peculiarly his own. He was a member of an obnoxious profession, and he was, so far as we know, unadorned with any lofty or brilliant attainments. We are not referring in the meantime to the condition of these men as poor and illiterate, and as affording from their original circumstances, as contrasted with the noble future discharge of their apostolic duties, a powerful argument for the truth and efficacy of our holy religion. We are referring to it simply as pointing out in the term, publican, in the present instance, and in the ideas which were usually associated with that term, the very condition in which by nature we are placed, and from which Christ is so willing to redeem us. Naturally, we say, there is nothing in any one of us to entitle us to selection on the part of Christ. On the contrary, there is everything that might lead Him to reject us, and dispose Him, in the purity of His character and the beauty of His own perfections, to pass us by as unworthy of His notice. In all our character and condition, naturally considered, and as seen in the light of His untainted holiness, there is nothing which His pure and omniscient eye can possibly desire. We are not engaged in His service. We are not contemplating His works. We are not endeavouring to ascend through the survey and admiration of these to the adoring contemplation of His excellence, or aspiring in the light of His perfections to have our natures assimilated to His. There is nothing of all this, when He comes to us on His errand of mercy, and calls upon us to follow Him as His disciples and His friends. We are engaged in the service of the world at that very time, intent, like the fishermen of Galilee, or the despised receiver of customs, on the affairs of a life which is only preparatory to another, but for which other we are not mindful or solicitous to prepare. Yes, my friends, we are either busied in the pursuit of some gainful and engrossing occupation, or we are sitting at destructive ease in the degradation of sin, reviewing our extending treasures, and yet thirsting to increase them. If active, we are not active in Gods service–if at ease, we are not at ease in Zion, or because we have sought peace and found it of the Lord. We repeat, then, that we are selected by Christ in the exercise of free and sovereign compassion. We are called to be disciples of His, not because we have loved Him, but because He has loved us.
2. The inclination or willingness to follow onward to know the Lord, is not occasioned by any exercise of our own powers, but is wrought in us by the operation of Christs own mighty power. But in Jesus there was nothing outwardly to distinguish Him. He was surrounded with no trappings of external dignity, no insignia of honour, no symbols of opulence or power. He was meek and lowly in His deportment–the reputed son of a carpenter; arrayed like the meanest of the people, and bearing in His aspect the suffering, yet subdued, expression of the man of sorrows. And yet He called the disciples, and they implicitly obeyed Him. No sooner did He issue the command than they hastened to fulfil it. He said to them, Follow Me, and immediately they left all and followed Him. Now, we argue from this, that a great and decided change must have instantaneously passed upon their minds. The mere command of Jesus, considered apart from His divinity–considered apart from His power over the understanding and the heart, could never have produced this effect. We say, then, that the grace of God must have operated directly in this instance to the enlightenment of their minds, and the regulation of their wills. On no other principle can we account for the conduct they displayed. The Spirit of the Lord was with them, and at once they felt it to be their duty and their privilege to obey. They resembled the men who acknowledged Saul to be their king, when Samuel announced him to be the chosen of God to the throne of Israel, and when the children of Belial were despising and setting him at nought: they resembled these firm and devoted men, of whom it is said, in the expressive language of Scripture, that when Saul went up to Gibeah, there went up with him likewise a baud of men, whose hearts God had touched. In the case of the disciples, God also had touched and influenced their hearts.
3. We would remark, that when the Spirit of God does touch our hearts, and the power of Christ is thus made manifest in our lives, we are at once enlightened as to two things–the right of Jesus to command, and His worthiness as a King and Saviour to be obeyed. All this was exemplified in the conduct of the disciples. True, they had not at this time the most clear views of His character, or the most spiritual notions of the kingdom He was to establish, but still they saw, or rather felt enough, to convince them that Christ was worthy of their obedience and love; and, therefore, without a moments hesitation or reserve, they yielded the submission which He required, and determined to follow Him whithersoever He went. We admit, then, that they were not enlightened all at once, and that they were still imperfect as to their conceptions of Christs heavenly kingdom. But this is the way in which the Spirit of Divine grace in general acts upon the human understanding. He works in a gradual and progressive manner, disclosing more and more of the beauty of Christ, and of the loveliness of sacred truth, and shining inwardly upon the soul with somewhat of the brightening effulgence of that light of heaven, which rises at first with the faint dawnings of the eastern sky, until at last it opens and expands into the glorious lustre of the perfect day. But still the work of the Spirit leads us at once to exercise confidence in Christ. Now, the right which Christ has to the obedience of us all, is simply this: He has created us, and we are bound to serve Him; He has preserved us, and we are bound to honour Him; He has redeemed us, and we are bound to love Him. In every character and relation He is entitled to our love, and homage, and gratitude, and esteem. But superadded to this, there is now the powerful, the constraining tie of sovereign and redeeming love. In following Christ, my friends, we must follow Him to duty. When the Saviour issued His command to His disciples, there was before Him the chequered scene of His labours; and they, as the companions of His wanderings, had to go forth and mingle in the work. Again, my friends, we must follow the Saviour in the path of suffering. When Christ told His disciples to follow Him, He had yet before Him the scenes of His agony and death–the privations of His wanderings to feel, the hall of Pilate to encounter, the garden of Gethsemane to bear, the torture of the cross, in unmitigated anguish, to endure. And His disciples, whom He had called to follow Him, had likewise their griefs and sufferings to undergo. In the world ye shall have tribulation, was the warning which He gave them. Not that the way of life is a dark and painful career, unsoothed by a single comfort, unalleviated by a single joy. The truth is, that the follower of Christ has joys which the world cannot understand, just as he has sorrows which it cannot share. He has a peace of mind which passeth knowledge, which rises far above the comprehension of the mere natural man; but then he has griefs which a stranger cannot interfere with. There is encouragement, however, the amplest and surest encouragement. Hear the language of Christ to His people: I will make My grace to be sufficient for you; I will perfect My strength in your weakness; I will guide you by My counsel, and receive you to My glory. (W. Maclure.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 27. Levi] See on Mt 9:9; Mr 2:14.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
See Poole on “Mat 9:9“, and following verses to Mat 9:13. See Poole on “Mar 2:14“, and following verses to Mar 2:17, both which evangelists have also recorded this call of Levi; the first calls him Matthew; Mark and Luke call him Levi. There was nothing more ordinary amongst the Jews than for persons to have two names. Mark tells us his fathers name also, saying he was the son of Alphaeus. All agree in his employment, that he was a publican, one employed in the gathering of the public revenue, that part of it which arose from the exportation and importation of commodities; for he was sitting at the receipt of custom. Christ from thence calls him; he follows him, that is, gave up his name to be his disciple; in gratitude, Matthew, or Levi, invites him to a feast, and with him several other publicans and others. The other two evangelists say nothing of Matthews preparing this feast; but it is implied in them, for they take notice of his sitting at meat in his house, and of the offence taken at it by the scribes and the Pharisees, and of our Saviours taking notice of it, and what he said in justification of himself: see the notes before mentioned above. Only Matthew adds, that our Lord also said unto them, Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice. But for the explication of our Saviours entire answer,
See Poole on “Mat 9:9“, and following verses to Mat 9:13.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And after these things he went forth,…. After his discourse with the Scribes and Pharisees, and his healing of the man, sick with the palsy, he went forth from the city of Capernaum, to the sea side; not only for retirement and recreation, after the work of the day hitherto, but in order to meet with, and call one that was to be a disciple of his:
and saw a publican named Levi who is said to be the son of Alphaeus, Mr 2:14 and so it is said to be in Beza’s ancient copy here; and who was also called Matthew, see Mt 9:9
sitting at the receipt of custom; at the place where custom was received, and toll taken, near the sea side, of such that went over. The Syriac and Persic versions read, “sitting among publicans”, of which business he himself was; and these might be his servants under him, or partners with him; [See comments on Mr 2:14]
and he said unto him, follow me: of all the publicans that were there, he singled out Levi, or Matthew, and directed his discourse to him, and called him to be a follower of him: an instance of powerful, special, and distinguishing grace this; [See comments on Mt 9:9].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Call of Matthew; Watchfulness Inculcated. |
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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.
All this, except the last verse, we had before in Matthew and Mark; it is not the story of any miracle in nature wrought by our Lord Jesus, but it is an account of some of the wonders of his grace, which, to those who understand things aright, are no less cogent proofs of Christ’s being sent of God than the other.
I. It was a wonder of his grace that he would call a publican, from the receipt of custom, to be his disciple and follower, v. 27. It was wonderful condescension that he should admit poor fishermen to that honour, men of the lowest rank; but much more wonderful that he should admit publicans, men of the worst reputation, men of ill fame. In this Christ humbled himself, and appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh. By this he exposed himself, and got the invidious character of a friend of publicans and sinners.
II. It was a wonder of his grace that the call was made effectual, became immediately so, v. 28. This publican, though those of that employment commonly had little inclination to religion, for his religion’s sake left a good place in the custom-house (which, probably, was his livelihood, and where he stood fair for better preferment), and rose up, and followed Christ. There is no heart too hard for the Spirit and grace of Christ to work upon, nor any difficulties in the way of a sinner’s conversion insuperable to his power.
III. It was a wonder of his grace that he would not only admit a converted publican into his family, but would keep company with unconverted publicans, that he might have an opportunity of doing their souls good; he justified himself in it, as agreeing with the great design of his coming into the world. Here is a wonder of grace indeed, that Christ undertakes to be the Physician of souls distempered by sin, and ready to die of the distemper (he is a Healer by office, v. 31)– that he has a particular regard to the sick, to sinners as his patients, convinced awakened sinners, that see their need of the Physician–that he came to call sinners, the worst of sinners, to repentance, and to assure them of pardon, upon repentance, v. 32. These are glad tidings of great joy indeed.
IV. It was a wonder of his grace that he did so patiently bear the contradiction of sinners against himself and his disciples, v. 30. He did not express his resentment of the cavils of the scribes and Pharisees, as he justly might have done, but answered them with reason and meekness; and, instead of taking that occasion to show his displeasure against the Pharisees, as afterwards he did, or of recriminating upon them, he took that occasion to show his compassion to poor publicans, another sort of sinners, and to encourage them.
V. It was a wonder of his grace that, in the discipline under which he trained up his disciples, he considered their frame, and proportioned their services to their strength and standing, and to the circumstances they were in. It was objected, as a blemish upon his conduct, that he did not make his disciples to fast so often as those of the Pharisees and John Baptist did, v. 33. He insisted most upon that which is the soul of fasting, the mortification of sin, the crucifying of the flesh, and the living of a life of self-denial, which is as much better than fasting and corporal penances as mercy is better than sacrifice.
VI. It was a wonder of his grace that Christ reserved the trials of his disciples for their latter times, when by his grace they were in some good measure better prepared and fitted for them than they were at first. Now they were as the children of the bride-chamber, when the bridegroom is with them, when they have plenty and joy, and every day is a festival. Christ was welcomed wherever he came, and they for his sake, and as yet they met with little or no opposition; but this will not last always. The days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, v. 35. When Christ shall leave them with their hearts full of sorrow, their hands full of work, and the world full of enmity and rage against them, then shall they fast, shall not be so well fed as they are now. We both hunger and thirst and are naked, 1 Cor. iv. 11. Then they shall keep many more religious fasts than they do now, for Providence will call them to it; they will then serve the Lord with fastings, Acts xiii. 2.
VII. It was a wonder of his grace that he proportioned their exercises to their strength. He would not put new cloth upon an old garment (v. 36), nor new wine into old bottles (Luk 5:37; Luk 5:38); he would not, as soon as ever he had called them out of the world, put them upon the strictnesses and austerities of discipleship, lest they should be tempted to fly off. When God brought Israel out of Egypt, he would not bring them by the way of the Philistines, lest they should repent, when they saw war, and return to Egypt, Exod. xiii. 17. So Christ would train up his followers gradually to the discipline of his family; for no man, having drank old wine, will of a sudden, straightway, desire new, or relish it, but will say, The old is better, because he has been used to it, v. 39. The disciples will be tempted to think their old way of living better, till they are by degrees trained up to this way whereunto they are called. Or, turn it the other way: “Let them be accustomed awhile to religious exercises, and then they will abound in them as much as you do: but we must not be too hasty with them.” Calvin takes it as an admonition to the Pharisees not to boast of their fasting, and the noise and show they made with it, nor to despise his disciples because they did not in like manner signalize themselves; for the profession the Pharisees made was indeed pompous and gay, like new wine that is brisk and sparkling, whereas all wise men say, The old is better; for, though it does not give its colour so well in the cup, yet it is more warming in the stomach and more wholesome. Christ’s disciples, though they had not so much of the form of godliness, had more of the power of it.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
A publican named Levi ( ). Mr 2:13 has also “The son of Alphaeus” while Mt 9:9 calls him “Matthew.” He had, of course, both names. All three use the same words ( ) for the place of toll. See discussion of publican () on Mt 9:9. All three Gospels give the command of Jesus, Follow me ().
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
He saw [] . Better, as Rev., beheld, since the verb denotes looking attentively. See on Mt 11:7.
A publican. See on chapter Luk 3:12.
Receipt of custom. See on Mt 9:9.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And after these things he went forth,” (kai meta tauta ekselthen) “And after these things he went out of the residence and away,” Mar 2:13-14.
2) “And saw a publican named Levi,” (kai edesato telonen onomati Levin) “And he fixed his eyes on a tax collector (publican) by name of Levi,” or observed him in his business and demeanor, his behavior. He later became one of His apostles and an evangelist, Mat 9:9. Matthew means “the gift of God.”
3) “Sitting at the seat of custom:” (kathemenon epi to telonion) “Sitting in the custom-house,” where taxes or custom was collected, the place of toll, collected as the traffic passed along the Sea of Galilee, Mar 2:14. The name Levi is Hebrew. His name became Matthew upon giving himself to the Lord, Mat 9:9.
4) “And he said unto him, Follow me.” (kai eipen auto akolouthei moi) “And he said to him, directly, personally, individually, follow me,” first as an obedient disciple, Luk 9:23; Mat 4:22; Mat 19:27; Mar 8:34-35; Mar 2:14.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES
Luk. 5:27. Saw.Rather, observed, beheld (R.V.). Levi.The apostle and evangelist, St. Matthew (Mat. 9:9). Probably his original name was Levi, and the name Matthew or Matthias was given to him or assumed by him after he became an apostle. Matthew means The gift of God. The receipt of custom.The place of toll (R.V.). The dues or taxes were probably connected with the traffic on the Sea of Galilee.
Luk. 5:29. A great feast.This is an indication of wealth, and implies that the act of renunciation (Luk. 5:28) was in his case all the more remarkable. A great company of publicans.As a class they would be deeply moved by the kindness of Jesus to one of their number. They were accustomed to be despised and spoken against by those of their countrymen who laid special claims to holiness. Sat down.I.e. reclined at table according to the custom of the time.
Luk. 5:30. Their scribes, etc.I.e. the scribes and Pharisees of that place. As from the character of the objection we cannot suppose that these scribes and Pharisees were themselves present at the feast, the conversation may have taken place some time after it. They may, indeed, have seen Jesus leaving the house with the other guests.
Luk. 5:32. The righteous.There does not seem to be any satirical reflection upon the Pharisees in this reply, as persons who considered themselves righteous, but were not really so. The argument is, the greater a mans sin, the more need he has of the call to repentance, as, if he were perfectly righteous, he would need no repentance. These words do not, of course, imply that any man is perfectly righteous, nor is such a supposition necessary to the reasoning (Speakers Commentary).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Luk. 5:27-32
The Call of Matthew.The call of Matthew signally illustrates a very prominent feature in the public action of Jesus, viz. His utter disregard of the maxims of worldly wisdom. A publican disciple, much more a publican apostle, would not fail to be a stumbling-block to Jewish prejudice, and therefore to be, for the time at least, a source of weakness rather than of strength. Yet, while perfectly aware of this fact, Jesus invited to the intimate fellowship of disciple-hood one who had pursued the occupation of a tax-gatherer, and at a later period selected him to be one of the twelve. The eye of Jesus was single as well as omniscient: He looked on the heart, and had respect solely to spiritual fitness. He had no fear of the drawbacks arising out of the external connections or past history of true believers, but was entirely indifferent to mens antecedents.
I. The call obeyed.The fact that Matthew, while a publican, resided in Capernaum, makes it absolutely certain that he knew of Jesus before he was called. It was not, however, a matter of course that he should become a follower of Jesus merely because he had heard of, or even seen, His wonderful works. Miracles of themselves could make no man a believer; otherwise all the people of Capernaum would have believed. Christ complained of the inhabitants of Capernaum in particular that they did not repent on witnessing His mighty works. It was not so with Matthew. He not merely wondered and talked, but he repented. Whether he had more to repent of than his neighbours we cannot tell. It is true that he belonged to a class of men who, seen through the coloured medium of popular prejudice, were all bad alike, and many of whom were really guilty of fraud and extortion; but he may have been an exception. His farewell feast showed that he possessed means, but we must not take for granted that they were dishonestly earned. This only we may safely say, that if the publican disciple had been covetous, the spirit of greed was now exorcised; if he had ever been guilty of oppressing the poor, he now abhorred such work. He had grown weary of collecting revenue from a reluctant population, and was glad to follow One who had come to take burdens off instead of laying them on, to remit debts instead of exacting them with rigour. And so it came to pass that the voice of Jesus acted on his heart like a spell: He left all, rose up, and followed Him.
