Grace > Religion (Lk. 5:27-39)
Hear
Good morning BCC!
So last week, I made a claim that the sick mentioned in Lk. 5:17 could’ve referred to the religious leaders. Furthermore, I stated that those guys had missed an incredibly great opportunity to have the power of God applied to their lives for the forgiveness of their sins, but they were not willing (Mt. 23:37).
Jesus’ thesis statement for the section we’ll cover today is found in verse 32.
Luke 5:32 NKJV
32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Today we find Jesus hanging out with some seedy people by religious standards. And what happens in these verses drives home the point that not a single person is exempt from the label of sinner, and it is precisely for that reason that we find in Jesus the answer to the problem of our own spiritual uncleanliness.
Before diving in too deep, let’s read our scripture for today.
Luke 5:27–39 NKJV
27 After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.”
28 So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.
29 Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them.
30 And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, “Why do [y]ou eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
31 Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
33 Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”
34 And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?
35 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”
36 Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.
37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.
38 But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.
39 And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’ ”
The Wrong People? (Lk. 5:27-32)
Last week, Jesus stunned a crowd of onlookers and religious leaders by doing two incredible works: healing a man’s body and forgiving the man’s sins. Although everyone was amazed by what they saw and praised God for what had happened, there is no record that anyone else asked Jesus to do for them what He had done for the paralytic.
Those events being finished, Jesus walks out of Peter’s house and goes about His business. Mark tells us that He passed by the sea where He takes time to teach a group of people who was following Him. Luke tells us that,
Luke 5:27 NKJV
27 After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.”
The word saw in our English translations leaves out the deeper meaning. The original word suggests that Jesus was observing Levi (Matthew). He didn’t just notice this tax collector. He studied him. After sometime Jesus goes up to the tax booth and tells Matthew to follow Him. People have been following Jesus since He started His ministry back in chapter 4, but this is the first time in Luke’s record that Jesus actively invites someone to follow Him. And the first person that He invites is a tax collector. That’s the wrong person for Jesus to be associated with.
Tax Collectors
Tax collectors were considered to be among the worse of the worse in the Jewish community. Later in Luke’s Gospel we see a Pharisee and a tax collector praying in the temple and the Pharisee’s prayer helps us to understand how despised a group tax collectors were.
Jesus tells this story.
Luke 18:9–14 NKJV
9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
Tax collectors were viewed as traders to their own people. Working for the Roman establishment. They were also considered to be morally corrupt and money hungry cheats who often charged people more than they owed and skimmed some off the top. That’s why, when John comes preaching repentance in the wilderness, he responds to the tax collector’s question about what repentance looks like for them with these words,
Luke 3:13 NKJV
13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than what is appointed for you.”
You can feel the shameful stares. The disgraceful headshaking as folks passed by the tax booth. That’s how most Jews looked at Matthew the day Jesus walked up to his tax booth.
But, as David Garland writes,
Jesus’ own observation, not some preconceived notions about tax gatherers, guides his judgment about Levi.[1]
Just as He had seen the faith of the paralytic and his friends, He saw something more in Matthew than anyone else could see. And Matthew saw in Jesus everything he had been looking for.
We’re told that Matthew immediately left everything and followed Jesus. This doesn’t mean that he left everything he owned, it simply means that he left the tax office, his ledger, and all the money he had collected from the people. He left it all to become an evangelist.
It wasn’t enough for Matthew to know the acceptance and love and value that Jesus added to his life, there were others who needed to know this as well. Matthew threw a party to celebrate his new life and introduce people just like him to Jesus.
Who can you think of in your life today that may be where you were when you first met Jesus? Is there someone you have a relationship with or in a group with who needs to know who Jesus is? Maybe you can’t throw a big party like Matthew, but what can you do in order to share the hope that you have in Jesus? Invite someone to coffee. Set up a playdate and while your kids are having fun, share your Jesus story. Invite a friend over to watch the Thunder play or whatever and tell them about the greatness of our God and what He has done for you to trust in Him.
Pharisees
Ok! I grew up going to house parties, and if there is one thing I know to be true about house parties is that somebody is going to mess things up. Something’s going to get broken. Somebody else is bored and wants to go home - and you’re their ride. The neighbors start tripping. The cops are going to be called. Your parents are going to find out. It’s almost a guarantee.
The party at Matthew’s house was no different.
The religious police were in the building and they were not having fun and they thought Jesus and His crew shouldn’t be having fun either. At least not with “those” people.
