Jesus Did Not Come to Improve Old Religion | Behold Your God Podcast

Luke 5 and the Three Events Leading to the Parable

Our reading is taken from the book of Luke, chapter 5, we'll begin in verse 17. We're going to read a passage that includes three events and a parable. And these three events and parable appear in all of the synoptic writers.

You remember, the synoptic gospels, that's a name that we've given the gospels, that look through the same lens, so to speak. That's Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They're much more similar than John is to them.

John expects you to have already read Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and adds material that often isn't contained in them. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all three of them mention all of these events and this parable.

Now, that's a little uncommon. All three of them mention them together. All three of them connect the parable to these events. So, even though these appear in different places in the accounts, so we don't really feel that the writers are telling us, none of the writers say when exactly these three things happen.

But because they all three include them and connect them in the same way and in the same order, there's a theological reason behind that. In other words, they're giving us a topic, not Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of Jesus' life.

So, as we look at this this morning, I want us to be looking really for what is the topic that we see in all three examples of Jesus interacting with the Jewish religion, and how does that help us to understand the parable.

Well, let me begin reading in verse 17, and we'll read down through the end of the chapter in Luke 5. One day he was teaching, and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem.

And the power of the Lord was present for him to perform healing. And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of him.

But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, he said, Friend, your sins are forgiven you.

The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, Why are you reasoning in your hearts which is easier to say?

Your sins have been forgiven you, or to say, get up and walk. But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, I say to you, get up and pick up your stretcher and go home.

Immediately he got up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home glorifying God. They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God and they were filled with fear, saying, We have seen remarkable things today.

After that, he went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth and he said to him, Follow me. And he left everything behind and got up and began to follow him. And Levi gave a big reception for him in his house.

And there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?

Jesus answered and said to them, It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance. And they said to him, The disciples of John often fast and offer prayers.

The disciples of the Pharisees also do the same, but yours eat and drink. And Jesus said to them, You cannot make the attendance of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them.

Then they will fast in those days and he will also tell and he was also telling them a parable. No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise, he will both tear the new and the piece from the new will not match the old.

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wishes for new for he says the old is good enough.

The Son of Man and Why Christ Came

Well, if you look back over the last few weeks that we've been looking at the life of Christ, let me go back about a month. About a month ago, we talked about the passage, about the fact that in the Gospels, we frequently find a self-description of Jesus.

His favorite way of referring to himself was the title, the Son of Man. That's not a description of the fact that he's human compared to Son of God divine, but rather he is the person that we read about in the book of Daniel.

Coming to meet God in the clouds and equal with the Father, unashamedly brought before God and handed, though he is a man, handed the rule of all creation forever. A nation or an empire without any boundaries, and though it has opposition, it can never be overthrown.

It will never end.

That glorious being, that God-man entrusted with the rule of all creation, we saw is the one that we read about in the Scriptures. And then the next thing we talked about was this, why did Christ come?

The one that was, no room was made for him in Bethlehem, we said, but he made room for us. And we just looked at some of the metaphors in Scripture, how Christ came to make room for the sinner in ways that we so desperately need if we're to be rescued.

But this week, I want to ask a question and answer it, and that is, why has Christ not come? What will Christ not do? The Son of Man has come, the Son of Man has made room for sinners, but what has he not come to do?

I wonder if you've ever considered how significant a question that is. Not just what did Christ come for, why did Jesus come, who was he? But another very significant question, especially for us in a religious culture is this, are we aware of what Jesus Christ did not come to do?

Are you aware of what Christ will never do? There are many religious people, and perhaps you're one of them, and you are no better off for all your religion and Bible phrases and knowledge and book studies because you've never rightly answered that question.

You're still not sure what Christ did not come to do. Now, we're going to be looking at Luke 5 and then focusing particularly at the parable at the end. And remember what a parable is. A parable is just a common event in ordinary life that everybody was familiar with.