II. The banquet.The great decision was followed by a feast in Matthews house, at which Jesus was present. It had all the character of a great occasion, and was given in honour of Jesus. The honour, however, was such as few would value, for the other guests were peculiar. There was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them. The feast was not less rich in moral significance than in the viands set on the board. For the host himself it was without doubt a jubilee feast commemorative of his emancipation from drudgery and uncongenial society and sin, or at all events temptation to sin, and of his entrance on the free, blessed life of fellowship with Jesus. The feast was also, as already said, an act of homage to Jesus. Matthew made his splendid feast in honour of his new Master, as Mary of Bethany shed her precious ointment. It is the way of those to whom much grace is shown and given to manifest their grateful love in deeds bearing the stamp of what a Greek philosopher called magnificence and churls call extravagance; and whoever might blame such acts of devotion, Jesus always accepted them with pleasure. The ex-publicans feast seems further to have had the character of a farewell entertainment to his fellow-publicans. He and they were to go different ways henceforth, and he would part with his old comrades in peace. Once more: we can believe that Matthew meant his feast to be the means of introducing his friends and neighbours to the acquaintance of Jesus, seeking, with the characteristic zeal of a young disciple, to induce others to take the step which he had resolved on himself, or at least hoping that some sinners present might be drawn from evil ways into the paths of righteousness. Matthews feast was thus, looked at from within, a very joyous, innocent, and even edifying one. But looked at from without, like stained windows, it wore a different aspect; it was, indeed, nothing short of scandalous. Certain Pharisees observed the company assemble or disperse, noted their character, and made, after their wont, sinister reflections. Opportunity offering itself, they asked the disciples of Jesus the at once complimentary and censorious question, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? On various occasions, when the same charge was made against Him, he returned different answers. The answer here may be distinguished as the professional argument, and is to this effect: I frequent the haunts of sinners, because I am a physician, and they are sick and need healing. Where should a physician be but among his patients? where oftenest but among those most grievously afflicted? Our Lords last words to the persons who called His conduct in question at this time were not merely apologetic, but judicial. I came not, He said, to call the righteous, but sinners; intimating a purpose to let the self-righteous alone, and to call to repentance and to the joys of the kingdom those who were not too self-satisfied to care for the benefits offered, and to whom the gospel feast would be a real entertainment. The word, in truth, contained a significant hint of an approaching religious revolution, in which the last should become first and the first last; Jewish outcasts, Gentile dogs, made partakers of the joys of the kingdom, and the righteous shut out. It was one of the pregnant sayings by which Jesus made known to those who could understand that His religion was a universal onea religion for humanity, a gospel for mankind, because a gospel for sinners. And what this saying declared in word, the conduct it apologised for proclaimed yet more expressively by deed. It was an ominous thing that loving sympathy for publicans and sinnersthe Pharisaic instinct discerned it to be so, and rightly took the alarm. It meant death to privileged monopolies of grace and to Jewish pride and exclusivismall men equal in Gods sight, and welcome to salvation on the same terms.Bruce.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk. 5:27-32
Luk. 5:27. Follow Me.The special call to apostleship is recorded in the case of five only of the twelve: Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew. No doubt the other seven in like manner were selected individually by Jesus, and called to leave all and follow Hima call not given to all disciples.
A publican.Probably Matthew was one of the subordinate officers belonging to Palestine, who were in the employment of the Roman publicanus, who farmed the taxes. These inferior officers were notorious for their impudent exactions everywhere; but to the Jews they were specially odious, for they were the very spot where the Roman chain galled themthe visible proof of the degraded state of the nation. As a rule none but the lowest would accept such an unpopular office, and thus the class became more worthy of the hatred with which the Jews in any case would have regarded it (Smith, Dictionary of the Bible, Publican).
A Shock to Prejudice.The shock given to the prejudices of society by Christs choosing a publican to be an apostle must have been very great. It was an illustration of the principle of the Divine action stated by St. Paulthe base things of the world, and things that are despised, being chosen to confound the things that are mighty (1Co. 1:26-28).
Matthew the publican.It is worthy of notice that St. Matthew, in giving the list of apostles, appends the words the publican to his own name, as if to mark the lowly estate he occupied when Christ called him (Luk. 10:3).
Sitting at the place of toll (R.V.).There sat Matthew the publican, busy in his counting-house, reckoning up the sums of his rentals, taking up his arrearages, and wrangling for denied duties, and did so little think of a Saviour that he did not so much as look at His passage; but Jesus, as He passed by, saw him.Hall.
Went forth, and saw.It would seem to have been an accidental passing-byone of those chance meetings which so often turn the course of a mans life, and even that of a nations history. Yet there was nothing accidental in the life of Christ, any more than there is in our own lives. A long train of circumstances led up to this meeting, and found in it a natural completion. It was in Capernaum that Matthew livedthe headquarters of Christs public ministry. Matthew had, no doubt, often seen and heard Christ: he had known of His mighty deeds, and of the authority with which He spoke and acted; and perhaps the publican had been slowly making up his mind as to what his duty towards Christ was. So that when this moment came, and the Saviour paused before him and held up His finger and said Follow Me, he was ready to obey. The vague thoughts and feelings took definite shape: the gesture and word of His Lord concluded the struggle. His choice was madethe die was cast, and he arose and followed Him. Doubtless he immediately made, or had previously made, every requisite arrangement for leaving the affairs of his office, not in confusion, but in order. Jesus was no patron of confusion. It is the desire both of God and Jesus that all things should be done decently and in order (Morison).
Luk. 5:27-28. Rose up, and followed Him.That word was enough, Follow Me; spoken by the same tongue that said to the corpse at Nain, Young man, I say to thee, Arise. He that said at first, Let there be light, says now, Follow Me. That power sweetly inclines which could forcibly command: the force is not more irresistible than the inclination. When the sun shines upon the icicles, can they choose but melt and fall? when it looks into a dungeon, can the place choose but to be enlightened? Do we see the jet drawing up straws to it, the loadstone iron, and do we marvel if the omnipotent Saviour, by the influence of His grace, attract the heart of a publican? He arose, and fellowed Him. We are all naturally averse from thee, O God; do Thou but bid us follow Thee, draw us by Thy powerful word, and we shall run after Thee. Alas! Thou speakest, and we sit still; Thou speakest by Thine outward word to our ear, and we stir not. Speak Thou by the secret and effectual word of Thy Spirit to our heart, the world cannot hold us down, Satan cannot stop our way, we shall arise and follow Thee.Hall.
The Privileges and Honours conferred on Matthew.The skill of Matthew in using his pen was afterwards to be employed in writing the first biography of His Lord and Master: his name, which had up till now borne a mark of infamy as that of a publican, was destined to be inscribed on one of the foundations of the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev. 21:14).
Luk. 5:28. The obvious moral of the story is that we are none of us beyond the reach of Christ, none so base but that He can redeem us, none so hateful but that He would fain save us. The one fatal thing is to despair of ourselves, because we despair of His mercy and its power to recover us. Whatever we may be, whatever we may have done, there is in Christ a grace which can sweep away all our sins, and a saving health which can redeem us into spiritual life and vigour, into heavenly service and rest.Cox.
Luk. 5:29. Levi made him a great feast.The feast in the house of Matthew took place evidently a few days or weeks later, and seems to have been a farewell feast to his former friends and associates. Probably in the meantime he had been making arrangements for the new mode of life he was to follow, and for the proper transaction of the business with which he had been connected.
A great company of publicans.The call of Matthew seems to have been accompanied by, if, indeed, it did not occasion, a great awakening in the outcast class to which he belonged. Many would be touched in heart by the mercy shown by Jesus to one of their number. There is something very beautiful in this mutual fellowship of the disciple and the Masterthe one being the host and the other a guest at the same table. When we consider the relations between the twohow Jesus was to Matthew the King to whom he had sworn allegiance, the Redeemer by whom he was to be saved, the Judge by whom his eternal destiny was to be decided, and the Object of his worshipthere is something very winning and beautiful in their sitting together at the same table. They were a motley company that met in the house of Matthew: men hated and despised by their neighbours for their trade or for their evil livespersons on many of whom it was only too evident that the stamp of sin had been set deeply, who repaid scorn with scorn, and grew only more hardened and reckless as they found that they had lost the respect of others and of themselves. Yet along with them the Son of God sat down as a fellow-guestHe whose holiness was so perfect, whose hatred of sin was far more keen than that which any other mortal ever felt. The loathing and scorn of men only hardened those on whom it was spent. But these publicans and sinners were touched and melted and won by the love of Jesus, who treated them as though they were worthy of fellowship with Him, and was hopeful of even the most depraved among them. Is there not here a lesson for us? The hard, Pharisaic spirit that prides itself on its own immaculate virtue, and passes harsh judgments on the faults of others, incapacitates one for recovering the vicious or restoring the outcast and banished. Even if we were justified in cherishing such a spirit, it has no power to cope with and overcome the evils which it condemns. It is by love, by sympathy, by tenderest compassion that the wayward and erring are to be won to a love and practice of goodness. The feast in the house of Matthew is a subject which, strangely enough, has not been treated by any of the great artists. Yet it is one of the most striking and picturesque scenes in the life of Jesus. The Son of God surrounded with publicans and sinners! Imagine Him with His face and mien of holiness, and love, and majestic peace. See the change wrought even in the countenances of those who received Him as their Saviourthe John-like, the Stephen-like expression beginning to show itself in the faces of men who up to this time had been intent only on gain and vicious pleaturesthe rapt, Madonna-like air already beginning to transfigure the faces of sinful women! O happy publicans and sinners that had found out their Saviour! O merciful Saviour that disdained not publicans and sinners!
Luk. 5:30. Murmured against His disciples.The Pharisees and scribes are still restrained by awe of Jesus, and do not attack Him directly, but impeach His disciples with laxity of conduct. The accusation the Pharisees bring is that of undue intimacy with those outside the pale of respectability and of religion. Christs disciples need to keep in mind
(1) that their conduct is watched by a censorious world, and
(2) that they need to have a well-grounded reason for the things that they do. If they cannot justify their actions, they run the risk of bringing discredit upon their Masters name and cause. Association of an intimate kind with the ungodly may arise from having too weak a sense of their sinfulness, or, on the other hand, it may be deliberately engaged in with the view of effecting a change in them from sin to holiness. A complete separation between the Church and the world is not to be desired, if the leaven of holiness is to be allowed to penetrate and transform society.
Luk. 5:31. The Physician and His Patients.
I. A complete and unanswerable defence.Our Saviour does not dispute the unfavourable character imputed to the publicans and sinners. It is true, therefore, the need of visiting them. He is a Physician, and must spend much of His time and ministry on those who have need of healing. To go to houses that other men shun is the honourable mark of the physicians profession. His answer could not be misunderstood. He referred to spiritual ailments, and to spiritual healing. Instead of being reproached He ought to be praised. And He will be praised for ever by those whom He has healed.
II. A direction to His followers.It was a word not only to the Pharisees, but to His disciples. As He was, so should they become in His service. His Church was to be a prolonged expression and an active exponent of healing skill and mercy.
1. Christianity is remedial.
2. Christianity is hopeful. The sin and misery of the world call loudly for the enthusiasm and ingenuity of Christian hope and love; and they please the heavenly Physician best who carry the gospel of His salvation to those whom the successors of the Pharisees despair of or disdain.Fraser.
A Defence of the Disciples.Jesus takes up the defence of His disciples: probably they were unable to return a satisfactory answer to their critics. There is humour in His words: an ironical acceptance of the Pharisees, on their own estimate as whole and needing no physician, when in reality they were corrupt and self-deceived. But if there is
(1) irony towards the Pharisees, there is
(2) a serious allusion to the state of the publicans and sinners. Whether the Pharisees were whole or not, there could be no doubt that those, for associating with whom they blamed Him and His disciples, were indeed sick. Not only
(1) sickness, but
(2) admission of the fact of sickness, is required before the services of the great Physician can benefit us. This latter condition the Pharisees did not fulfil: the fact that publicans and sinners did fulfil it was the hopeful element in their case. Was it wonderful that Jesus associated with these outcasts? It was still more wonderful that these outcasts welcomed Him. It was the sick appealing to the Physiciana sight that should have made the Pharisees glad.
Luk. 5:32. Not the righteous, but sinners.Again we find irony in the Saviours words: to call the righteous to repentance! In the fact that Christ thus describes the purpose for which He came as that of calling sinners to repentance, we have an indication of the part we are to play in the work of our salvation. He calls; it is for us to respond, i.e. to obey His call. The call comes to us, for in the work of redemption God takes the initiative. Repentance includes
(1) a state of feelinggodly sorrow on account of sin; and
(2) a course of actionamendment of evil ways. The feeling should not stand alone, or it will aegenerate into barren regret; it should be the source from which the action springs. Godly sorrow is not repentance, but worketh repentance (2Co. 7:10). The Scriptures lay more stress upon the action than the feeling. Thus Isaiah says little about the latter in calling the nation to repentance, but much about the former. Wash you, make you clean, etc. (Luk. 1:16-17).
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Appleburys Comments
Jesus Called Levi the Publican
Scripture
Luk. 5:27-32 And after these things he went forth, and beheld a publican, named Levi, sitting at the place of toll, and said unto him, Follow me. 28 And he forsook all, and rose up and followed him.
29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house: and there was a great multitude of publicans and of others that were sitting at meat with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with the publicans and sinners? 31 And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are in health have no need of a physician; but they that are sick. 32 I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.
Comments
a publican, named Levi.His other name was Matthew (Mat. 9:9). In His public ministry, Jesus came into contact with all classes of people, including Pharisees and their scribes, and publicans. Tax collectors and sinners were usually classed together, for as a group the publicans abused their offices. There is no indication that Matthew did. Jesus evidently selected men to be apostles because of their ability to carry out the task He had for them. Matthew, as one used to keeping records, had the talent and training that could be put to use as the Holy Spirit used him to write the Gospel According to Matthew. He must have been a man of influence, for a great crowd of publicans and others attended the feast he gave in honor of Jesus.
Others such as Roman and Jewish rulers, officers of the Roman army, Gentiles, Samaritans, rich and poor were attracted to Jesus. He came to save the lost, and they were found among all classes.
Follow me.Levis immediate response leaves us wondering if he had known Jesus before this time. We have no way of knowing many things that would be of interest, although not necessary to the understanding of the gospel story, It is possible that this was the very first time he had seen Jesus. If so, it indicates the remarkable power of Jesus to influence men. But through the ages men have been willing to leave all and follow Him.
And Levi made him a great feast.Luke says that a great multitude of publicans and others were present. Matthew says that many publicans and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and His disciples (Mat. 9:10). Luke also shows that the Pharisees asked the disciples this question: Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?
Levi used the occasion as an opportunity to present Jesus to his associates, Every follower of Jesus would do well to follow this example. Every member of the church is to be an evangelist and help in the total work of the church by seeking to save the lost.
And Jesus answering.Jesus had the answer for His critics. The healthy need no physician. Of course, the complainers looked upon themselves as spiritually healthyrighteous. But they were wrong about themselves and wrong about condemning the Great Physician who ministered to the sick in soul as well as body. Jesus said, I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Some of them were the worst sort of sinners, but as long as they thought of themselves as righteous, nothing could be done for them.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
Butlers Comments
SECTION 3
Converting Men (Luk. 5:27-39)
27 After this he went out, and saw a tax collector, named Levi, sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, Follow me. 28And he left everything, and 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 sitting at table with them. 30And the Pharisees and their scribes murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? 31And Jesus answered them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; 32I 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. 34And Jesus said to them, Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. 36He told them a parable also: No one tears a piece from an old garment; if he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37And 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. 38But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39And no one after drinking old wine desires new; for he says, The old is good.
Luk. 5:27-28 From Secondary Pursuits: Mark indicates Jesus went out from the inner city to a place beside the sea (Mar. 2:13) and taught the people gathered about Him. As Jesus passed on along the busy boat docks of the city He saw a man called Levi (which means, companion). His other name was Matthew (which means, gift). This Levi was a tax-collector (Gr. telones from telos, meaning toll, custom or tax); tax-collectors were called publicans from Latin publicanus. We know the following things about Levi: (a) His fathers name was Alphaeus; (b) he was undoubtedly skilled in writing and keeping records; (c) he was apparently well versed in the Old Testament for he quotes more from it than any other gospel writer; (d) he left a lucrative position to follow Jesus; (e) he must have been a man of deep spiritual convictions to have such concern for his former colleagues.
The typical publican of that day may be characterized as: (a) self-centered, Mat. 5:46-47; (b) heathenish, Mat. 18:17; Mat. 11:19; Mat. 21:31; (c) mercenary, Luk. 19:2; Luk. 19:8; (d) yet, more able to repent than the Pharisees, Luk. 7:29-30; Luk. 18:9-14; Luk. 19:8. Levi probably did not fit this picture in all its aspects. He does not seem to be self-centered or mercenary. Most publicans were hated by all the Jews because they collected taxes for the despised Roman conquerors. Furthermore, the Romans had a system of farming-out taxes. Rome stipulated a fixed amount of taxes they wished to receive from conquered provinces. The collectors were to insure that amount; all they could collect above that amount they could keep as salary. Many tax-collectors became adept at fraud, extortion and manipulation, and some became very rich. The Jews considered them as traitors and heathen; not fit to be included in the covenant with Jehovah, and classed with the worst of sinners.
The Lord called Levi to change his occupation to the highest of all callingsan evangelist of the gospel of Jesus Christ. While it is not stated, we may assume that Levi had prior knowledge of Jesus: (a) no one followed Jesus blindly; (b) Jesus had conducted an extensive ministry of teaching and working miracles in the city of Capernaum prior to His call to Levi; (c) Levi may have already had business contacts with the fishermen-apostles who would have told him about Jesus. The Lord had a special mission for this man who had special training. Levi, skilled and experienced at record-keeping, gave the world its most influential and enduring place of historical recorda biography of the life of the Incarnate God, Jesus Christ. Levi was converted. He immediately left all, put his trust in Jesus and followed Him. Levi committed himself to the proposition of Jesus, Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these (necessities) things will be added to you.