Luke 5:30 NKJV
30 And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, “Why do [y]ou eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Did you notice anything? Luke only describes Matthew’s party guests as tax collectors and others. The religious police referred to them as tax collectors and sinners. The way in which we view people will have a great impact on the way we treat those same people. We can certainly see this happening with the immigration problem in our country. I know this is going to upset some of you, but listen to me.
In the Oklahoma Senate, a bill[2] has been proposed which would make it a felony for churches to help immigrants in anyway. This includes asylum seekers like or sister and brother, Hedie and Ali. The bill states that we could have to pay a $50k fine or serve up to 5 years in prison or both. And this bill was authored by people who attend church - Pharisees.
The question this bill asks is this,
Luke 5:30 NKJV
30 And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, “Why do [y]ou eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus’ reply to them is that these so-called sinners are the very people He came for.
Luke 5:32 NKJV
32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Trent Butler asks a great question:
Who was sick? The tax collector’s friends, people willing to work for the Roman government and thus against Israel? Or religious leaders who knew more about God than God did?[3]
What the Pharisees didn’t realize was that it included them! They need to repent just as much as the tax collectors and others. They were just as unclean as the tax collectors and people they called sinners. Despite their outward appearances, the Pharisees were just as unholy as those folks were. Maybe more so. The religious leaders were as big of a lawbreaker as the people they despised.
Sometimes we can get so high on our religious horses that we forget about the grace that was necessary to change our lives. We needed God to have mercy on us! We needed God to forgive our sins! Should we not be willing to show that same grace and mercy and forgiveness to others? We will continue to love our neighbors as ourselves. We will continue to be a lighthouse of hope to the people God leads into our care. Remember these powerful words.
Romans 5:8 NKJV
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Here’s something the apostle Paul said that you and I must always keep in mind as we go out into this world,
1 Corinthians 5:9–10 NKJV
9 I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people.
10 Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
Once upon a time, Paul had written to the church in Corinth that they should separate themselves from people who aren’t living holy lives. Well, it appears that they misunderstood Paul. The church being the church, they leapfrogged the unholy people right under their noses in exchange for those out in the world.
Paul takes time to clarify what he meant in his first encouragement.
1 Corinthians 5:11–13 NKJV
11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.
12 For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside?
13 But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”
Jesus understood this, He came for the sick, not the well, and He lived it out at Matthew’s house as He enjoyed the company of tax collectors and others. The wrong people.
The Wrong Practice? (Lk. 5:33-35)
Not only did the religious leaders accuse Jesus of hanging with the wrong people, they also accused Him of having the wrong religious practice.
Luke 5:33–35 NKJV
33 Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”
34 And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?
35 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”
Fasting is the voluntary and intentional abstaining from food specifically, for the purpose of drawing nearer to God. John Mark Comer calls it “a way to feed your spirit and starve your flesh”.
Based on Luke 18:9-14, our best guess is that Pharisees fasted at least twice a week. How they came up with this as a rule isn’t clear since fasting was only mandated on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:29; 23:27, 32; Num. 29:7). In the Torah it is called an affliction of the soul or a day to deny yourself.
Here’s one example;
Leviticus 23:27 NKJV
27 “Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.
Leviticus 23:27 NIV
27 “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present a food offering to the Lord.
Now, there wasn’t anything wrong with fasting at all. The people of God practiced fasting in the Old Testament at many different times and in many different situations, but regularly as a way of worshipping God and approaching Him for help.
In the book of Isaiah, Yahweh tells the prophet to reveal to the people the hypocrisy of their fasting. They have been putting on airs with their religious practices and neglecting
Matthew 23:23 NKJV
23 ...the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.
Here’s what Yahweh says,
Isaiah 58:6–8 NKJV
6 “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
J. Alec Motyer breaks down Yahweh’s explanation of fasting into two categories.
First, a fast day is for the creation of a caring society, meeting needs and family welfare, and it brings consequent personal blessings: new beginnings, personal restoration, security and a free-flowing relationship with the Lord. Secondly, a true fast is for correction of inhuman conditions, banishing mischief-making and meeting needs, and it results in clear guidance in life’s perplexities, renewal, durability, ever-fresh resources, restoration and continuance. What seems like deprivation—fasting—is actually enrichment when used according to God.[4]
Jesus had no problem with fasting. As a matter-of-fact, if you member in His sermon on the mount He told His disciples how to fast.