And the common event was used to express one main spiritual truth. And so while there may be many small details in the parable, really, they're all united like little streams into one big river. They're all united into one big message.

We get into trouble if we come to a parable and try to get many very different messages from the different details. So keep the details bundled together. It's like walking into a room, seeing a scene that's common that we see in everyday life, and then walking out and Christ turning to us and saying, do you know what I mean when I say that?

And there's one great message. A parable is a wonderful tool. You did not have to be a Jew to benefit from it. You didn't have to have read a Bible to benefit from it. An irreligious person can listen to the parable and say, I understand what he's pointing out.

So we're going to be looking at that at the end. But let me say before we even get into it, that strangely, the interpretations of this parable at the end, the cloth and the patch, the old wineskin and the new wine, the interpretations of this parable, there are different interpretations.

And there are different interpretations, even among people that we generally read as a church, and I always read, you know, in looking at a passage. And I am in disagreement with people that I am almost never in disagreement with, but I think I have a good reason, so let me just make this point.

Men like Matthew Henry and some of the other Puritans have come to this passage and said, what the parable is teaching is this. You cannot load a young Christian with too much too soon. So in other words, be patient with baby Christians.

Now, that certainly is a biblical principle. We see that all through the Bible. We see it in the way that Christ deals with the disciples. We see it in the way Paul deals with the churches. There are some things that I need to tell you, but you're not ready to hear them.

But is that what the parable is talking about with the patch, the new patch, the old cloth, the new wine, and the old wineskin? I'm actually quite shocked that Matthew Henry thinks that the main teaching of that parable is don't overload baby Christians.

Others who follow Matthew Henry, other people that we admire, like J .C. Ryle, same thing. Now, there are many good teachers that disagree with them and would agree with what I'm going to try to present this morning, but I'm not often in disagreement with J .C. Ryle and Matthew Henry, but I am this morning.

Here's one reason. Let me give you two, actually. One is, you will come up with a different interpretation for the parable based on how you see its connection with what goes in front of it. So, Matthew Henry and J .C. Ryle and some of the other Puritans have seen this parable as only connected with the talking about fasting.

Why is it that all the other serious people in Jewish religion are fasting, but Jesus and His disciples go to parties and celebrations and they don't seem to be fasting? If you only connect it with that one passage in front of it, the few verses in front of it, then I can understand why they would say that.

But I think that that's a mistake. I think that the parable, because it's linked in Matthew, Mark, and Luke with the same three events, the healing of a paralyzed man, the calling of Levi, or Matthew, and the celebration that followed, and the question about fasting.

Because all three events, every place this shows up, they're always connected with the parable. I think that it's better to connect the parable with the three events as a whole, that that's why it comes at that point.

Another reason I don't think that the parable is primarily teaching that we don't need to overload baby Christians by putting too much on them too early or expecting too much of them too soon, is that other places where Jesus Christ talks to baby Christians, some of His words are pretty shocking, aren't they?

Things like this, If you don't love your mother and father more than me, if you don't love me more than you love your children, then you have no part of me. That's a lot to load on a person. Or things like this, If you want to follow me, you'll have to die and take up a cross.

Deny yourself daily. When Christ talks to people about the cost of following Him, I never see Him kind of give the gentle answer at first and then later give a bit of a fuller picture. So I think that the best way to understand the parable will be to connect it to the three that go before it, and then that will help us to have the best understanding of it.

Jesus Versus Mere Religion in the Three Miracles and the Banquet

Now the parable is what I want us to focus on this morning, but in order to get the right interpretation, then I think we're going to have to look at the three events that lead up to it. Now let me give you one more introductory matter.

When we look at this this morning, we're going to see three examples of conflict or three contrasts between Jesus Christ and religion. That's how I would describe it. Jesus and the Judaism of his day.

When I use the term religion, I am not meaning the religion that God is the center of, what we would consider true religion. The religion that God is the author of, the religion that God is the heart of, the religion that God is the goal of.

True religion.