Luk. 5:29-32 From Sin: This was a turning point in Levis life. He felt satisfied he had found Someone who could lead him to Life with a capital L. He believed he had found the Messiah who would fill his empty life with truth, love and holy comradeship which his forefathers and the prophets had so longed for, Now Levi wanted his associates and friends to know this Jesus also. Ultimately, this is the only real way to follow Jesus!
Levi was a man of considerable financial means, so he held a huge reception (megale, Gr. for great; douchefrom dechomai, to receive) for Jesus in his own home. There was a huge crowd (Gr. ochlos, multitude; polus, much) of tax-collectors and other people at Levis for this reception-supper. They were all reclining (Gr. katakeimenoi), probably on the Roman triclinium type couches. The triclinium was wide enough for three people. They rested their head on their left hand (the left elbow resting on the couch) and fed themselves with their right hand. Eating utensils such as we know today were possessed only by the well-to-do and rich. There were no forks; only knives, spoons, drinking goblets or cups and an individual dish for each diner. In the homes of the common people diners took a piece of flat Jewish bread and dipped it into the food in their individual dishes, or, in some cases where there were no individual dishes, the diners, one at a time, dipped a morsel of bread into the one main dish of food on the table. No one ever ate standing up. Jewish tradition says, Eating or drinking upright upsets a mans whole body. In ordinary meals it was permissible to put ones hand into the common dish, but never to put it in at the same time as another guestthat would be extremely rude according to the apocryphal book Ecclesiasticus. An ordinary meal, in a moderately well-to-do home, would have consisted of fish or kid, vegetables (particularly onions), and cakes, with local wine to wash it all down. We do not know what Levi had served. It may have been more sumptuous than that. Whatever the meal, the real purpose of Levi was to introduce his friends to this miracle-working Teacher who spoke with the authority of God.
There were Pharisees and scribes there. We do not know they were in Levis house when they grumbled at the disciples of Jesus. They could have been. It is doubtful that Levi had invited them. But in Palestine then, it was customary for spectators to gather, uninvited inside the larger homes just to watch the goings-on at one of the huge feasts of the well-to-do. It was a form of entertainment. More likely, however, the Pharisees heard about the feast and attacked Jesus disciples after the feast was over somewhere other than in Levis house. No self-respecting Pharisee would ever defile himself by entering a publicans house. This was the main point of their attack upon Jesus and His disciples. To the Pharisees a publican was no better than a Gentile or a Samaritan. In those days to dine indicated not simply hospitality and friendship, but brotherhood. When a person was invited to dine and did so, people assumed that the host and guest were in agreement religiously, politically and socially (cf. 2Jn. 1:9-11, etc.). Pharisees considered tax-collectors and sinners anathema (cf. Luk. 18:11; Mat. 18:17). Thus the Pharisees assumed Jesus was condoning sin and had defiled Himself by such intimate association with Levi. Jesus ate with a publicanJesus had joined in brotherhood with a publican. Rabbis only associated with righteous people. To the Pharisees it was not a question of the needs of the publican to know the truth and be brought to repentance; their highest priority was themselvesthe keeping of themselves traditionally pure by not associating with sinners. There were no such instructions in the Law of Moses. To bring a sinner to a knowledge of Gods revealed will so that sinner will repent, is the highest form of loveand love is the fulfillment of the law.
The Pharisees murmured. The Greek word is egonguzon which means to grumble, mumble, or murmur indignantly in a low tone. It is onomatopoetic; i.e., when the word is pronounced it sounds like the thing it is describing. It is like the English word gong. Jesus answer is a masterpiece. It is subtle enough not to enrage while at the same time it contains enough sarcasm that it cannot be shrugged off without having felt the sting of rebuke. Pharisees considered themselves learned teachers of the Law and publicans as unlearned heathen. Pharisees and rabbis looked upon the Law as medicine for the soul and themselves as blameless before the Law; therefore, in need of no repentance. Publicans were, to Pharisees, spiritually illin fact, terminally ill. Jesus said, Those who are well do not need a doctor; those who are ill do! Where else would you expect to find a physician than among the ill? Those who do not believe themselves to be ill will not seek a physician. Jesus came to save or heal those who recognize they are ill and need His healing. Publicans know they are sinners and want help (Luk. 18:13; Luk. 7:29); Pharisees do not acknowledge they are sinners (although they are) and do not want help (Luk. 18:11-12; Luk. 7:30; Joh. 9:39-41). That is why Jesus ate with publicans and sinners! If we are to bring people to Jesus for salvation, we must find those who will acknowledge they are sinners. Those who think they can be saved by themselves or someone other than Jesus are like the Pharisees. There is only one way to find sinnersbefriend them, associate with them, and introduce them to Jesus. Befriending sinners does not mean we condone their sin. Eating with sinners and associating with them in certain situations does not mean we will be defiled. The apostle Paul knew Christians would be forced in certain situations of everyday life to associate with sinners (1Co. 5:9-10), otherwise Christians would have to leave this world altogether. Thousands of sinners want to know Jesus. If Christians withdraw into little monastic clubs and mingle only with one another, how shall these thousands ever be introduced to Jesus?
Luk. 5:33-39 From Self-Righteousness: A monastic attitude tends to produce self-righteousness. Self-righteousness feeds on legalism. This is the point of the next encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees. And it is all connected to the graciousness of Jesus toward Levi as contrasted with the self-righteous bigotry of the Pharisees toward publicans. This is not really a renunciation of the law of God; it is a disavowal of legalism and Pharisaic traditions. Jesus never renounced the Law; He came not to destroy it but to fulfill it.
Both Matthew and Mark indicate that John the Baptists disciples joined the Pharisees in carping at Jesus in this instance. John the Baptist was probably already in prison by Herods decree. These disciples of John were apparently part of the crowd of uninvited spectators at Levis house or had been seduced by the Pharisees to join in attacking Jesus because of His innovative religious behavior. Had John been free he would not even have attended such an affair. He lived the life of an ascetic for the purpose of God, not to promote his own self-righteousness in the legalistic way of the Pharisees. The Pharisees, on the other hand, lived outwardly austere and ascetic to justify themselves in their legalism. The Pharisees fasted often and prayed oftenpublicly. They withdrew into a modified form of monasticism so they would appear to be righteous, unable to tolerate sinners.
Where did the idea of fasting originate? Its origin is spiritual, not dietary. The commandment of the Law was that the Hebrew worshiper should innah (Hebrew for afflict) the soul (Lev. 16:29-34; Lev. 23:26-32; Num. 29:7, etc.). There was really no specific instruction concerning abstinence in the original commandment. The Hebrew word tzum is translated fast, but this word is not used in the first 6 books of the Old Testament. Apparently the instruction in the Pentateuch to afflict the soul came to be interpreted to mean abstain from food and other things. The instructors in the Pentateuch said the Hebrew was to afflict his soul only on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) which occurred once a year in October. The Pharisees fasted twice each week, on Mondays and Thursdays, as well as on other special occasions. The Pharisees made a point to do their fasting publicly going to great lengths to exhibit penitence. They put dust and ashes on their heads; they wore sackcloth next to their skin; they allowed their hair and beards to go unkempt; Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount (Mat. 6:16) they disfigured their faces (Gr. aphanizousin) with gloom (Gr. skuthropos, sadness, sullenness, moroseness); and, of course, they abstained from food. Jesus answer is not intended to preclude fasting altogether. Jesus fasted (Mat. 4:2). Jesus also said, When you fast. . . . (Mat. 6:17), indicating there would be times when a Christian might wish to fast. Fasting (or, afflicting the soul) might be in order in times of spiritual depression, penitence or mourning. But it should be a spontaneous expression, not faked or pretended. And it cannot be legalistically and arbitrarily regulated by human traditions. These are the two main points of Jesus answer. There is a time for fasting and there is a time for feasting; a wedding is a place to feast, not fast! The Messiah had comeit was a time to rejoice and come to Gods feast (as the O.T. Prophets predicted, Isa. 25:6 ff; Isa. 55:1 ff; Isa. 61:1 ff). John the Baptist himself had confirmed that Jesus was The Bridegroom. The children of the bridechamber certainly should not fast or mourn while the Bridegroom was with them. When the Bridegroom was slain would be the time for mourning; and that would come soon enough. But even that mourning would last only a short time for the Bridegroom would be raised from the dead and then joy would return to the disciples.
But the Pharisees refused to acknowledge that the Messiah had come. They refused to accept the announcement that Gods promises of salvation by grace were present in Jesus. They preferred to continue seeking justification through their legalistic traditions. This is the point of the parables Jesus uses here. Obviously, the new garment and the new Wine is the Christian revelation of salvation by grace and the old garment and old wineskins represent the old system to which the Jews were clinging for salvation; the Law of Moses, especially as it was traditionally interpreted and practiced for the purposes of self-justification. The promise of God for salvation was never intended to be limited in its appropriation to a set of rules and traditions. Gods salvation has always been by grace, through faith (Rom. 5:2). The promise, made to Abraham when he was a Gentile, was to be appropriated through faith, and the Law which came 430 years later did not annul the promise or the means of appropriation. The Law was not against salvation by grace through faith. In fact, the Law was given to intensify mans realization that his only hope of salvation was by grace through faith. This is more precisely taught in Romans, chapters 3 through 8, and Galatians, chapters 3 through 5. It was not the Law itself that condemned man. Man was condemned by his perversion of the Law. Man took Gods Law and arrogantly declared that he needed no grace from God, no faith in God, for he could, by adding his own interpretations and traditions to it, keep it in such an absolute and perfect way, God would owe him salvation. Man perverted the Law into a system of self-justification. His faith was in himself and his systemnot in the Lawgiver, God.
Jesus came to fulfill the old system; He did not come to patch it up. To make the new a patch on the old would never work. Cloth in Jesus day was not sanforized. A patch of new cloth on old, when washed, would shrink and tear itself away from the old. New, unfermented wine put in old, brittle and dried out wineskins, would form gases as it fermented and would soon burst the old skins. The proper thing to do is put new wine in new skins; when the new wine forms gases, the new skins stretch to meet the situation.
The new era of grace ushered in by Christ and His fulfillment of the old cannot be contained in the forms of the old Law and especially in the traditions of the Pharisees, Systems of Law and Tradition must, by their very nature, be constructed to fit times and cultures. Salvation by grace through faith fits all times and cultures. The Christian dispensation of Gods grace calls for new and expanding ways to express itself. It must be able to transcend human cultures. It must divorce the spirit of man from its tendency to cling to the seen and direct it to the unseen, It must be able to strip the spirit of man of its tendency to arrogance and self-justification through a system and direct it to trust the absolute faithfulness of a Person. Man must be freed from the penalty of guilt in failing to perfectly obey the Law of God and his own perversions of that Law, so he can enter a covenant relationship with the God of grace by faith. That is what Jesus accomplished for man! That is why Christianity is not simply a patch-up-job on legalism; that is why Christianity cannot be restricted into some humanly legalistic wineskin. Once a man believes in Christ, accepts His new covenant terms and is immersed in water, he is justified by the grace of God and he is forgiven all penalties and is free to grow in his expression of faith and love toward God as he allows himself to be motivated and guided by the Spirit of God through the New Covenant scriptures. Such a person is born againa citizen of the kingdom of God. Never again does he need to seek to justify himself before God; never again can anyone else bind him to a system of legalism. Only the individual through distrust in God and His word, enslaves himself again to legalism.
Now this is the point of Jesus last illustration here (Luk. 5:39). Jesus ends this discussion of conversion on a sad note. It will be very difficult for most men to give up the old way of self-justification and accept the new justification by grace through faith. Pride, the mother of all sins, is not easy to surrender. Pharisees (those of Jesus day and those of all ages) satisfy themselves with old wine (self-righteousness through human legalism). The old is pleasant, so why even try the new? Human legalism is a form of idolatry. The Pharisees made void the word of God by their traditions and legalism and thus these became their god. The man who makes his own god can manipulate it. Human legalism can be manipulated to serve mans pride and other fleshly lusts. It is not easy to surrender in faith to the Personal God who cannot be manipulated. Jesus found it easier to convert Levi, who had probably not been too concerned with self-justification, than to convert the Pharisees whose self-righteousness closed their hearts to the grace of Christ. As one man has said, How often does the good become the enemy of the best! The idea of self-justification is intoxicating and exhilarating to the proud heart of man.
Keeping the commandments of Christ because we believe, trust and love Him is not legalism. Legalism is an attitude, not an action. Legalism is the proud heart of man thinking he can keep the law of God perfectly and not incur guilt and so earn his salvation by self-righteousness. Legalism does not depend upon the imputed righteousness of Christ but upon self-attained merit. Trying to obey the commandments of Christ because one believes and accepts His salvation as a gift is not legalism, but love.
STUDY STIMULATORS:
1.
How would you characterize the lake of Gennesaret? What part did it have to play in Jesus ministry?
2.
What do you think of Jesus selecting fishermen to become apostles? How do men usually go about choosing their leaders (cf. 1Sa. 8:5; 1Sa. 8:19-20; 1Sa. 9:1-2)?
3.
Did Jesus expect these fishermen to follow Him on some immediate, emotional whim? Does Jesus ever expect anyone to follow Him on that basis? How do you know?
4.
Why was the miracle of the great catch of fish so impressive to Peter?
5.
Describe the social circumstances of having leprosy in Jesus day.
6.
What was leprosy? What religious function did it have?
7.
What did Jesus signify when He cleansed this leper?
8.
What is a Pharisee? Where did they come from? Why were they following Jesus?
9.
What was paralysis according to Dr. Luke? Why did they let the paralyzed man down through the roof into the house where Jesus was?
10.
Why did Jesus first tell the paralyzed man his sins were forgiven?
11.
What did the Pharisees say about Jesus forgiving the mans sins?
12.
How did Jesus prove He could forgive the mans sins?
13.
Who was Levi and what did he do for a living?
14.
Why would Jesus call Levi to be an apostle?
15.
How did Levi introduce Jesus to his friends?
16.
Why did Jesus eat with publicans and sinners?
17.
Why did the Pharisees and Johns disciples attack Jesus for not fasting?
18.
What is fasting? When should Christians fast?
19.
What did Jesus mean by saying, You cannot put new patches on old cloth . . . and You cannot put new wine into old wineskins?
20.
Why do men not desire the new wine after having drunk the old?
21.
What is legalism? What is it not?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(27-32) A publican, named Levi.See Notes on Mat. 9:9-13, Mar. 2:14-17. St. Lukes agreement with St. Mark is again a noticeable fact.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘And after these things he went forth, and beheld a public servant, named Levi, sitting at the tollbooth, and said to him, “Follow me.” ’
The Pharisees and scribes now being against Him Jesus adds to their cause for distress, for He walks past a customs post and tollbooth and calls a public servant serving there to follow Him. Levi (Matthew is his other name) need not necessarily have been on his own. There would be two or three manning the booth, supported by soldiers. But Jesus could hardly doubt that His action would provoke anger. He had no doubt had conversations with Levi before this when Levi had come to hear Him speak, and had recognised his genuine repentance and a heart that sincerely sought after God. Indeed the call may not have come as a surprise to Levi, only the timing of it. But Jesus clearly intended it to be public. It could hardly fail to cause a stir. Neither the Pharisees nor the Herodians (whom Levi served) would be pleased, and even the general public would look askance. It was a brave, even a daring, thing to do.
It is thus clear that Jesus wanted to make public the fact that repentance and forgiveness was open to even the lowest level of society, and that He did not mind what a person had been as long as they genuinely turned to God from the heart, even though it offended the very religious.
This would also be noted by Luke’s Gentile readers. They too were to recognise that the way was open for them also.
It should be noted that the Pharisees would not necessarily have turned away a public servant who wanted to change his ways, any more than they would Gentiles. But they would have demanded deep humility, a period of penance, and his recognition that he began at a subservient level. The convert would have had to walk a hard and difficult path towards restoration. It would be many years before he could ‘redeem’ himself. But with Jesus it was different. Levi was not only to be accepted, but he was accepted immediately and was given the privilege of being a called disciple, sharing equally with the other disciples.
‘He beheld.’ Not a chance sighting, but a deliberate act of seeing. He had come there to find him.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Call of Levi. Jesus Is The Great Physician Who Can Heal The Outcast (5:27-32).
A narrative revealing that He had come to forgive sins is now followed by a passage revealing that he has come to call sinners to that forgiveness. Indeed He was going to shock the Pharisees and scribes even more by calling a hated outcast to follow Him. This man was a tax collector, a customs officer, and every eyebrow in Galilee would be raised when he was called. They did not know that he would go on to write a Gospel.
Levi was a man who served the hated ruler Herod Antipas as a local official collecting tolls on his behalf from those who passed along that route, probably the trade route from Damascus. For Capernaum was basically a frontier town between the territory of Herod and that of Philip. Such people were despised. They were considered to be betrayers of the people, for they were dishonest and lined their pockets by mean of extra ‘taxes’ at everyone’s expense. And with their constant contact with Gentiles they were seen as continually ritually unclean. They were seen on the whole as very unpleasant and irreligious people who were seen as traitors by all decent people.