Matthew 6:16–18 NKJV
16 “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
18 so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
So again, Jesus didn’t have a problem with fasting, but this wasn’t the time for mourning, this was a time for rejoicing!
The Wrong Container (Lk. 36-38)
While they accused Jesus of hanging with the wrong people and adopting the wrong religious practices, He informed them that they were trying to fill the wrong containers with the things of God. To help them catch the vision of what He was saying, Jesus told them a story.
Luke 5:36–38 NKJV
36 Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.
37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.
38 But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.
This parable might be a modern day equivalent of old math vs Common Core math. How many of us old heads have caught ourselves asking, “What’s wrong with the way I was taught to do math?”
Jesus is very practical in His illustration.
You don’t tear up a perfectly good and brand new shirt to fix an old tattered and worn out shirt. You will end up ruining both garments. Also, you don’t put new wine that hasn’t completed its fermentation process, into an old wineskin which has reached its limits of flexibility. You put new wine in new wineskins so that both can mature at the same rate.
What was Jesus’ point in this story? He seems to be saying that the old ways have no capacity for the new ways. I don’t think that He is referring to the Old Testament, per se, but rather to what Jesus called,
Mark 7:8 NKJV
8 ...the tradition of men...
David Garland writes,
The continuation of the story in Acts makes it evident that it is only an exclusionary Judaism that focuses only on preserving the old, that is at odds with the new. Jesus’ emphasis on inclusion and growth stretches the fiber of Judaism to its limits until it rips.[5]
And folks, the exact same thing will happen with us as we try to hold on to our old ways and fit Jesus into a space that cannot hold Him. Notice something important in these verses. Jesus doesn’t exactly say that anything is wrong with the old things. He does allude to the fact that some things may need fixing. In both examples that Jesus gave, there is a stretching that takes place. And let me tell you church, some of us can use a good stretching. Our spiritual muscles have become tight and ridged. We can’t touch our toes anymore. It hurts to bend over for our neighbors. So we just do what we’ve always done.
In his book, Above All, pastor and author J.D. Greear makes a damning observation about many so-called followers of Christ and their response to the culture of our day. His words,
They’re no longer praying that Christ would use them to turn their world upside down...Instead they’re praying that Christ would return within the hour and save them from the evil around them so that their troubles would be left behind. They might not get out much and engage with their neighbors in need of saving, but they will for sure mobilize to get to the voting booths. That’s our last stand.[6]
You can’t put new wine into old wineskins. This is why Jehovah says,
Isaiah 42:8–9 NKJV
8 I am the Lord, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.
9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare...
He continues,
Isaiah 43:19 NKJV
19 Behold, I will do a new thing...
The prophet Ezekiel records the words of our Lord where He says,
Ezekiel 36:26 NKJV
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
The apostle Paul, speaking by inspiration of the Holy Spirit stated,
2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
And at the end of all things, when the Author and Perfector of our faith returns for his Bride He will say,
Revelation 21:5 NKJV
5 “Behold, I make all things new.”
As followers of Christ, we don’t have capacity for the things of this world and yet we keep trying to fit what the world presents as the pursuits of life inside of a heart that was made for the kingdom of God. This is why so many people “deconstruct” or just completely fall away. They are trying to make space for the world, culture, money, relationships, the desires of their own hearts inside of a space that only has capacity for God and the things of righteousness. Seek those things and the rest will come.
Respond
Luke 5:32 NKJV
32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Does this speak of you? Do you sense the Spirit of God convicting you - stretching you - this morning?
Has your religious practices hindered your willingness to love your neighbor as yourself?
What do you need to repent of this morning church?
Repentance is for the believers. Where, in your life, has sin taking you in the wrong direction?
Isaiah 30:15 NIV
15 This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.
Turn back today.
Conversion is for the Unbelievers. Who here has never surrendered to the love and grace of Jesus and you sense the Spirit of God drawing you into relationship with Him today?
Now is the day of salvation. Your new life begins by confessing that you are a sinner in need of a Savior and Jesus is the Answer.
Tre Clark
Britton Christian Church
2/08/2026
[1] David Garland, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, 249
[2] SB1554 - https://www.oklegislature.gov/cf_pdf/2025-26%20INT/SB/SB1554%20INT.PDF
[3] Trent C. Butler, Luke, vol. 3, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 79.
[4] J. Alec Motyer, Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 20, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 408.
[5] David Garland Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, 254
[6] J.D. Greear, Above All, 2