That includes the true religion of the old covenant, which was designed to be temporary and now in the New Testament is flowing into a new covenant, which is everlasting. We're not contrasting, I don't believe, primarily new covenant and old covenant.

Jesus is not saying to the Jews, you just don't understand. The new covenant is so much better than the old covenant that the old covenant is worthless now and the new covenant is better and we can't mix the two.

There is some truth to that. Paul talks a lot about how the covenants relate. But I think that what we're seeing is Jesus' rejection, not of the Old Testament, but of the Jewish adaptation of the Old Testament.

In other words, modern Judaism in the first century with all of its traditions that have been like layers of shellac, you know, just coating after coating of tradition, coating on top of coating until after centuries of this, their religion still has the right Bible they're quoting from, but they've totally missed it.

In other words, I don't think that Jesus is criticizing the old covenant here. I think Jesus is criticizing the old covenant that in the hands of man has been adapted, has been warped and bent, and it's become a man-made religion and not the true religion that pointed to Christ.

And one evidence is that the purpose of the old covenant to point us to Christ, to bring us to Christ, doesn't do that here. No, the Jews have their traditions which they've taken and they've added to the old covenant and kind of made their own version of religion.

And when God Emmanuel is right in front of them, healing and forgiving and bringing joy, they look at him and say, what do you think you're doing? That doesn't match our religion. So don't think of this passage as New Testament versus Old Testament.

And when I say religion, I'm going to be talking, what I mean is mere religion, any religion that has been crafted by us or adjusted by us to fit us, no matter how much Bible is mixed in with it, like the Jews.

I think in all three examples here, we're going to see that Jesus is contrasted with religion. In a sense, we could say, here are three pictures of Jesus against religion and religion against Jesus and then a parable at the end to show us why the two can never be mixed.

Well, let's look at the events. The first of the three events is Christ heals a paralyzed, a lame man. Now, as I mentioned, Matthew, Mark and Luke all mentioned these events. And so each one brings some unique material to it.

But for the sake of time, we're not going to, at each one of these, we're not going to go back and look at Matthew, Mark and Luke for each one. So I'm just going to give you the summary of what they say.

We've just read Luke. As we read all three, we find that Jesus is again back in Capernaum, which you remember is kind of the headquarters for his Galilean ministry, his ministry to the north, not down with the blue blood Jews in the south and around the capital city, but with the region of Israel that has a high mixture of Gentiles.

And he has spent so much time in Capernaum that later, he says, that judgment will be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah than it would be for this city of Capernaum because this place has seen so much of God and rejected it.

Now in Capernaum, he's in a home. We're not really sure which home, but the home is packed with followers, with curious listeners and with the leaders of Judaism. That is the Pharisees and the scribes.

Now, again, it's easy to put black hats. I mean, don't you do it? Have you ever put a white hat on a Pharisee? Never. I mean, that's like naming your daughter Delilah. You know, we just don't do that.

We know about Pharisees. Every time they show up, they're the bad guys. But let's not be confused. Every one of you drift toward the camp of the Pharisees by nature. If you didn't, you wouldn't be in church.

Being in church just makes you, it just pushes you that direction. And it's only by really being careful as a believer that we don't become the Pharisee. So what is a Pharisee? A Pharisee was a Jew that was extremely serious about biblical religion, as much as they understood it.

And they were really noticed, they were distinguished by separatism. They had nothing to do with the pagan cultures around them. Don't want anything to do with that wickedness. Neither did they have anything for the lukewarm Judaism around them.

The Pharisees were as angry at their neighboring Jew who kind of just strolled through religion and didn't really pay attention to God, as he was with the Greek or the Roman. So a Pharisee is an extremely serious religious Jew who separates himself from the contamination in the world, and if we were to use modern language, and the lukewarm church.

What's a scribe? A scribe is an expert in the Jewish law. Now, it's hard for us to imagine how important that was to the people in the day. What a significant position it was. We have lawyers, and we know that lawyers are brainy people, and they go to school a long time, and they understand the ins and outs of civil law.