The resulting criticism would then lad on to Jesus revealing that He was come as the Great Physician, the One sent by God to heal the wounds of His people, and to aid specially the hurt of soul. He was answering the call of God, ‘is there no physician there?’ (Jer 8:22). There the heart of God is revealed as breaking because of the sickness of His people, because the Lord was not in Zion, because her King was not in her (Jer 8:19), and His people had missed their opportunity. Elsewhere in the Old Testament God is revealed as the Great Physician, for it was to Him that the Psalmist said, “I said, Oh Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul for I have sinned against you” (Psa 41:4). While Isaiah tells us that He is the God Who is the healer of those with a humble and contrite spirit (Isa 57:15-19). And that is precisely what Jesus was intending to do here, to heal the souls of those who were repentant and who sought God. He was here on earth doing God’s healing work for sinners. He was here to set God’s king in Zion (compare Psa 2:6-8). Thus once again He reveals Himself as acting in God’s name, on God’s behalf, doing God’s work, in a way that was connected with His Sonship.
He could thus say, “I have come (as a doctor) not to call the righteous, but sinners” and thus align Himself with God as the Great Physician. He saw in these people those who said, “Come and let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us and He will heal us. He has smitten and He will bind us up” (Hos 6:1). (Notice that Hos 6:2 may well be behind His claim that He would be raised on the third day and Luk 6:6 is quoted by Him against the Pharisees in Mat 9:13. This was clearly a passage He knew well and applied to His ministry, which may suggest He had it in mind here).
We may analyse this passage as follows:
a And after these things he went forth, and beheld a public servant, named Levi, sitting at the tollbooth, and said to him, “Follow me” (Luk 5:27).
b And he forsook all, and rose up and followed him (Luk 5:28).
c And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a great crowd of public servants and of others who were sitting at meat with them (Luk 5:29).
d And the Pharisees and their scribes murmured against his disciples (Luk 5:30 a).
c Saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the public servants and sinners?” (Luk 5:30 b).
b And Jesus answering said to them, “Those who are in health have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Luk 5:31).
a “I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luk 5:32)
Note that in ‘a’ Levi, the outcast, is called to follow Jesus and in the parallel Jesus has come to call sinners to repentance. In ‘b’ Levi leaves all and follows Him, and in the parallel Jesus is the physician for the ailing. In ‘c’ public servants and ‘others’ gather for a meal and in the parallel the questions is why the disciples eat with public servants and sinners. Central in ‘d’ is the antagonism of the Pharisees and scribes.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Calling of Levi and Questions on Fasting ( Mat 9:9-17 , Mar 2:13-22 ) In Luk 5:27-39 we have the story of Jesus calling Levi as His disciple. This account places emphasis upon forsaking Jewish traditions, while the calling of Peter, Andrew, James and John placed emphasis upon the disciples forsaking their own sinful ways.
The Parable of the Garments and the Wine Bottles In Luk 5:36-39 Jesus tells the people the Parable about the Garments and the Wine Bottles. Jesus is saying that the new (the Kingdom of God) is entering in and that the old (the Old Covenant) is perishing. Likewise, in the natural realm of life, such as food and clothing, you cannot mix the old and the new. One or the other has to be set aside. In Luk 5:36-38 Jesus uses a natural illustration to explain how the old had to give way to the new. You cannot mix mourning (Mat 9:15) with feasting. The old covenant must be done away with in order to institute the new covenant.
Mat 9:15, “And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.”
Luk 5:30 Comments – The scribes and Pharisees made two false accusations against Jesus because they found him eating with the publicans and sinners. The believed that it was wrong to eat with sinners (verse 30) and to neglect the practice of fasting (verse 33). They saw Jesus guilty on both accounts.
We see in Luk 6:7 that the scribes and Pharisees were searching for accusations against Him.
Luk 6:7, “And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him.”
Luk 5:37 Comments – The bottles that Jesus mentioned to illustrate the story of wine and bottles were made of animal skins. The older they were, the more stiff them became, and less stretchable. If new wine was poured into old wineskins, the fermentation process, which is not complete, would produce gases and burst the old, stiff wineskins. Today, manufacturer in the wine industry add sulfites to the wine in order to kill the yeast and stop the fermentation process. In ancient times, wine must have continued fermenting until it was consumed.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Testimony of Jesus’ Authority over Jewish Customs (The Mental Realm) In Luk 5:27 to Luk 6:11 the author gives us three testimonies of Jesus’ authority over Jewish customs. When Jesus calls Levi, He also answers the questions of the scribes and Pharisees about their traditions of avoiding fellowship with publicans and sinners (Luk 5:27-29). Jesus then plucks grain on the Sabbath contrary to their tradition in order to demonstrate that He is Lord of the Sabbath (Luk 6:1-5). This story is followed by Him healing in the synagogue on the Sabbath, which angered the scribes and Pharisees because it again conflicted with their traditions (Luk 6:6-11).
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Calling Disciples from their Traditions Luk 5:27-39
2. Authority over the Sabbath Luk 6:1-5
3. Authority over the Sabbath Luk 6:6-11
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Call of Levi and the Discourse Concerning Christ’s Ministry. Luk 5:27-39
The call and the feast of Levi:
v. 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.
v. 28. And he left all, rose up, and followed Him.
v. 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.
v. 30. But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against His disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?
v. 31. And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
v. 32. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. After the healing of the paralytic Jesus left the house and went out to the seashore. On His way, which probably led along the great caravan road toward Damascus, He passed by the booth of a publican, a tax-collector or customs-inspector, by the name of Levi. Not by accident, but by design and with full intention, did the eyes of Jesus rest upon the man busy with his reports and the other business of his calling. See Mat 9:9. Levi had very probably heard of Jesus, since the city was full of the talk concerning Him, had even attended some of His discourses in the neighborhood of Capernaum. Jesus spoke only a short sentence in the form of a command: Follow Me! This word decided the fate of Levi. He left everything behind, he turned his back upon his entire former life with all its associations, and followed Jesus. In the thankfulness of his heart Levi now made a feast for the Lord. It was a great feast, and he had it prepared in his own house. The guests, outside of Jesus and His disciples, were Levi’s former companions, a multitude of publicans and others, the majority such as were regarded with anything but favor by the proud and self-righteous Pharisees; they were mostly such as had been put out of the synagogue, with whom the average strict Jew would have no dealings. But here they were at the feast, reclining on the sofas about the tables. And many of them may have even then known and loved the Savior of sinners, being thankful to Levi for giving them the chance to see and hear more of the Lord. The fact that Jesus accepted an invitation into such a mixed assembly again offended the scribes and Pharisees of the Jews. The contrast between the teachings and methods of Jesus and those of the Jewish Church leaders was becoming more and more evident. The latter expressed their disapproval of the whole affair in no uncertain terms by remarking to the disciples of Jesus, probably with the intention of alienating them from the Master: For what reason do you eat with the publicans and sinners? The point of the question was directed against Jesus, for His disciples would hardly have gone to the feast without Him. They want Him to feel that they resented His disregard of their customs. But Jesus answered for His disciples, by stating in the form of a proverb that the healthy people had no need of a physician, but those that are in a bad way, that are sick. And He explains the proverb for their benefit: Not am I come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. Mark: Jesus calls Himself a physician of the soul; He represents sin as a disease of the soul; He states that He is come to cure men of this disease; He implies that those that did not feel their sickness, but believed themselves to be well and healthy, had no need of His services on account of that foolish opinion. Those that cared nothing for a Savior of sinners, He calls righteous or healthy; not as though they were exceptions in a world of lost and condemned sinners, for whose salvation He had come into the world, but because they felt no need of His services, because they did not know that they were wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, Rev 3:17; Joh 9:41. Only he that acknowledges and knows his sinfulness, that realizes, as Luther says, that he belongs into hell with skin and hair, with body and soul, only he has part in this Savior. If we accept this fact with meek hearts and rely upon it as sacred truth that God is merciful to us for Christ’s sake, then we can be delivered from the terrible disease of sin.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Luk 5:27. A publican named Levi, There were at this time in the Roman empire two sorts of people, who might be called publicans, ( .) First, such as farmed the taxes of whole provinces. These generally were Roman knights, men of very honourable characters, as we learn from the commendations which Cicero gives of them. It was this sort of tax-gatherers, who were properly termed publicans by the Romans; but it does not appear that they are ever mentioned in the Gospels. These did not levy the taxes in person, but they employed their freed-men and slaves in that office; and to make out the number, gave them for assistants as many of the natives of the country as were necessary. This sort of men were likewise called publicans, ( ) being as it were under-farmers of the taxes; but in Latin their proper name was portitores. Their employment was attended with great temptations; for the taxes being farmed for a sum, in levying them from individuals they had it in their power to exact more than was due. Farther, in every country the raising of taxes for a foreign power being an odious business, not many of the natives would choose to be employed in it, except such as were of the lower station and character. In the execution therefore of thisoffice, these men did not fail to push matters to the utmost, levying the taxes with rigour, and enriching themselves with the spoils of the people. Hence this class of publicans, in all countries, became the objects of universal hatred. In Judea especially they were particularly infamous, because the paying of taxes to heathens was by many looked upon as little better than apostacy from their religion. Thesecircumstances,togetherwiththeinjusticewhich the publicans usually committed in the execution of their office, occasioned them always to be ranked with sinners, and made those who valued their own reputation shun their company. But though the publicans in general were bad men, there were among them some of a different character. Zaccheus was most probably a person of great probity and charity, even before his conversion; and Matthew (here called Levi) may have resembled him; at least in the Gospels there are no hints to be found of any unjust practices committed by him in the execution of his office. It is generally thought, that the taxes he levied were those imposed upon commodities transported by the sea of Galilee to and from Capernaum.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Luk 5:27-39 . See on Mat 9:9-17 ; Mar 2:13-22 .
] out of the house, Luk 5:19 .
] He looked at him observingly.
Luk 5:28 . The order of events is: after he had forsaken all, he rose up and followed Him. The imperfect (see the critical remarks) is used for the sake of vividness. , as in Luk 5:11 , refers to the whole previous occupation and position in life. Bengel well adds: “quo ipso tamen non desiit domus esse sua,” Luk 5:29 .
Luk 5:29 . ] et aderat , as in Luk 5:17 .
Luk 5:30 . ] of the dwellers in the town .
] an antagonistic direction.
Luk 5:33 . ] As to this variation from Matthew and Mark, see on Mat 9:17 , Remark. On the association of fasting and making prayers , comp. Luk 2:37 , and on , 1Ti 2:1 .
. . ] the same thing as in the parallels, but more strongly expressed. In accordance with the deletion of (see the critical remarks), there remains no question , but an affirmative reflection .
Luk 5:34 . . . .] ye cannot , etc., brings out the inappropriateness of that reflection in a more concrete form than in Matthew and Mark.
Luk 5:35 . ] might be taken explicatively ( and indeed ) (Bornemann, Bleek). But it is more in keeping with the profound emotion of the discourse to take . . . by itself as a thought broken off, and in the sense of: and: But days shall come (and not tarry) and when shall be taken away , etc.
. .] a painful solemnity of expression, whereby the emphasis is laid upon . Comp. on Mar 2:20 .
Luk 5:36 . . ] i.e. a patch cut off from a new garment. By the use of the incongruity of the proceeding comes still more strongly into prominence than by , which is used in Matthew and Mark. An unintentional modification of the tradition not an alteration proceeding from the Paulinism of the writer, and directed against the syncretism of the Jewish Christians, as Kstlin, p. 174, ingeniously maintains. Even Lange explains the expression by supposing that there floated already before the mind of the Pauline Luke a clearer vision of the Christian community as distinct from Judaism ( L. J. III. p. 395).
. . .] comprises the twofold mischief which will ensue ( future , see the critical remarks) if one does not obey that principle taken from experience; He will not only cut the new (garment) in twain (in taking off the piece), but, moreover, the (piece) of the new (garment) will not be in keeping with the old (garment). Comp. Kypke, Paulus, de Wette, Bleek, Schegg, even as early as Erasmus. On , comp. Joh 19:24 ; Isa 37:1 . But usually is explained as the subject, and either is taken intransitively (“ scindet se a veteri,” Bengel), or is regarded as its object: the new piece will rend asunder the old garment (comp. Kuinoel). Incorrectly; since this supplying of the object is not required by the context, but is obtruded for the sake of the harmony with Mat 9:16 , Mar 2:21 , and (it is not ) clearly shows that even to we are to understand only , not ; and, moreover, would be altogether superfluous and clumsy.
Luk 5:39 . Peculiar to Luke; but it is as little to be explained as resulting from later reflection on the difficulty of the mission to the Jews (Weizscker), as is the emphasis laid upon the incompatibility of the two, Luk 5:36 . As Jesus in Luk 5:36-38 made it manifest how unsuitable and injurious it would be to bind up the essence and the life of the new theocracy with the forms and institutions of the old, so now at Luk 5:39 he once more, by means of a parabolic expression, makes it intelligible how natural it is that the disciples of John and of the Pharisees should not be able to consent to the giving up of the OLD forms and institutions which had become dear to them, and to the exchanging of them for the NEW life in accordance with ITS fundamental principles . He says that this should be as little expected as that any one when he has drunk old wine should long for new, since he finds that the old is better. So in substance Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, Erasmus, Clarius, Zeger, Calovius, Wolf, Bengel, Paulus, Olshausen, Lange, and others; [94] and rightly, since even in Luk 5:37 f. the contrast of the old and new wine typified the contrasted old and new theocratic life. Hence we are neither, with Wetstein, to suppose the meaning reversed: “Pharisaeorum austeritas comparator vino novo, Christi lenitas vino veteri;” nor, with Grotius (comp. Estius and Clericus), to interpret: “Homines non subito ad austeriorem vitam pertrahendos, sed per gradus quosdam assuefaciendos esse” (Jesus, in truth, had no wish to accustom them to an “austeriorem vitam!”); nor, with Schegg, to substitute the meaning: “that not till the old wine is expended (in reference to Luk 5:35 ) is the new drunk (which refers to fasts, etc., as a remedy for their being deprived of the presence of Christ).” But by the objection that the old wine is actually better ( Sir 9:10 , and see Wolf and Wetstein) the parable is unduly pressed (in opposition to de Wette and others), since in Luk 5:37-39 the point of comparison is not the quality of the wine in itself, but the relation of the old and the new . Outside the point of comparison, every parable is apt to be at fault. Moreover, denotes the agreeable delicious taste . Comp. Plut. Mor . p. 240 D, 1073 A. The new has, as it were, no taste if the old has been found agreeable. But irony is as little to be found in Luk 5:39 as in Luk 5:37 f., and the gentle exculpatory character of the discourse, Luk 5:39 (which must in no wise be taken to mean full approval, in opposition to Hilgenfeld in the Theol. Jahrb . 1853, p. 215), is perfectly explained from the fact that, according to Mat 9:14 , it is to be supposed that this conversation about fasting did not originally take place with the Pharisees, but with the disciples of John. See on Matthew. Comp. also Volkmar, Evang. Marcions , p. 219 ff. If in the two parables it were desired to abide by the general thought of unsuitableness (as it would be unsuitable to pour new wine into old skins, and after old wine immediately to drink new; so also it would be unsuitable if my disciples desired to bind themselves to the old institutions), the figure of Luk 5:39 would be very much out of harmony with the appropriate figure in Luk 5:38 , and the unsuitable matter would at Luk 5:39 be represented in direct contradiction to fact (in opposition to de Wette); apart from this, moreover, that (not ) applies the saying subjectively . According to Kuinoel and Bleek, Jesus spoke the words in Luk 5:39 at another time. But it is in keeping with the connection, and is certainly taken from the Logia .
[94] Baur, Markusevang . p. 202 (comp. Zeller, Apost . p. 15; Hilgenfeld, Krit. Unters . p. 403, and in the Theol. Jahrb . 1853, p. 200 f.), regards ver. 39, which is wanting in D and codd. of It., as an anti-heretical addition. But the omission is explained simply from the apparent incongruity of the sense, and from the lack of any expression of the kind in the parallel passages, although Lachmann also ( Praef . p. xxxvi.), but from purely critical hesitation, was doubtful about the genuineness of the verse.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
b. The Son Of Man, The Friend Of Bublicans (Luk 5:27-39)
(Parallels: Mat 9:9-17; Mar 2:13-22)
27And after these things he went forth, and saw [noticed, ] a publican [tax-gatherer] 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. 29And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans [tax-gatherers] and of 30others that sat down [were reclining at table] with them. But their7 scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?8 31And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a32[the] physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinnersto repentance. 33And they said unto him, Why do [om., Why do9] the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink? 34And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber 35fast, while the bridegroom is with them? But the [om., the] days will come, when10 the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. 36And 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,11 and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old. 37And no man putteth new wine into old bottles [skins]; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and thebottles [skins] shall [will] perish. 38But new wine must be put into new bottles [skins];and both are preserved.12 39No man also having drunk old wine straightway13 desireth new; for he saith, The old is better [good14].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Luk 5:27. Named Levi.It is superfluous to give here a detailed proof of the identity of Levi and Matthew. Comp. Lange, Introduction to Matthew, 2, and Herzogs Real-Encykl. in voce. We also assume that our first Evangelist was originally called Levi, but that later, as Simon was named by the Lord, Peter, received from Him the new name of Matthew. If now this was sufficiently known by tradition to the Christians among whom the second and third Gospels first came in use, there was then no longer need that Mark and Luke should instruct them particularly any further in respect to the identity of the person distinguished by the two names. The new name Gods gift, is certainly doubly fitting in the mouth of the Lord, who in all of His disciples recognized those given by His heavenly Father and now remarked with joy Matthews willingness to follow Him.
