Calling And Fasting
CALLING AND FASTING
LUKE 5:27-39
Here Jesus points to the fact that it wasn’t just the old Judaism “patched up” inside an old framework!
Verses 27-29. God looks more deeply than man. Capernaum saw only the cynic who despised his people enough to sell his services to the Roman or Herodian tax corporations. There were wide opportunities for bribery, exaction and all manner of corrupt and cruel practice in the ancient systems of tax-collection, and the class who lent themselves to a mode of livelihood so despised and debased were outcasts from their community and the subject of savage jibes and bitter sayings. Christ only, among those who passed the tax-booth, saw something more, the pathetic figure of a man in need of love, who longed for help to break free from a life he hated, a soul in desperation. And Christ was seeking entry into the submerged class of Matthew’s kind. They were many in Capernaum, for the town was the customs-post for traffic up the lake.
5:30-35. There was little privacy in ancient society. Matthew’s dinner party was no doubt observed by the critics, and their carping question evoked the Lord’s ironical remark. Ironical it is, and must be so read. He by no means implied that there are righteous folk who need no repentance, much less that the critics themselves were such people.
5:36-39. Hence the Lord’s method, which may be further illustrated by later encounters with the same strong opponents. He passed to the offensive. Read chapter 20, and observe the same method. It is not good to be always on the defensive. Pass to the attack, but only with skill, confidence and understanding of the foe. The Lord’s method was drastic. He thrust straight at their foundations. Their whole order, tattered and outmoded, was to pass away. Christianity was to be no makeshift patch on an ancient garment, no new ferment in the old containers. Luke, who had caught from Paul the vision of a global gospel, appreciated this, though the parable is also recorded by Matthew and Mark.
Note the attempt to divide John and Jesus on a minor issue of practice (5:33)—a favorite device of the enemy. 5:35: “taken away”—the first indication that Jesus expected a violent end.