But that's not what a scribe is. He's much more than that. A scribe was an expert in God's law. And for the Jew living in Israel, that meant every question of morality. What would be right in this situation?

How am I supposed to respond? You could ask the scribe. And the scribe is an expert in the law, and he would say, well, now, in this particular situation, he would tell you what he thought you're supposed to do.

But not just moral law, ceremonial law. How are we supposed to go about all this religion? And you would go to the scribe. He was the expert.

And civil law.

How are we supposed to be good citizens? And you would, with your legal questions, you'd go to the scribe. The separatists and the Bible rule experts are there. Now, the unique thing that we have here is this.

Luke tells us that they are there from every village in Galilee. That's not normal. And from the southern region of Judea. And from the capital, from Jerusalem. They've all come at this point in time in the ministry of Jesus.

What's happening? This shows up in Mark chapter 2, Luke chapter 5, Matthew chapter 9. As best we can understand, this is in the earliest parts of his Galilean ministry. In other words, I believe that what we're seeing here is this.

The envious leaders of Judaism, in the earliest days of Jesus' amazing popularity with the masses. I believe that they're coming and listening in hopes that still there might be some common ground between them and this new teacher.

And they can kind of hook their sluggish Judaism wagon to this new thoroughbred horse, Jesus. And they can kind of use Jesus, add a little Jesus to what they've already got. And revitalize Judaism. Here's the most famous religious man in the land.

And he's one of us. He's a Jew. And he's really serious about the Old Testament. He quotes it all the time. Maybe we can kind of grab hold of him in a way.

And use him.

And at the end of the chapter, it becomes apparent from what Christ says. That there is no way to mix what he is, what he comes to do, with what they have. I think really the great lesson of the entire chapter, in case you miss it by the end.

And I just really don't do a good job at all of helping you to see it, is this. The Lord Jesus Christ never came to improve the old religion.

The old life.

He came to wreck it. And remake it. But not to be added to it. Well he comes to the house and it's crowded. And we have the story of five men. Four men and a paralyzed man. And obviously the paralyzed man, he's an adult.

He believes that this Jesus of Nazareth is who he says he is. Or can do what he says he does. Or has heard of what he's done. And so he asks his friends.

And they all agree.

And they're confident enough in Christ to make the long trip. And they carry their friend on a stretcher to Capernaum. When they get there, you can imagine the disappointment when they see that the house is too full.

They can't get in. Jesus is in there, he's already teaching. Nobody will make room for a stretcher and four guys. And so they go up onto the flat roof. And they take the tiles off of the roof. They disassemble the roof.

And they make a hole and they lower him down. Now I know that we know this story because we've been in Sunday school. But can you imagine what it would be like in real life? What happened? What would you think if someone braved our roof?

Not a flat roof. And suddenly you heard noises on the roof, you know. And I just decided to ignore it and keep preaching. And then wood started being ripped loose. And dust starts falling. And somebody lowers a friend down.

And Christ sees the man and tells him. Your faith has made you whole. He sees all their faith. Your faith has made you whole. And the Jews are shocked, aren't they? And in a sense, the response is understandable.

Here's their logic. Who does he think he is? Only one being forgives sin. That's God. No preacher, no prophet can say you're forgiven. So either he's God or he's the worst kind of blasphemer and deceiver.

And unable to believe that he really is the son of God. They believe he's a liar. Christ leaves that scene and goes to the next. After healing the man and demonstrating that the same power that's involved in healing a lame man.

It's the same power that's required to forgive. And he has been given authority from the father to do both. The next scene that we see is. He goes by a tax collector's booth. His little office. The town of Capernaum is on the northern spot of the Sea of Galilee.

And it's also on an international trade route. I don't know if we talked about this before. But there's a trade route between Egypt and Syria. And you have to go through Capernaum. And it was really one of the main east-west trade routes.