Follow Me.Nothing hinders us from believing that Matthew had already belonged, for a shorter or longer time, to the most attentive hearers of the Saviour. But now he is called to accompany Him continually as an apostle, and to leave all for His sake; comp. Luk 5:11. The feast which, however, he yet prepares before going, assumes thereby the character of a farewell meal, but serves also at the same time as a testimony of the prompt and thankful temper with which the former publican entered upon his new vocation.
Luk 5:29. A great feast in his own house.Matthew says in general, , without speaking expressly of the size of the company or of the honor bestowed on his dwelling. Even in that which he passes over, there reveals itself the humility of the newly-called apostle.
Luk 5:30. Their scribes and Pharisees.Luke does not by any means say that these men were among the company at table, for they would then undoubtedly, according to their own opinion, have defiled themselves. We must, on the other hand, conceive the matter thus: that, where Jesus abode, access was forbidden to no one, and that this feast so far bore in some measure a public character. The desire of His enemies to observe the Saviour was doubtless stronger than their disinclination to enter the house of a publican, with whom, moreover, in daily life, they necessarily came from time to time in contact. Matthew, on the other hand, was so little disposed to forbid them that, on the contrary, he now with so much the greater joy admitted those as witnesses of the honor unexpectedly fallen to his lot, who once so deeply despised his station.
Murmured against His disciples.It is noticeable that they had not ventured to address their fault-finding directly to the Saviour Himself. The defeat suffered by them shortly before at the healing of the paralytic had probably deterred them from coming too frequently in contact with Himself. Perhaps also they addressed the disciples in order to frighten back others from attaching themselves, like Matthew, to such a Lord, who makes no scruple of bringing them into such bad company.
Why do ye eat and drink?According to Matthew and Mark, the question is asked more with their eye upon the Master, with whom the disciples meanwhile were also eating and drinking. See Bengel.: , plurale, sed Jesum prcipue petebant, 5:83. The Saviour answers not merely to shame them and to maintain His own cause, but also especially in order to come to the help of His perplexed disciples, who are not yet in a condition suitably to defend themselves and Him.
Luk 5:31. They that are whole.The sententious form of this utterance might half incline us to suppose that we have here before us a proverb from daily life. Certainly it afterwards became such. The sentence has an entirely ironical character, and the here designated whole are no others than the ninety-nine righteous who need no conversion, Luk 15:1.There is also a holy mockery. See Pro 1:26; Psa 2:4.It is noticeable how the Saviour here speaks not only of a Physician, but of the Physician, and, therefore, very emphatically, though indirectly, proclaims Himself the Physician of souls. According to Mat 9:13, He on this occasion cites also the prophetical proverb, Hos 6:6.
Luk 5:32. To call to repentance.The words are, according to the best reading, only found in Luke. The absolute in Matthew and Mark has, however, no other sense. Repentance is for the just-named sick, the restoration of the health of the soul.
Luk 5:33. And they said unto Him, The disciples of John.According to the more exact account of Matthew and Mark, the disciples of John themselves come, in union with the Pharisees, to the Saviour with this objection. Perhaps the Pharisees had incited the disciples of John in this matter to make common cause with them. The antithesis: Jesus at the Feast and John in Prison could not fail yet more to put them out of humor. They avow their surprise without reserve, and the answer received by them perchance embittered them not a little, and may very well have contributed to their giving their master a report through which his singular question and message to the Messiah was hastened, Luk 7:19. If we find them here united with the Pharisees, we must not forget that these latter on this occasion had not yet appeared as blood-thirsty enemies of the Saviour, but only as crafty liers in wait, perhaps under the guise of interest in the cause of the Saviour. In ascetic rigorism they had with the disciples of John several points of contact. Moreover, momentary coming together is not of itself any actual league of two hostile powers, as we see with the Pharisees and Sadducees towards the end of the public life of Jesus. The Pharisees must have been the more eager to join with the disciples of John, as it must have filled them with great joy if they could bring into public discussion a difference of principles between Jesus and the John who was so highly honored among the people, and, therefore, indirectly oppose the Saviour. Who knows whether this very feast in Levis house may not have taken place on one of their weekly fast-days? Luk 18:12.
.Luke alone mentions this element of their question, which circumstance, however, does not warrant us to count it unhistorical. (De Wette.) Fasting and praying are often united as signs of a strict religious life. See Mat 17:21. John had instructed his disciples in the latter also, Luk 11:1. The fact that Jesus in His answer does not return to this point, may have occasioned Matthew and Mark to pass it over in silence.
Luk 5:34. Can ye make?An evident allusion to the last testimony of John the Baptist (Joh 3:29), given with a look at his murmuring disciples. He is the Bridegroom, the chief person of the Messianic feast: the time of His walk upon earth is, so long as it endures, a festival for His faithful disciples; yet this time hastens soon to an end.
Luk 5:35. But days will come.The Lord intimates a time as coming in which a much greater sorrow impends over His disciples than even that which had now smitten the sorrowing disciples of John. He was not only to be separated from them in body, not only to go away, but to be taken away. Not , said He, but , from , a word which, in the New Testament, is found only here, and is not unfittingly rendered by tear away. The Saviour certainly would not have used it, bad He foreseen nothing but a peaceful dying. Moreover, that He as yet speaks only figuratively and cursorily of His approaching decease, ought not to occasion us surprise, Joh 16:12.
Luk 5:36. No man putteth.The special fitness of a parable taken from wine and clothing just here, while He sat at the feast, strikes the eye of itself. Comp., as to the sense, Lange, Matthew, p. 171. Both express the incompatibility of a life in the spirit of the Old and of the New Testament at once. The interpretation, however (Neander), that the Saviour here would teach the great truth that the old sinful nature cannot by outward service of God be really amended, but only through the new birth, is, indeed, very pregnant, but is in conflict with the connection and purpose of this discourse, especially, moreover in conflict with the words with which the Saviour, according to Luke, concludes His address. No, both parables illustrate the incompatibility of the Old and the New, of the life under the law and that under grace, with the distinction, however, that in the former the new (the cloth) is represented as something added with the intent of mending the old; while, on the other hand, in the second the new (the wine) is more the principal thing, and comes into prominence in its peculiar force and working.
Luk 5:39. No man also having drunk old wineThis last sentence belongs to the communications peculiar to Luke, and there is, therefore, no ground for the assumption that the Saviour uttered it on an entirely different occasion (Kuinoel). It is evidently the intention of the Lord to intimate here that the scandal taken by the Pharisees and the disciples of John is intelligible, nay, that in a certain sense it may even be excusable. Accustomed to their old ideas, as to old wine, they can feel as little at home in His principles as any one, who has drunk his old wine with appetite, can at once long for the new. Was it a wonder that they judged so awry concerning His disciples? At the same time there is implied an indirect justification of the Baptist in this respect, that the latter had not dissuaded his disciples from strictness in fasting and praying. If he had done this, standing as he did in other things entirely upon the legal position, he would only have set a piece of new cloth upon an old garment. He had done (the Saviour intimates) quite as well in leaving everything on the old footing as Jesus would have done ill if He had restrained the free spirit of His teaching and of His disciples within the narrow forms of Judaism.
The old is good.So does it read literally: , while a few Codd. (B., L.) have the comparative, . It is, of course, understood that in the reading accepted by us also, it cannot be used absolutely, but of a relative and subjective goodness of the old wine as respects the taste of the drinker. The old remains good only so long as one is not accustomed to the new, which in and of itself is better.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The calling of Matthew does not only enlarge the circle of disciples with a new apostle, but permits us also to contemplate the image of the Divine Son of Man in a light in which Luke has not hitherto placed Him before our eyes, as the Friend of publicans and sinners. Such a point of view is wholly in the spirit of the third Gospel, which promulgates to us the Pauline doctrine of justification by free grace in the Saviours own words and deeds. But at the same time this whole narrative is a gospel in miniature; and exhibiting Jesus, as it does, sitting at table in the midst of publicans and sinners, it offers one of the most beautiful symbols of the whole purpose of His coming.
2. Scarcely does the gospel of grace begin to come in its most lovely form into manifestation, when the scandal taken by those who remain standing in a legal position comes also to view in its full strength. The kingdom of God no sooner comes to the spiritually poor, than the rich, who are left empty, are inflamed with intense anger. The Saviour suffers this displeasure to manifest itself, since the revelation of it prepares the surest way for its annihilation.
3. He who exhibits Himself here as the Physician of the sick, makes Himself known also as the heavenly Bridegroom. Here, too, is a point in which the Christology of the fourth Gospel concurs with that of the Synoptics. Comp. Joh 3:29 with Mat 9:15; Mat 22:2. Through this figurative speech beams a cheerfulness with which the deep melancholy of the words immediately following contrasts the more strikingly. The thought of death accompanies the Saviour even to the social meal; and in the as yet weak manifestations of the hatred of His enemies, He sees a presage of all that is afterwards to come to pass. The mysterious intimations of the fourth Gospe. (Joh 2:19; Joh 4:37-38) being excepted, we find here the first, as yet covert intimations of the bloody death which is, before they expect, to sever Him from His disciples. It is noticeable how even in this prophecy of His death a regular climax from a less to a more definite, from a figurative to a literal, statement takes place. Yet we shall soon find occasion to come back more particularly to this.
4. The Saviour gives here an important instruction in reference to fasting. When the Romish Church derives from it the doctrine that He ordained fasts as an abiding usage after His death, this comes from the fact that she overlooks the full force of the promise, Mat 28:20; for is not the Bridegroom taken away in body simply for this purpose, that He may come again in the spirit and remain forever? Without doubt, there is also a Christian fasting (Act 13:2; 1Co 7:5), and the Protestant polemics against Rome, which almost represent the matter as if the Saviour had forbidden fasting and as if this abstinence was in no case to be commended, are not free from gross one-sidedness. There is a liberty for fasting as well as a liberty from fasting, and here also, the apostolic rule, Rom 14:5, holds good. On the other hand, however, we do not venture from the Lords words to conclude definitely that the Christian, in days of spiritual darkness and spiritual conflict, when he feels the presence of the Saviour little or not at all (Olshausen, Neander), is called to fast. Jesus does not say that in the days when they are not with the bridegroom they are to fast, but in the days when the bridegroom is not with them. Those days, however, since His glorification, have never returned. How literally, moreover, this prophecy was fulfilled with the first disciples of the Saviour, appears in Joh 16:20.
5. The whole parable of the wine and the bottles throws a clear light upon the distinction between the Old and the New Covenant. It shows how clearly the Saviour was conscious of infusing into mankind a wholly new life, with which the old forms of worship of God were not capable of being lastingly united. So powerful was the new spirit, that it must needs destroy and remove entirely the obsolete form; so peculiar, that every mixture with heterogeneous elements could only injure at once the new and the old. Therefore He could with such assurance commit to time that concerning which He knew that it would certainly come to pass. He could composedly leave those who with good intentions held fast to the old to entertain awhile the opinion that their wine was better than any other. Afterwards they would of themselves come to juster views.
6. The concluding words of the parable in Luke are at the same time the expression of one of the ground-thoughts which the Saviour in the training of His first disciples kept continually in view. He did not take from them the old wine at once, before they were in a condition to relish the new. He began with giving milk, and not at once the strong meat, comp. 1Co 3:2. Thus does He stand before us, on the one hand, as infinitely more than Moses and ready to break the yoke of the law, on the other hand, as meeker than Moses and concerned not to quench the smoking wick. A wholesome doctrine does this whole passage contain, on the one hand, for those who would weaken the quickening power of the gospel by the imposition of legal fetters, and, on the other hand, for those who wish to lead the weak brother at once to the highest position of faith and freedom, without allowing the leaven time for gradual development. On the whole, we may perhaps say that Romans 14 contains the best practical commentary on this word of the Lord. Never were the suaviter in modo and the fortiter in re more harmoniously united than here. Comp. the development of this doctrine in Langes Leben Jesu, p. 679.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The calling of Matthew the striking image of the vocation to a Christian life: 1. The grace glorified in Matthew , 2. the career appointed for Matthew , 3. the sacrifices required of Matthew , 4. the compensation provided for Matthew , 5. the blessing arising from Matthew , 6. the throne of honor ascended by Matthew (Mat 19:28).The distinction between Levi and Matthew the image of the distinction between the Old and the new man. The old man in servitude, the new free, &c.Follow me! 1. A command of resurrection for the spiritually dead; 2. a word of life for the newly awakened.Only he who leaves all is on the way to win the highest.The feast of farewell to the world the feast of communion with the Lord.Whoever will follow Jesus must not do it sighingly.Jesus sitting in the midst of publicans: 1. There is His place, 2. there shines His glory, 3. there resounds His voice of peace.The Wherefore of the natural man in opposition to the words and deeds of the Lord: 1. Its partial right, 2. its actual wrong.The distinction in principle between the ascetic disciple of John and the free disciple of Christ.So many who are called Christs disciples and yet essentially are still nothing but Johns disciples.Whoever becomes only a disciple of John, without passing over into the school of Christ, ends with subjection under the Pharisaical spirit.Jesus the vindicator of His disciples who are wrongly attacked for His own sake.The well need not a physician, but the sick: 1. A perpetual rule: a. the well are nothing for the physician, b. the physician cannot be anything for the well; 2. a powerfully arousing voice: a. to the well, that they may become sick in their own eyes, b. to the sick that they may become well.For whom Christ: a. is not, for whom He b. is certainly come.The distinction between fasting and prayer on the legal and on the evangelical position.The fast which God chooses, Isaiah 58.The alternation of the time of mourning and the time of feasting in the life of the disciples of the Lord. 1. Even the time of feasting is followed by the time of mourning; 2. the time of mourning is something transient; 3. the time of rejoicing is abiding.The conflict between the old and the new in the spiritual sphere: 1. The ground, 2. the requirements, 3. the end of the conflict.The kingdom of God like to a new strongly-working wine.The endeavor in the spiritual sphere to unite the incompatible: 1. Often made, 2. never successful, 3. in the end ruinous.The new spirit aroused by Christ is: 1. Mighty enough to break to pieces all old forms, and also 2. actually destined thereto.The demeanor of the disciple of Christ towards the old and the new: 1. No mechanical adherence to the old, 2. no premature urging of the new, but 3. a gradual transition, by which the friend of the old is made receptive for the new.The spirit of the Saviour equally far removed from absolute conservatism and from radical liberalism.New wine must go into new bottles: 1. So was it in the time of the Saviour, 2. so was it again at the time of the Reformation, 3. so does it remain forever.
Starke:God has in the calling of men His own time and way.Nova Bibl. Tub.:The order of conversion: 1. Jesus beholds the sinner in grace, 2. He calls him by His word, 3. faith follows without delay, 4. and love shows itself active and busy.The church of God here on earth is a lazaretto and hospital.Bibl. Wirt.:The old bottles and rags of papistical ordinances fit themselves in no way to the doctrine of the Holy Gospel, therefore no Christians heart should cleave to the same.Quesnel:We must not teach the souls of the unconverted everything good that we know, but feed them with the truth according as their necessities and the capacity of their spiritual appetite demands.In religion also, every age needs its own food, 1Jn 2:13-14.
Luther to Staupitz (on Luk 5:34-35):I let it content me, that I find in my Lord Jesus Christ a sweet Redeemer and a faithful High-priest; Him will I extol and praise so long as I live. But if any one will not sing to Him and thank Him with me, what matters that to me? If it likes him, let him howl by himself alone.
Heubner:Matthew won is himself in turn to win others. So should we!Syncretism (as they were of old wont to call the mixture of entirely heterogeneous doctrines and institutes distinct in their spirit, after the law which existed in Crete of forgetting all domestic strife when war broke out) endures not long.Lisco:The foolishness of making half-work with Christianity.Zimmermann:How with the Christian the old must be wholly overcome by the new: 1. The old unbelief and error by the new faith; 2. the old death by the new life; 3. the old habit by the new hunger and thirst.Arndt:All that is old must become new, and then all that is within must be expressed without.How Jesus out of a publican makes an apostle: 1. The history (Luk 5:27), 2. the justification of this calling (Luk 5:28-32).The Saviours instructions concerning fasting.F. W. Krummacher:Wherefore came Christ?
Hamann:Christianity does not aim at patching up all our understanding, will, and all our other powers and necessities even to the potsherds of our treasure, and the main matter does not rest upon any religious theories and hypotheses, else the promise to make all new (2Co 5:17; Rev 21:5), were not then a baptism of Spirit and fire with new tongues.
Footnotes:
[7]Luk 5:30.Rec. om. .
[8]Luk 5:30.The last words, , are omitted by Tischendorf on the authority of D., but, as it still appears to us, without preponderating reasons.
[9]Luk 5:33.The interrogative form of the Rec.: , …, seems borrowed from the parellel passage in Mark. According to the most correct reading in Luke we have not a direct question, but an affirmative objection [Cod. Sin. inserts .C. C. S.].
[10]Luk 5:35.Rec.: . The is found in A., B., D., R., omitted by C., F., L., M., Sin. Retained by Tischendorf, Meyer, Alford, and Tregelles. Put in brackets by Lachmann. The difficulty of giving an exact sense to it, favors its originality. Meyer says: It might be taken as explicative. But it is more congruous with the sorrowful tone of the discourse to take , &c., by itself as an interrupted thought, and as and: But there will come (not be always absent) (namely, when that will be found, which you now miss), and when the bridegroom shall be taken away, &c.C. C. S.]
[11]Luk 5:36.The latter part of this verse is peculiar, and is to be thus understood: if he does, he will both rend the new garment (by taking out of it the ), and the piece from the new garment will not agree with the old. The common interpretation (which makes the nom. to , and understands as its accus.) is inconsistent with the construction, in which is to be coupled with , not with . In Matthew and Mark the mischief done is differently expressed. Our text is very significant, and represents to us the spoiling of both systems by an attempt to engraft the new upon the old: the new loses its completeness, the old, its consistency. Alford.C. C. S.]
[12]Luk 5:38.The clause in the Rec., , is omitted by Tischendorf, principally on the authority of B., L.; apparently these words are borrowed from Mat 9:17, and, therefore, justly declared by Griesbach to be at least doubtful. [Omitted by Sin., which, however, differs from B. in having instead of .C. C. S.]
[13]Luk 5:39.Whether the word actually stood in the original Greek text may well be doubted, but even regarded as interpretamentum, it is certainly entirely in the spirit of the Saviours words.
[14]Luk 5:39.Rec.: with A., C., R., , B., L., Sin. The sentence seems to have been tampered with by some who wished to make it more obvious, and to bring out the comparison more strongly: being inserted, better to correspond with the fact, and the matter in question, and the comparative substituted for the positive; but the sentence loses much of its point and vigor by the change: the old wine is not better than the new (which has not been tasted), but merely good, i.e., good enough, therefore no new is desired. Alford.C. C. S.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 1491
THE CALL OF MATTHEW
Luk 5:27-29. 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. And he left all, rose up, and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his own house.
IF we notice particularly who they are whom God has more especially selected as objects of his grace and mercy, we shall be struck with this plain and obvious truth, that Gods thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor his ways as our ways. Had it been left to man to dispense the blessings of salvation, he would have imparted them to those whose previous qualifications and endowments seemed to have marked them out for this high distinction. But God has rather sought, by the preference which he has shewn, to magnify his own grace and mercy.
The person here chosen to the apostleship was a publican. Now the publicans were characters universally hated by the Jewish nation, because, as tax-gatherers, they aided the Roman government, by whom they were appointed, and whose interests they served. The persons who executed this office, knowing that, independently of their own character, they were hated and despised by their brethren, were intent only on advancing their own interests, and were guilty of exacting in many cases more than they were authorized to require; and thus by their oppressive conduct they rendered the office, and all who held it, objects of unqualified reprobation. Yet of these persons did God select many, in preference to the Scribes and Pharisees, to participate the benefits of the Redeemers kingdom; as our blessed Lord himself says, The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you [Note: Mat 21:31.]. The person whom our text mentions as executing that office, is here called Levi: but in his own account which he gives of himself, he calls himself by the name of Matthew [Note: Mat 9:9.]. Of his conversion we are informed in the words before us. He was sitting at the receipt of custom, in the regular discharge of his duty, and, without any previous intimation or instruction, was called by our blessed Lord to a constant attendance upon him, as one of his Disciples. This event will be found deeply interesting to us all, whilst we consider,
I.
His unexpected call
In this there was doubtless somewhat peculiar. He was called to an office which was limited to twelve, and which now no longer exists. But still, excepting that peculiarity,
1.
The same call is given to every one of us
[To us the Gospel speaks in the same authoritative tone as that in which Jesus addressed this busy publican: and in it the Lord Jesus Christ himself says to every one of us, Follow me. Believe in me as the true Messiah: receive me as sent of God to be the Saviour of your soul: give yourself up to me as your Lord and Master: obey my commandments, and tread in my steps. Let no present considerations operate to retard your compliance with my will: come, leave all, and follow me. In all this there is nothing peculiar: it is the duty of every living man: the command is issued equally to all: If any man will be my Disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me ]
2.
Wherever it is effectual, it is equally the gift of sovereign grace
[To Matthew, the call came unexpected and unsought: and so it does in reality wherever it takes effect. The precise time of its operation may not, in all cases, be so distinctly seen, nor its power so deeply felt; but in all cases must its efficacy be traced to God, who, of his own good pleasure, dispenses his gifts to whomsoever he will. There may in some cases be a long season of gradual illumination, even as the early dawn, whose transition from darkness to light is imperceptibly progressive: but still, if we trace it to the first thought and first desire originating in the soul, we must without hesitation ascribe it altogether to God, who gives both to will and to do of his good pleasure [Note: Php 2:13.] Of all true converts it must be said, Ye have not chosen me; but I have chosen you [Note: Joh 15:16.]: You loved me, because I first loved you [Note: 1Jn 4:19.]: You did not know me, till after you were known of me [Note: Gal 4:9.]; or apprehend me, till you had first been apprehended by me [Note: Php 3:12.]. In reference to you all it must in this sense be said, no less than of St. Matthew himself, I am found of them that sought me not; I am made manifest to them that asked not after me [Note: Isa 65:1.]. Whatever holy desires we feel, or good counsels we follow, or just works we perform, they all, as our Liturgy informs us, proceed from God; who, as our Tenth Article states it, by his grace in Christ Jesus prevents us, that we may have a good will, and worketh with us when we have that good will.]
That this call of Matthew may have its due effect upon us, let us consider,
II.
His exemplary obedience to it
As in the call itself, so in his obedience to it, there was somewhat peculiar. The office which he had held, he instantly resigned, (committing it no doubt to proper hands,) and became from that moment a stated attendant on our Lord. In this respect it is not necessary that we should follow him, unless the occupation in which we have been engaged be criminal. We are rather to abide in the calling in which we have been called: yea, therein to abide with God [Note: 1Co 7:20; 1Co 7:24.]. But in other respects our obedience must resemble his. It should be,
1.
Prompt
[There was in him no conferring with flesh and blood. Elisha, when Elijahs mantle was cast upon him [Note: 1Ki 19:19-21.], felt an irresistible attraction, and obeyed without hesitation or delay. So it should be with us. Does the Lord Jesus by his word and Spirit command us to follow him? We should not wait for a second call: we should so act, that we may be able to say with David, I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments [Note: Psa 119:60.]]
2.
Self-denying
[Lucrative as his situation was, Matthew resigned it without reluctance, determining that nothing should obstruct him in the path of his duty. And should not we also despise all earthly gains or prospects in comparison of Christ? Should we not be ready to shake them from us, as we would the thick clay from our feet when we were about to run a race [Note: Hab 2:6.]? Yes verily, we should be ready to leave all to follow Christ; and account not even life itself dear to us, if only we may honour him by the sacrifice of it [Note: Act 20:24. Php 1:20.] ]
3.
Grateful
[Immediately Matthew made a great feast for his divine Master, and invited to it a number of his former friends, who were still prosecuting the line which he had just relinquished. In this he sought to honour his Lord in the face of the whole world, and to advance the interests of His kingdom, by bringing others to the knowledge of him. This, under any circumstances, was a just expression of his gratitude for the mercy vouchsafed unto him. And it shews us how we also should use our influence, when once we have become followers of our blessed Lord. We should not only not be ashamed to confess him openly before men, but should exert ourselves to bring our friends and relatives to an acquaintance with him, that they also may be made monuments of his grace, and become partakers of the blessings which we enjoy. Our very feasts should now be ordered with that view, and be made conducive to that end. Nor should we make any account of either expense or trouble, if we may but testify in the smallest degree our love to Christ, or advance the ends for which he came into the world ]
4.
Determined
[We never read of his expressing a wish afterwards to return to his former employment, or of his regretting that he had made so great a sacrifice. Nor should we ever look back, after having once put our hand to the plough [Note: Luk 9:62.]. The patriarchs, who had left their country and their kindred at the call of God, had opportunities enough to return, if they had been so minded; but they looked forward to a heavenly country [Note: Heb 11:15-16.], and to their dying hour pursued their pilgrimage towards it with unabated ardour. And we also must go forward in a sweet and assured hope, that in the place of all that we resign or lose for Christ, we shall have a better and an enduring substance in heaven [Note: Heb 10:34.] ]
Reflect,
1.
How strongly does this example reprove the whole Christian world!
[We are all called as he was, and have been called ten thousand times, to serve and follow Christ. But on whom amongst us have the same effects been produced? Who has not had many excuses to offer for declining to accept the invitations of his Lord? I may even say, who, if his own friend or relative had acted as Matthew did, would not have been ready to cry out against him as a weak deluded enthusiast? But this call must be obeyed, if ever we would be acknowledged by our Lord as his obedient people. I do not say that we must actually renounce all our worldly interests for Christ; but this I say, that we must be ready to renounce them, if they interfere with our duty to him, or if by the surrender of them. we may more advance his glory in the world. On no other terms will he receive us: if we be not willing to lose father and mother, and houses and lands, yea, and our own lives also for his sake, we cannot be his disciples. O that his power might now go forth amongst you, as it did in the case before us; and that all your souls may be subdued to the obedience of faith!]
2.
How great is the benefit of obeying the Gospel call!
[Matthew in appearance was degraded and impoverished; but he was made an eminent servant of Christ, and a blessed instrument of diffusing the knowledge of him through the whole world. (Of all the Evangelists, not one marks so fully the Messiahship of Jesus, and the accomplishment of prophecy in him, as he.) And what is his condition now? Has he not far better treasures than ever he possessed on earth? Know ye then, that you also may appear to suffer loss by devoting yourselves to Christ; but if you have the honour of being his servants, his friends, his heirs; if he acknowledge you as members of his own body, yea, as his spouse, who shall participate all his glory, and have the everlasting fruition of his love; you have made a good exchange. Rejoice then in your high privileges; and be thankful to Him, by whose almighty power alone you have been made willing to accept them; and let your whole lives be henceforth consecrated, as Matthews was, to his service: so shall you in your place be his witnesses to all around you; and ere long be joined to that blessed society, where every loss shall be compensated with a proportionable weight of glory.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
(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.
We have this passage almost literally, Mat 9:9 , etc. I refer therefore to the observations which were then offered. The last verse indeed is an addition to the subject, and only made by Luke; but the sense and doctrine is the same. It should seem to have been a proverbial expression, and well understood in a wine country like that of Judea. But the spiritual sense of it, in application to our Lord’s discourse, appears to have been thus: No man having drunk into the spirit of the faith of the old disciples, the Patriarchs, and Prophets, concerning Christ, will desire to taste of any other. That which was from the beginning, and in which the fathers among the faithful all lived and died, is the old wine of God’s covenant love. And he which hath drank into this will drink of no other. Christ’s love is better than wine! Son 1:2 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
27 39. ] CALLING OF LEVI. QUESTION RESPECTING FASTING. Mat 9:9-17 . Mar 2:13-22 . For all common matter, the discussion of the identity of Matthew and Levi, &c. see notes on Matt. and Mark. I here only notice what is peculiar to Luke.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
27. ] ., not merely ‘ He saw ,’ but He looked on, He observed.
Luk 5:27-32 . Call of Levi (Mat 9:9-13 , Mar 2:13-17 ).
Luk 5:27 . , instead of . Hahn, appealing to Joh 1:14 ; Joh 4:35 ; Joh 11:45 , assigns to it the meaning, to look with interest, to let the eye rest on with complacency. But it is doubtful whether in later usage it meant more than to look in order to observe. If the view stated in Mt. on the so-called Matthew’s feast ( q.v. ) be correct, Jesus was on the outlook for a man to assist Him in the Capernaum mission to the publicans. , at “the tolbothe,” Wyclif. The tolls collected by Levi may have been either on highway traffic, or on the traffic across the lake. Mk.’s (Luk 5:14 ) coming after the reference to the sea (Luk 5:13 ) points to the latter.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Luk 5:27
27After that He went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me.” 28And he left everything behind, and got up and began to follow Him.
Luk 5:27 “a tax collector named Levi” We know from Mar 9:9 that he was also called “Matthew” (gift of YHWH). We also know from Mar 2:13 that he was “son of Alphaeus.” Apparently Jesus did not change his name, but he had one Jewish name and one Galilean name.
SPECIAL TOPIC: CHART OF APOSTLES’ NAMES
“tax booth” This occupation was a position purchased from both the Romans and the Herods and was open to great abuse. Obviously Levi collected Herodian and Roman taxes on the major road known as the Via Maris. He was completely ostracized by the local Jews from all religious and social events because of this. Luke chooses to record several events involving these social pariahs (cf. Luk 3:12-13; Luk 5:27-32; Luk 7:34; Luk 15:1-2; Luk 18:9-14; Luk 19:1-10). This was Luke’s way of assuring his Gentile readers that YHWH and His Christ would include them by faith also.
“‘Follow Me'” This is a present active imperative. The fact that Jesus would call a tax collector to follow Him was absolutely amazing to the people of Capernaum and even to the disciples. It was surely a symbol that the gospel was open to all people.
Luk 5:28 “And he left everything behind, and got up and began to follow Him” Apparently he had heard Jesus preach. He acted in the same way as James, John, and Peter (cf. Luk 5:11).
after. Greek meta. App-104.
saw = viewed with attention. Greek. theaomai. App-133.
publican = toll-collector, or tax-gatherer. See on Luk 3:12.
Levi. There can be no doubt about Levi and Matthew being different names for the same person (Mat 9:9. Mar 2:14). For similar changes, at epochs in life, compare Simon and Peter, Saul and Paul. Matthew is an abbreviation of Mattathias = Gift of God, and he is so called after this. “Sitting “shows he was a custom-house officer.
at. Greek. epi. App-104.
the receipt of custom = the toll office.
27-39.] CALLING OF LEVI. QUESTION RESPECTING FASTING. Mat 9:9-17. Mar 2:13-22. For all common matter,-the discussion of the identity of Matthew and Levi, &c.-see notes on Matt. and Mark. I here only notice what is peculiar to Luke.
Luk 5:27. , He beheld) with compassion.
Luk 5:27-32
Luk 5:27-32
27 And after these things he went forth,-Parallel records of this account are found in Mat 9:9-13 and Mar 2:13-17. This “publican,” or tax collector, here called Levi and by Mark “Levi, the son of Alphaeus,” is undoubtedly the man otherwise known as Matthew. The usual explanation of this diversity in name, not a discrepancy, is that he had two names, of which Levi was more used before his call, and Matthew after his call. He is the writer of the first book of the New Testament that bears his name. It is very probable that he had seen and heard Jesus before and was prepared to accept this call and to obey it. He was busy at the time Jesus called him. “Matthew” in Hebrew means “the gift of God”; “Levi” means “joined,” and was the name of the third son of Jacob by Leah. Two of the ancestors of Jesus as given by Luke bore this name. (Luk 3:24-29.) Matthew was “sitting at the place of toll” when Jesus came by and said: “Follow me.” The place of receiving custom may have been a regular customhouse or a temporary office.
28 And he forsook all,-Jesus had said: ‘Follow me.” He had addressed Philip, James and John, Peter and Andrew, and others in the same way. (Mat 4:19-21; Mat 9:9; Joh 1:43.) To follow Christ was then as now the highest calling that one could have. The promptness and obedience of Levi is to be noted. “He forsook all, and rose up and followed him.” Like Andrew and Peter (Joh 1:40-42), he left everything. We are not to understand by this that he left his office without making satisfactory arrangements with the proper authorities; he did not abruptly leave his office and the funds which he had collected without proper arrangements; this would have been unfair to the Roman government.
29 And Levi made him a great feast-A record of this feast is found also in Mat 9:10-17 and Mar 2:15-22. This feast gives rise to two conversations, one in regard to eating with publicans and sinners, and the other in regard to fasting. Some think that there was much time that intervened between Matthew’s call and this feast, while others would put the intervening time between the discourse about eating with publicans and sinners and that about fasting. It is not probable that the feast occurred on the day that Matthew was called, hut possibly soon after, and occasioned the discourse. It was proper for Matthew to give this feast as a kind of farewell meal to his business associates, and to show that he not only arranged and settled up matters, but that he still held property of his own. Matthew himself prepared and gave this reception and entertainment “in his house”; it is designated as a “great feast” because of its extensive preparation and abundant provision for a large company. Many publicans and others were present.
30 And the Pharisees and their scribes-This does not mean merely the Pharisees and scribes who belonged to Capernaum, but those who may have belonged to the sect or party of the Pharisees. They “murmured against his disciples”; with a spirit of cowardice, they did not go to Jesus, but to his disciples. We are not to suppose that the Pharisees were present at the feast, but since it was such a large feast, their attention was called to the fact that Jesus with his disciples sat down with publicans and sinners at the feast. Matthew and Mark both give the question as aimed at Jesus: “Why eateth your Teacher with the publicans and sinners?” The fault with him implied guilt with his disciples. Persons regarded as the basest and most depraved by the selfrighteous scribes and Pharisees were called “sinners.” That Jesus should call Matthew, a publican, to be a disciple, and then should attend a feast with publicans, was an occasion for the scribes and Pharisees to criticize him. At another time they said: “This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them” (Luk 15:2.)
31, 32 And Jesus answering said unto them,-Jesus had either overheard the question they had asked his disciples or his disciples had told him. (Mar 2:17.) Jesus here used a very familiar statement or proverb-“they that are in health have no need of a physician; but they that are sick.” His great mission as a physician was to heal the great disease of sin; if any were really righteous, as the Pharisees imagined they were, then they did not need his healing power; the fact that these publicans and sinners were admittedly vile and wicked in the estimation of the scribes and Pharisees was proof that they were very “sick” and needed a physician. This justified the conduct of Jesus and condemned the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus then added the purpose of his mission to earth: “I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
Feasting and Fasting
Luk 5:27-39
Matthew in his Gospel says nothing of this great feast; the Spirit of God saw that it should not be forgotten. When saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? Mat 25:37. Advertise yourself and God will leave you unnoticed. You will have had your reward. Be content to do things, as Jesus appointed, and Mat 6:4 will follow.