When the merchants would come along this freeway, so to speak. Rome put a taxation booth there. And appointed a Jew to collect taxes on every merchant. So that's why Matthew or Levi is his other name.

That's why Matthew is sitting there in his little tax office. And everybody that comes through with all this merchandise. He stops them and he taxes them. But you know from reading the New Testament. That the New Testament almost always refers to these tax collectors as publicans.

Public tax collectors. And it lumps them with another group, doesn't it? Publicans and who? Publicans and sinners.

Why?

Because the tax collectors were seen as traitors. You work for the enemy taxing your own people. If we went to war and we were conquered in a war. Let's say that in World War II Germany had won. And we had Nazi officials spread throughout the United States.

Heavily taxing the United States to pay for Germany's war efforts. If you got a job, this lucrative job with the Nazis. Taxing your friends. You'd be seen as a traitor. But not only that, they were cheats.

They would skim off the top. So they would tax more than Rome required. And then they would just keep the extra. And so Matthew has a pretty big house. He has a big enough house to have a banquet at. To have a celebration.

So here is a man that's a cheat and a traitor. And he hears that Jesus is in town. I wonder how often Matthew has heard of Jesus of Nazareth. Since Capernaum was his capital. Headquarters so to speak.

Had he heard what he'd done before? Do you think that Matthew had a gnawing in his heart?

You know?

I know that the religious people want nothing to do with people like me. I mean the church folks hate me. But I wonder if this Jesus of Nazareth would be willing to talk with me. I wonder if he'd be willing to give me what he's given other people.

Could he do for me what he's done for others? I mean Matthew has everything the world has to offer. He's not paralyzed.

He's not poor.

He's not needy or sick. He's wealthy. Christ comes up to the taxation booth. And simply commands Matthew to follow him. Matthew and Mark tell us that immediately he left everything. Luke tells us the cost.

He left his business. Now this is the most costly response to Jesus Christ up to this point.

For a disciple.

Remember James, John, Andrew and Peter. They were fishermen. And they worked in the family business. And they got up and left their boats and nets and followed Jesus. But you do know from later in the gospels.

That if they wanted to return. Dad let them come back and fish again. But you can't imagine the Roman Empire saying to Matthew. Oh you want to come back and get your job back now that you're tired of Jesus.

Well you can have your job back. I mean that would have been filled by somebody else. So Matthew turns his back on all his occupation. And follows Jesus Christ. Next scene. Matthew calls for a big celebration.

And he invites Jesus and his followers. But he also invites the other cheats and traitors.

The other tax collectors.

And sinners. And the irreligious. And they all come to his house. And he throws this big banquet for Jesus. Because he wants his friends to meet this person. The wonderful thing about the picture here.

And I hope that we are all clear on it. Matthew is not the impressive one.

What a great guy.

Matthew left everything. Matthew left it immediately. What a noble sacrifice.

Do you think of it that way? Not at all.

What a savior. He comes to a man like Matthew. And the king of all eternity says. Come be one of my followers. One of my closest companions. And Matthew is the man that finds a field with the pearl of great price.

And can't imagine not selling everything. To get this something that is so infinitely better. So Matthew throws a party. Having left everything for Jesus Christ. Matthew is the happiest man on the planet.

He is unemployed. And he is thrilled. The Jews are there. And as the party is breaking up. They start asking questions. If Jesus is so holy. Why is he breaking all of our traditions. And eating with sinners.

He is contaminated now. Why does he hang out with the wrong people. With the people that won't come to church. With the people that cheat and steal. That's the question. The answer is pretty simple isn't it.

It's an illustration. Jesus says. The doctor isn't needed at the healthy person's house. He is needed at the sick person's house. I haven't come to call righteous people to repentance.

People who feel that they are healthy.

People that feel that their life is pretty good. I've come to call those people whose lives are ruined. To repentance. The unrighteous.

Fasting, the Bridegroom, and the Timing of Joy

Third.

Question of fasting. It follows easily on the last scene. There's this great party. Matthew has left everything. And instead of going and becoming a monk. And saying I won't touch this.