Let us not cling to the broken bottle-skins of the past, whether they be out-worn ceremonies, creeds or formulations of truth. Let the ferment of each great religious movement and new era express itself in its own way. We must not encourage the ill-judged speed of those who want to force the pace, and fling away the bottle-skins before they are done with. But if the bottle-skins have evidently served their purpose and lie discarded on the ground, that will not affect the vintage, which is reddening on the hills. Go and pick the fruit God is giving you, place it carefully in baskets and let it have new skins.
The Call And Response Of Matthew — Luk 5:27-39
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. And he left all, rose up, and followed Him. 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. But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against His disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. 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? And He said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. 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. 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. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better- Luk 5:27-39.
We have really three distinct narratives in these verses but they are all linked together; the last two spring out of the first. The Lord Jesus passing by the custom office saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and He said unto him, Follow Me. Levi is the author of the first Gospel in the New Testament and in that record uses his other name, Matthew. The author of this Gospel gives him his Hebrew name.
They use the word publican in Great Britain for one who keeps a tavern. In the Bible, it refers to a tax-collector, one who was enriching himself by oppressing his own people. Under the Roman Government in Palestine, the chief publican was generally a Jew who purchased the office from the Government and farmed the taxes for his own benefit. Matthew belonged to this group. Someone has said that he was probably the man who taught Peter to swear! I cannot say this was true, but I can understand people saying that. Twenty per cent of all the fish which were taken out of the lake were collected as taxes at the port of Capernaum. How that would rile Peter to have to give up the best of his catch, and so it possibly did start him swearing! Matthew was therefore of unsavory reputation among his own countrymen.
I do not know how frequently he saw and heard Jesus and beheld His works of power, but he was familiar with His ministry, and so when the Lord Jesus called him, saying, Follow Me, Matthew left all, and rose up and followed Him. That does not mean that he left everything immediately, but that he turned over all the accounting and satisfied the Roman Government and said to them, I have heard the voice of Jesus of Nazareth, and henceforth I give Him my life and all that I have.
For Matthew, following Jesus meant that he must give up all dishonesty and selfishness. Jesus said, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. What is your response to this call? When Matthew heard the call, he wound up his business and recognized Jesus as the Lord of his life. Then, ere he left all for good, he made a great feast. I suppose he was a comparatively wealthy man, and he called a big company of those whom he knew well, and they all sat down at the feast together. He invited Jesus and His disciples also, and they came. To the Pharisees it seemed strange that Jesus would accept such an invitation.
They were more concerned about the details of the law than they were about the souls of men. They found fault with the Lord because He healed on the Sabbath day, and associated with publicans and sinners; but these despised people were the very folk that He came from heaven to save. Jesus said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
There is a Saviour for you if you are lost. If you are not lost, if you have always done the best you could and obeyed the law and kept the Golden Rule maybe you can get along without Jesus! But if you are a poor sinner, and if your heart is black from sin, you are the very one that Jesus is seeking. He longs to have you know Him.
One thing of which you may be sure: He was not having a jolly time with them. One of the great curses today is the devils mission of amusement! Have you ever thought of what the word amusement means? Muse means to think, and the a is the negative, so amuse means not to think. David said that while he was musing the fire burned. The devil finds all sorts of things to amuse the people in order to keep them from thinking and facing the realities of eternity.
Jesus did not meet with Matthews friends in order to amuse them. He was speaking faithfully and earnestly about things pertaining to the kingdom. Always serious, He was there to save them and bring them to God. These scribes and Pharisees looked on to criticize. They were just as bad as those whom they despised, in the sight of God. The Lord heard them murmuring and said to them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
There are some folk who are never happy without a doctor, but ordinarily people do not want the doctor if they are well, only when they are sick. So when people know that they are sinners, thank God, there is a Saviour to save them!
Someone may say, I am too great a sinner to be saved. But you can never be too great a sinner for the Lord Jesus to save. Paul said, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. The chief has already been saved and is in glory, so any other sinner may be saved if he wills. Whosoever will may come.
I was having a meeting for boys and girls and I held my New Testament up and asked, Who would like to buy this for $1.75? No one had the money to buy it. Then I announced, that whosoever would come up and claim the New Testament might have it freely. A little fellow looked up and finally came out in the aisle and said to me, I will take the Testament, please. I said that I would give it to whosoever will, and the little fellow realized that whosoever included him.
If you are ready to take your place among the whosoevers, there is salvation for you. Levi took that place and trusted Jesus before he followed Him. You are not saved by following Jesus, but you are saved by trusting Him. That is what Levi did.
The scribes and Pharisees could not enter into the joy of the feast. They said, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but Thine eat and drink? In other words they were saying unto Jesus, Your disciples are too happy, and Johns and ours are more sober. Jesus replied, Can you make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? That is, as long as He was there, why should they not rejoice?
Then He spoke a parable unto them in order to show them that they should not piece things together which are not suitable. No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon the 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. You would rather find a piece of cloth that is similar. The piece that was taken out of the new is not in harmony with the old. You are not to try to mix the grace of the gospel with the cold legality of Judaism.
The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The law comes from God to man, and says This do and Thou shalt not do. Grace declares the salvation of God which is apart from human merit.
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. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. He was speaking of leather bottles made of the skins of animals. You put new wine into new bottles and when fermentation begins, the bottles will give. You cant take the living truth of the gospel and put it into the ordinances of the law. If you try to confine it in them it will burst all bounds. No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better. And so these Pharisees would go away saying, We are satisfied with the old wine, and legalists and worldlings are like that today. They are apparently content with what they are trying to enjoy down here and do not care for that which God offers them in Christ Jesus. You remember that fable of Aesops, in which he tells of an eagle flying in the heavens, who looked down into a well and saw a stork feeding on frogs. The eagle asked the stork why he did not come up there where he was, and the stork asked him if there were any frogs up there. The eagle replied that there were no frogs there but told him how beautiful it was to fly up into the open heaven. The stork replied, You can keep your heaven, and I will keep my frogs.
Men say today, You may have your Christ and your heaven, and we will keep the things of the world. These poor legalists said the same thing. Is that what you are saying? God give you to rest in Christ as your Saviour if you have not done it before!
Chapter 28
A Publican Named Levi
We have before us the story of an immortal soul, a man who had managed to amass a considerable measure of wealth, wealth gained, very likely, by oppression, but wealth nonetheless. Yet, this man was empty inside. He was troubled in his soul. His wealth could not buy him peace, or silence his conscience. Though he did not know it, this man was a chosen object of grace, an appointed vessel of mercy, for whom the time of love had come. Here we see him visited by the Son of God and called by his irresistible power and grace.
This is a story which ought to be of great interest to all who know the value of their immortal souls and desire Gods salvation. These verses describe the conversion of Levi (Matthew), one of Christs first disciples.
Like Levi, you and I were born in sin. Like him, we lived according to the course of this world, walked after the lusts of our flesh, and were by nature the children of wrath. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great loved wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (Eph 2:4-5).
Had he not come to us, we would never have come to him. Had he not called us, we would never have called upon him. Had he not turned us, we would never have been turned. Had he not converted us by his almighty grace, we would never have been converted.
Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that we must be converted, or we must perish forever in hell. This conversion is Gods work. It is the turning of our souls to God. Conversion is accomplished by God the Holy Spirit turning sinners to the Saviour. He turns chosen, redeemed sinners from unbelief to faith, from rebellion to surrender, from enmity to love, from sin to righteousness, from self-righteousness to Christ. Have you been converted? Are we being converted? Is God working in us, turning us to himself? If we have been converted, we are being converted. This work of grace is not over until it is finished. Believing sinners continually cry unto the Lord for converting grace (Psa 85:10; Jer 31:18-19; Lam 5:21).
Let us see what God the Holy Spirit teaches us about conversion in the story of Levis conversion, as it is preserved for us by divine inspiration here in Lukes Gospel. May he give us grace to honestly compare our own experience to Levis. If we are converted, the changes which were wrought in him by the grace and power of God have also been wrought in us.
Levis Conversion
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. And he left all, rose up, and followed him (Luk 5:27-28). Here we see the power of Christs grace in effectual calling. Here was a publican called by the Son of God. As soon as he was called, he willingly left all and followed Christ.
Levi is called Matthew, meaning gift of God, throughout the New Testament because he was given by God the Father to the Son. He was given to Christ in the covenant of grace before the world began. He is now given to Christ in saving grace (Joh 6:37-45). Here the Holy Spirit tells us how he received that salvation, which is the gift of God.
Levi was a publican, a tax-collector. He was thoroughly absorbed with his good career. He thought of nothing but money, how to get it, how to spend it, and how to get more. He was not seeking the Lord. He appears not even to have any consciousness of need in his soul. There were no preparations that preceded the Saviours call. Levi did not first experience deep feelings of guilt, experience a great time of mourning and repentance, or even acquire great knowledge. The Saviour called; and, as the result of the Saviours call, Levi followed him. What grace there is here, surprising, omnipotent, free grace! He who said, I am found of them that sought me not (Isa 65:1), found Levi, and graciously caused Levi to find him by the effectual, distinguishing call of his omnipotent mercy.
Can you imagine how utterly surprised Levi must have been on that day when grace overtook and conquered him? The fact is, Gods saving grace is always surprising in the experience of it. Here is the blessed, sovereign intervention of grace. The Lord Jesus passed by. He saw Levi; and he called him. That is the way he works yet today.
Here is the blessed choice and decision of faith. He left all, rose up, and followed him. Because he followed Christ, this worthless, useless, hated man became a useful man of indescribable benefit to the souls of men. Effectual grace always produces effects in the lives of saved sinners. Levi (Matthew) wrote one of the four inspired gospel narratives known the world over. He became a blessing to millions. He left a name never to be forgotten. He was a man used of God for much good to many. As soon as the Saviour called, he obeyed. No sooner did the Lord Jesus open his heart to receive him than Levi opened his house to the Saviour; and this publican, who obtained mercy from the Lord, invited other publicans to come and find mercy also. Christ is all; and there is enough in Christ for all.
We should never despair of any. Had we seen this man in this situation, I do not doubt that most, if not all, who read these lines would have said, There is a man consumed with the world and passed on, presuming that he would never come to Christ. May God the Holy Spirit keep us from such arrogant folly. None are too wicked, too hardened, too worldly, too lost to be saved by Christ. No sins are too bad, too vile, too many to be forgiven. No heart is so dead, so corrupt, so consumed with the world that it cannot be conquered by the Lion of the tribe of Judah. None are beyond the reach of Gods saving arm. With God nothing is impossible!
Are you converted? Has the Lord snatched you from destruction, lifted you from the pit of corruption, raised you from the dead? Have you left all and followed Christ? I urge you now to come to Christ. He who called Levi is still calling sinners. There is atonement still in Christs precious blood. There is righteousness still in the Son of God. There is yet forgiveness with God. The Son of God still clothes naked, needy sinners with the garments of salvation.
Levis Celebration
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 (Luk 5:29). This was a feast for laughter and celebration (Ecc 10:19). Levi regarded his conversion as a matter of great joy. He wanted others to rejoice with him in what he had experienced; and he wanted others to know the grace he knew, the Christ he knew, the God he knew. No doubt, many of his friends looked upon his conversion as a thing to be pitied; but Levi knew he had reason to celebrate!
There is not a higher day, a day more to be celebrated, a day more to be remembered than the day of grace. Graduation, marriage, the birth of a child, all pale compared to this. When God saves a sinner, when a lost soul is converted to Christ, it is the birth of a soul, the rescue of a sinner, the pardon of a condemned prisoner, the opening of the prison doors, the coronation of a king, the making of a priest, the adoption of a son, the forgiveness of all sin, the bestowing of righteousness and the acceptance of a sinner.
Levis Concern
This sinner, converted and saved by the grace of God, was concerned for the souls of others. He wanted others to be converted and saved by grace. So when he made his party, he invited a great company of publicans and sinners to come. He knew what their souls needed and did what he could to meet the need. J. C. Ryle rightly observed
It may be safely asserted that there is no grace in the man who cares nothing about the salvation of his fellow men. The heart which is really taught by the Holy Spirit will always be full of love, charity, and compassion. The soul which has been truly called of God will earnestly desire that others may experience the same calling.
He went to great expense and trouble to get his lost friends into the company and presence of Christ the Saviour. Saved sinners are never content to go to heaven alone. The expense of providing such a large, lavish feast for a huge number of guests (as the word feast implies) was great. It appears that Levi considered no cost too great to get sinners in the company of the Saviour. May God give us each the grace to use our place, our property and our possessions for the everlasting benefit of immortal souls. Having received mercy, we ought to make it our business to show others the mercy, love and grace of God in Christ.
Perhaps, you think, What can I do? Do what you can to bring Christ to sinners and sinners to Christ. As Moses said to Hobab, you can say to others, Come thou with us, and we will do thee good (Num 10:29). As the Samaritan woman said to the men of the city, you can say to those around you, Come see a man who told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? You can say to your family what Andrew said to his brother, Peter, We have found the Christ.
Levis Critics
But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? (Luk 5:30). They are hardly worth mentioning, but since they are barely mentioned by Luke, I will barely mention them, too. If you seek to walk with God and serve the souls of men, you will have plenty of people around to find fault with what you do. I recommend that you handle critics the way Levi did. Do not handle them. Leave it to the Lord Jesus to handle them as he will.
Levis Christ
And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Luk 5:31-32).
What a lovely view, says Robert Hawker, to behold the Great Redeemer, encircled at Matthews table, with Publicans and Sinners! The murmuring of the Pharisees is just as might be expected, and such as hath marked Pharisees in all ages. But what a lovely answer the Lord gave to the charge. The very character of Christ, as the Physician of the Soul, naturally led him to haunts of sickness, for the exercise of his profession. And by referring them to that memorable passage in the prophet (Hos 6:6). Jesus took the words as applicable to himself in confirmation of his office Jehovah-Rophe, I am the Lord that healeth thee (Exo 15:26).
The Lord Jesus Christ came to call sinners to repentance. None but sinners will come to Christ. And every sinner who comes to Christ is received by him. The only way we can come to Christ (walk with him in faith) is as sinners in need of mercy (Col 2:6).
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? And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. 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. 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. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better
and saw: Mat 9:9-13, Mat 10:3, Matthew, Mar 2:13, Mar 2:14, Mar 3:18
Follow me: Luk 18:22, Mat 4:19-21, Mat 8:22, Mat 16:24, Joh 1:43, Joh 12:26, Joh 21:19-22
Reciprocal: Mat 19:21 – come Mat 19:27 – we have forsaken Luk 6:15 – Matthew Act 1:13 – Matthew
7
Levi’s other name was Matthew (Mat 9:9). The receipt of custom was the tax office, and Levi was there because he was a publican whose business was to receive the taxes on behalf of the government.
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.
[At the receipt of custom.] The house of tribute. “This thing is like a king of flesh and blood passing by the house of tribute. He saith to his servants, Pay the tax to the publicans.”
THE verses we have now read, ought to be deeply interesting to every one who knows the value of an immortal soul, and desires salvation. They describe the conversion and experience of one of Christ’s earliest disciples. We too are all by nature born in sin, and need conversion. Let us see what we know of the mighty change. Let us compare our own experience with that of the man whose case is here described, and by comparison learn wisdom.
We are taught, in this passage, the power of Christ’s calling grace. We read that our Lord called a publican named Levi to become one of His disciples. This man belonged to a class who were a very proverb for wickedness among the Jews. Yet even to him our Lord says, “Follow me.”-We read furthermore, that such mighty influence on Levi’s heart accompanied our Lord’s words, that although “sitting at the receipt of custom,” when called, he at once “left all, rose up, followed” Christ, and became a disciple.
We must never despair of any one’s salvation, so long as he lives, after reading a case like this. We must never say of anyone that he is too wicked, or too hardened, or too worldly to become a Christian. No sins are too many, or too bad, to be forgiven. No heart is too hard or too worldly to be changed. He who called Levi still lives, and is the same that He was 1800 years ago. With Christ nothing is impossible.
How is it with ourselves? This, after all, is the grand question. Are we waiting, and delaying, and hanging back, under the idea that the cross is too heavy, and that we can never serve Christ? Let us cast such thoughts away at once and forever. Let us believe that Christ can enable us by His Spirit to give up all, and come out from the world. Let us remember that He who called Levi never changes. Let us take up the cross boldly, and go forward.
We are taught, secondly, in this passage, that conversion is a cause of joy to a true believer. We read, that when Levi was converted, he made a “great feast in his own house.” A feast is made for laughter and merriment. (Ecc 10:19.) Levi regarded the change in himself as an occasion of rejoicing, and wished others to rejoice with him.
We can easily imagine that Levi’s conversion was a cause of grief to his worldly friends. They saw him giving up a profitable calling, to follow a new teacher from Nazareth! They doubtless regarded his conduct as a grievous piece of folly, and an occasion for sorrow rather than joy. They only looked at his temporal losses by becoming a Christian. Of his spiritual gains they knew nothing. And there are many like them. There are aways thousands of people who, if they hear of a relation being converted, consider it rather a misfortune. Instead of rejoicing, they only shake their heads and mourn.
Let us, however, settle it in our minds that Levi did right to rejoice, and if we are converted, let us rejoice likewise. Nothing can happen to a man which ought to be such an occasion of joy, as his conversion. It is a far more important event than being married, or coming of age, or being made a nobleman, or receiving a great fortune. It is the birth of an immortal soul! It is the rescue of a sinner from hell! It is a passage from life to death! It is being made a king and priest for evermore! It is being provided for, both in time and eternity! It is adoption into the noblest and richest of all families, the family of God!