I won't do that.

All my long list of don'ts just got longer. Because now I'm a real serious person. Instead he's as happy as can be. And Jesus is there rejoicing with him. And telling the gospel to these other sinners.

And so the Pharisees have a question. Why doesn't Jesus. And why don't his followers.

Fast.

Like the rest of us. Now the rest of us in this situation is two other groups. The Pharisees. And the disciples of John the Baptist. Who in their loyalty to John the Baptist. Have not left following John's teaching.

It may be that John has already been put to death.

By this time.

But whether he has been put to death or not. They're loyal to his way. And they have not embraced the Messiah. So again we have a. Men that are very serious about religion. But they're kind of missing the entire point of religion.

Now fasting. Is Jesus against fasting?

No.

The Old Testament had one day a year. That everyone in Israel was commanded to fast. That was the day of atonement.

Alright.

Other than that.

The Old Testament gives us a lot of examples. Of appropriate times for fasting. When the nation had drifted from the Lord. And God had expressed. His judgment against the nation. And in desperation. They fast and they pray.

All through the book of 2nd Chronicles. You see this repeatedly. And that was appropriate. But by the time we come to the first century. The Pharisees had made a law out of fasting. If you're serious about God.

Like we're serious about God. You're going to fast. And it's not just up to you. When do you feel that it's appropriate. And it's not just the day of atonement. But the Pharisees went from one day a year.

Being commanded as a fast. To over a hundred days a year. Two days a week. Mondays and Thursdays. The Pharisees fasted. And apparently the disciples of John the Baptist. Also followed this. Because they're really serious about religion.

But Jesus Christ is not doing this. And the followers of Christ. Are not fasting twice a week. Now Jesus they ask. Why don't you fast like us. And Jesus gives a really simple answer. He gives it in a picture.

Imagine a wedding. And in the Jewish wedding. There would be all that preparation. For a week long celebration. And the bride would be at her parents home. With all of her friends. And the groom would be at his house.

Which he had gotten ready for his bride. And all of his friends. And he comes and gets the bride. And they go back to the house. And there's a week long celebration. The groom has finally come. I mean you think about the parables of the end of times.

Where the groom is coming. And it's the great celebration. And the virgins keep their lamps ready.

So he uses that common picture.

Everybody knows what a wedding is like. It's a week long party. And it starts when the groom gets there. Now can you imagine a party.

Where the groom arrives.

And all the groom's best friends are there. And all of his uncles and aunts. And all of his best friends. For a week. Sit in a corner. Mopey and grumpy. They won't touch any food. They won't drink anything.

No. We're fasting. It would be kind of awkward. Like well actually. It's not really a good place to do that. It's not appropriate. It's a time to celebrate marriage. Not a time to sit in the corner and be mopey.

So Christ gives that illustration. The Jews are fasting. Two days a week. But they don't understand. What's right in front of them when God is at work. Jesus' followers are not fasting. Because it's not the appropriate time.

Later in the New Testament. We do see in the book of Acts. Believers fasting. Jesus says. There will come a day. When I'm taken away. Speaking of the cross. And my followers will fast. There will be times where their hearts are broken.

And they'll seek the Lord fasting. But he says.

Now is not the time.

Now is the time that the bridegroom has arrived. And how would you expect the people. At the wedding party. To not eat. It's not appropriate. Not understanding Jesus is the groom. The husband of the church.

Not understanding. The timing. What he's come to do. Even though they're seeing it happen all around them. In their blindness. They think that the best thing to do is fast. And Jesus says no. It's not appropriate.

Three examples of the clash between Jesus and religion. And then we come to the parable.

New Wine, Old Wineskins, and Why Jesus Cannot Be Added to the Old Life

Alright.

Are you still with me? Because all of that was introduction. But don't worry. The parable is very simple. We come to the parable and he says. Nobody takes. We're going to say it's a shirt. You have an old shirt with a hole in it.