Let us not heed the opinion of the world in this matter. They speak evil of things which they know not. Let us, with Levi, consider every fresh conversion as a cause for great rejoicing. Never ought there to be such joy, gladness, and congratulation, as when our sons, or daughters, or brethren, or sisters, or friends, are born again and brought to Christ. The words of the prodigal’s father should be remembered:-“It was meet that we should make merry and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.” (Luk 15:32.)
We are taught, thirdly, in this passage, that converted souls desire to promote the conversion of others. We are told that when Levi was converted, and had made a feast on the occasion, he invited “a great company of publicans” to share it. Most probably these men were his old friends and companions. He knew well what their souls needed, for he had been one of them. He desired to make them acquainted with that Savior who had been merciful to himself. Having found mercy, he wanted them also to find it. Having been graciously delivered from the bondage of sin, he wished others also to be set free.
This feeling of Levi will always be the feeling of a true Christian. It may be safely asserted that there is no grace in the man who cares nothing about the salvation of his fellow men. The heart which is really taught by the Holy Ghost, will always be full of love, charity, and compassion. The soul which has been truly called of God, will earnestly desire that others may experience the same calling. A converted man will not wish to go to heaven alone.
How is it with ourselves in this matter? Do we know anything of Levi’s spirit after his conversion? Do we strive in every way to make our friends and relatives acquainted with Christ? Do we say to others, as Moses to Hobab, “Come with us, and we will do you good”? (Num 10:29.) Do we say as the Samaritan woman, “Come, see a man that told me all that ever I did”? Do we cry to our brethren as Andrew did to Simeon, “We have found the Christ”?-These are very serious questions. They supply a most searching test of the real condition of our souls. Let us not shrink from applying it. There is not enough of a missionary spirit amongst Christians. It should not satisfy us to be safe ourselves. We ought also to try to do good to others. All cannot go to the heathen, but every believer should strive to be a missionary to his fellow men. Having received mercy, we should not hold our peace.
We are taught, lastly, in this passage, one of the chief objects of Christ’s coming into the world. We have it in the well-known word, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
This is that great lesson of the Gospel which, in one form or another, we find continually taught in the New Testament. It is one which we can never have too strongly impressed upon our minds. Such is our natural ignorance and self-righteousness in religion, that we are constantly losing sight of it. We need to be frequently reminded, that Jesus did not come merely as a teacher, but as the Savior of that which was utterly lost, and that those only can receive benefit from Him who will confess that they are ruined, bankrupt, hopeless, miserable sinners.
Let us use this mighty truth, if we never used it before. Are we sensible of our own wickedness and sinfulness? Do we feel that we are unworthy of anything but wrath and condemnation? Then let us understand that we are the very persons for whose sake Jesus came into the world. If we feel ourselves righteous, Christ has nothing to say to us. But if we feel ourselves sinners, Christ calls us to repentance. Let not the call be made in vain.
Let us go on using this mighty truth, if we have used it in time past. Do we find our own hearts weak and deceitful? Do we often feel that “when we would do good, evil is present with us”? (Rom 7:21.) It may be all true, but it must not prevent our resting on Christ. He “came in to the world to save sinners,” and if we feel ourselves such, we have warrant for applying to, and trusting in Him to our life’s end. One thing only let us never forget: Christ came to call us to repentance, and not to sanction our continuing in sin.
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Notes-
v27.-[A Publican named Levi.] The person called Levi here, is called Matthew in Matthew’s Gospel, and Levi in Mark’s. It is almost universally agreed that it is one and the same person, Matthew the apostle. Like some others in the Bible, he had two names.
It is hardly necessary to observe that a publican means a collector of public taxes.
[At the receipt of custom.] The Greek word so translated does not necessarily mean that Levi was in the very act of receiving money. It might be rendered with equal correctness, “At the place where taxes were received.” This seems the more probable meaning.
v28.-[He left all, rose up, &c.] We must be careful not to suppose that Levi neglected his duty to the government, and inflicted loss on his employers, by this sudden action here recorded, in leaving his post. It is highly probable that, like many tax gatherers and toll collectors, he hired the tolls, at the place where our Lord found him, by the year, and paid in advance. This being the case, if he chose to leave his post, he did so entirely at his own loss, but the government was not defrauded. Watson remarks, “Had Levi been a government servant hired at a salary like our custom-house officers, to collect the duties, he must in justice have remained until a successor was appointed. But having himself purchased the tolls and dues for a given period, he was at liberty to throw up the office of exacting them at pleasure.”
v29.-[A great feast.] The word translated “feast,” is only used here and Luk 14:13. It means a kind of large reception banquet, such as only wealthy people could give, and at which the guests were numerous. The worldly sacrifice which Levi made in becoming Christ’s disciple, was probably greater than that made by any of the apostles.
v32.-[Call…to repentance.] Let it be carefully noted here, as well as elsewhere, that our Lord’s call to sinners is not a bare call to become his disciples, but a call “to repentance.”
Stella, the Spanish annotator, remarks on this verse: “You must not understand from this, that Christ found some who were righteous. For the sentence of Paul is true; ‘all have sinned.’ Christ calls these Scribes and Pharisees righteous, not because they were really so, but only according to the common estimation and appearance of them.”
Luk 5:27-28. THE CALL OF LEVI. See on Mat 9:9; Mar 2:13-14.
Beheld, more than saw (Matthew and Mark); observed, noticed, looked on.
Forsook all. Peculiar to Luke. It implies not only the actual relinquishment of what he was then doing, but the spirit in which he followed.
The number of our Lord’s apostles not being filled up, observe 1. What a free and gracious, what an unexpected and undeserved choice Christ makes. Levi, that is Matthew, (for he had both names,) a grinding publican, who gathered the tax for the Roman emperor, and was probably guilty, as others were, of the sins of covetousness and extortion, yet he is called to follow Christ, as a special disciple.
Learn hence, that such is the freeness of divine grace,that it sometimes calls and converts sinners unto Christ, when they think not of him, nor seek unto him. Little did Levi now think of a Saviour, much less seek after him, yet he is here called by him, and that with an efficacious call: Matthew, a publican; Zaccheus, an extortioner; Saul, a persecutor; all these are effectually called by Christ, as instances and evidences of the mighty power of converting grace.
Observe, 2. Levi’s or Matthew’s ready compliance with Christ’s call: He presently arose and followed him. Where the inward call of the Holy Spirit accompanies the outward call of the word, the soul readily complies and yields obedience to the voice of Christ. Our Saviour, says the pious bishop Hall, speaks by his word to our ears, and we hear not, we stir not; but when he speaks by his spirit efficaciously to our heart, Satan cannot hold us down, the world shall not keep us back; but we shall with Levi instantly rise and follow our Saviour.
Observe, 3. Levi, to show his thankfulness to Christ, makes him a great feast. Christ invited Levi to a dicipleship, Levi invites Christ to a dinner; the servant invites his Master, a sinner invites his Saviour; a better guest he could not invite, Christ always comes with his cost with him. We do not find that when Christ was invited to any table, he ever refused to go; if a publican, if a Pharisee, invited him, he constantly went; not so much for the pleasure of eating, as for an opportunity of conversing and doing good; Christ feasts us when we feed him. Levi, to give Christ a pledge and specimen of his love, makes him a feast.
Learn thence, that new converts are full of affection towards Christ, and very expressive of their love unto him. Levi’s heart being touched with a sense of Christ’s rich love, makes him a royal feast.
Observe, 4. The cavil and exception which the scribes and Pharisees made at our Lord’s free conversation. They censur him for conversing with sinners. Malice will never want matter of accusation. Our Saviour justifies himself, telling them he conversed with sinners as their physician, not as their companion: They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
As if our Lord had said, “With whom should a physician converse but with sick patients! And is he to be accused for that? Now this is my case. I am come into the world to do the office of a kind physician unto men: surely then I am to take all opportunities of conversing with them, that I may help and heal them, for they that are sick need the physician; but as for you scribes and Pharisees, who are well and whole in our own opinion and conceit, I have no hopes of doing good upon you; for such as think themselves whole desire not the physician’s help.”
Now from this assertion of our Saviour, The whole need not the physician, but the sick.
These truths are suggested to us:
1. That sin is the soul’s malady, its spiritual disease and sickness.
2. That Christ is the physician appointed by God for the cure and healing of this disease.
3. That there are multitudes of sinners spiritually sick, who yet think themselves sound and whole.
4. That such, and only such as find themselves sin-sick, and spiritually diseased, are subjects capable of Christ’s healing: They that are whole need not the physician, but they that are sick. I come not, says Christ, to call the (opinionatively) righteous, but the (sensible) sinner, to repentance.
Luk 5:27-29. He went forth and saw a publican, &c. Having performed this great miracle on the paralytic, Jesus thought proper to allow the Pharisees and doctors an opportunity of conferring upon it among themselves, and of making what observations they pleased concerning it, in the hearing of the common people. He left the house, therefore, immediately. But on his going out the people accompanied him, eager to hear him preach. This good disposition which they were in, Jesus improved to their advantage. He went with them to the lake, and on the shore preached to a great multitude, Mar 2:13. When he had made an end of speaking, he passed by the receipt of custom, or booth, where the collectors of the tax waited to levy it, possibly from the vessels which used the port of Capernaum. Here he saw a publican, Matthew or Levi, (for it was a common thing among the Jews for a person to have two names,) sitting, whom he ordered to follow him, and who immediately obeyed, being designed of God for a more honourable employment than that of collecting the taxes. Matthew, thinking himself highly honoured by this call, made a great feast, or entertainment, for Jesus and his disciples, inviting, at the same time, as many of his brother publicans as he could, hoping that Christs conversation might bring them to repentance. In this action, therefore, Matthew showed both gratitude and charity; gratitude to Christ who had now called him, and charity to his acquaintance in labouring to bring about their conversion.
4. The Call of Levi: Luk 5:27-39.
This section relates: 1 st. The call of Levi; 2 d. The feast which followed, with the discourse connected with it; 3 d. A double lesson arising out of a question about fasting.
XXXVI.
THE CALL OF MATTHEW.
(At or near Capernaum.)
aMATT. IX. 9; bMARK II. 13, 14; cLUKE V. 27, 28.
c27 And after these thingsa [after the healing of the paralytic] he went forth, aagain by the seaside [i. e., he left Capernaum, and sought the shore of the sea, which formed a convenient auditorium for him, and which was hence a favorite scene for his teaching]; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them. 14 And as he aJesus passed by from thence, he saw cand beheld aa man, ca publican, named {ccalled} Matthew, cLevi, bthe son of Alphaeus [It will be observed that Matthew, in his account of his call, does not make himself prominent. All [189] the evangelists keep themselves in the background. Because Mark and Luke give us the name Levi, it has been thought by some that they describe the call of a different person from the one mentioned by Matthew–an opinion which seems to have started with Origen. But the difference in name is not an important divergence, for many in that day had two names; as, for example, Lebbus, who was called Thaddus; Silas, who was called Sylvanus; John, who was called Mark; etc. Moreover, it was then common to change the name; as is shown by the cases of Simon, who became Peter; Joseph, who became Barnabas; Saul, who became Paul, etc. Therefore, as we have previously suggested ( Mat 10:3). It is not likely, however, that Matthew and James were brothers, for Alphus was a very common Jewish name, and brothers are usually mentioned in pairs in the apostolic lists, and these two are not so mentioned. Pool takes the extreme view here, contending that James, Matthew, Thaddus, and Simon Zelotes were four brethren], sitting at the place of toll [Wherever it is at all practicable, Orientals sit at their work. The place of toil was usually a booth or a small hut. Whether Matthew’s booth was by the lake, to collect duties on goods and people ferried across; or whether it was by the roadside on the great highway leading from Damascus to Acco, to collect taxes on all produce brought into Capernaum, is not material. The revenues which Rome derived from conquered nations consisted of tolls, tithes, harbor duties, taxes for use of public pasture lands, and duties for the use of mines and salt works], and he saith {csaid} unto him, Follow me. 28 And he forsook all, And he arose {crose up} and followed [190] him. [Such obedience was not, of course, performed in ignorance; it indicates that Matthew was already a disciple, as were the four fisherman when they also received a like call. Matthew was now called to become a personal attendant of Jesus, preparatory to being chosen an apostle. Nor are we to conclude from the abruptness of his movements that he went off without settling accounts with the head of his office. Though it may be more dramatic to thus picture him as departing at once, yet the settlement of accounts was indispensable to his good name in the future, and in no way diminishes the reality and beauty of his sacrifice–a beauty which Matthew himself forbears to mention, as became him ( Pro 27:2). But Matthew certainly neither delayed nor sought counsel ( Gal 1:15, Gal 1:16). By thus calling a publican, Jesus reproved the religious narrowness of his times.] [191]
[FFG 189-191]
CONVERSION OF MATTHEW
Mat 20:9; Mar 2:13-14; & Luk 5:27-28. Mark: And He went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He continued to teach them. And passing along He saw Levi, the son of Alpheus, sitting at the toll; and He says to Him, Follow Me. And rising, he followed Him. Luke: And leaving all things, rising, he followed Him. Matthew: Jesus, going on from thence, saw a man sitting at the toll called Matthew, and says to him, Follow Me, and rising up, he followed Him. This took place in the city of Capernaum, the home of Jesus, Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew, who is also called Levi. Here we have the very brief account of the conversion and call to the apostleship of Matthew, one of the writers of our Lord’s Gospel. He and John were apostles among the original Twelve, Mark serving as Peter’s amanuensis and Luke that of Paul. Matthew’s conversion, here so briefly given, is quite remarkable. He is not only in the bloom of youth, bat the incumbent of a lucrative office. He is no poor man, but he is rich, living in affluence, with the broadest possibilities of worldly aggrandizement spread out before him. He suddenly and unhesitatingly leaves all for a life of toil, poverty, and persecution, and a cruel death to wind up. Suddenly converted, we never afterward hear of his wavering. In the distribution of the world among the apostles, pursuant to the Commission, receiving Ethiopia as his field of labor, he faithfully went, and preached heroically till he sealed his faith with his blood, and flew up to join his Master in celestial glory.
We have now followed our Lord through the first year of His ministry, all of which He spent in Galilee, His home and favorite field, except about two months at the beginning. The Feast of the Passover, instituted and perpetuated to commemorate the Divine mercy shown to Israel the last night of their sojourn in Egypt, when the destroying angel came down and slew the firstborn in every house in all the land, but in mercy passing over the houses of Israel besprinkled with the blood of the slain lamb, symbolic of the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Our Savior gave special attention and peculiar honor to this institution, beginning His ministry at a Passover, and winding it up at another three years subsequently, two Passovers intervening in the interim. Now, the first year of His ministry having passed away, the fame of His mighty works having filled Palestine and mightily stirred the Gentile world, till all eyes are turned toward Him, most momentous inquiries are everywhere ringing from the popular lip, Is not this the Shiloh of prophecy, the Christ of God, the Savior of the world, and the Redeemer of Israel? If He is not truly the Messiah who is to come, He is certainly the greatest prophet whom God has ever given to Israel.
Luk 5:27-32. The Call of Levi (Mar 2:13-17*, Mat 9:9-13*)There are no noteworthy differences. In Lk. it is clear that Levi gives the feast (in his own house); the words to repentance (Luk 5:32) are omitted by some MSS. They weaken the saying.
Verse 27
Levi is supposed to be another name for Matthew. (See Matthew 9:9.) He was a collector of the customs, or duties, at this port, on the lake. The practice was for men of property to pay a specific sum to the government for the right to collect a certain tax or custom. Then, in collecting the tax, they employed subordinate officers of various grades. By this system the government realized the money at once, and were saved all attention to details; and the contractor made a profit, as the sum which he paid was less than the expected proceeds of the tax. But the people suffered, as the system exposed them to cruel extortions from unprincipled and interested collectors of the tax. From the nature of the business, the most rough and unfeeling men would be most efficient and successful in it; the publicans were consequently taken from the most degraded classes of society, and were objects of general detestation.
5:27 {5} 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.
(5) The Church is a company of sinners who are repentant through the grace of Christ, who banquet with him to the great offence of the proud and envious people of the world.
3. Jesus’ attitude toward sinners 5:27-32 (cf. Matthew 9:9-13; Mark 2:13-17)
Luke painted Jesus bestowing messianic grace on a variety of people: a demoniac, a leper, a paralytic, and now a tax collector. He liberated these captives from a malign spirit, lifelong uncleanness, a physical handicap, and now social ostracism and materialism. Again the Pharisees were present. In Levi’s case, Jesus not only provided forgiveness but fellowship with Himself. The incident shows the type of people Jesus called to Himself and justifies His calling them.
Levi (Matthew) was a tax collector ("publican," AV). However he was not a chief tax collector, as Zaccheus was (Luk 19:2), nor does the text say that he was rich, though he appears to have been. Nevertheless the Pharisees and most of the ordinary Jews despised him because of his profession. He collected taxes from the Jews for the unpopular Roman government, and many of his fellow tax collectors were corrupt.
"It is of importance to notice, that the Talmud distinguishes two classes of ’publicans’: the tax-gatherer in general (Gabbai), and the Mokhes, or Mokhsa, who was specially the douanier or custom-house official. Although both classes fall under the Rabbinic ban, the douanier-such as Matthew was-is the object of chief execration." [Note: Edersheim, 1:515.]
Jesus’ authority is apparent in Levi’s immediate and unconditional abandonment of his profession to follow Jesus. Levi obeyed Jesus’ as he should have and in so doing gave Luke’s readers a positive example to follow (cf. Luk 5:11). Luke’s terminology stresses Levi’s decisive break with his former vocation and his continuing life of discipleship. This decision undoubtedly involved making financial and career sacrifices.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)