Following a Different Kind of Leader

John Wivell

Luke • Sermon • Submitted 5 months ago • Presented 5 months ago

Luke 5:27–6:11

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Jesus is a leader of a different kind, so following Him means changing.

Notes

Transcript

Scripture Reading

Luke 5:27–6:11 NKJV

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.” So he left all, rose up, and followed Him. 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. And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, “Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” 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?” And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.” 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. 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. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’ ” Now it happened on the second Sabbath after the first that He went through the grainfields. And His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands. And some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” But Jesus answering them said, “Have you not even read this, what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he went into the house of God, took and ate the showbread, and also gave some to those with him, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat?” And He said to them, “The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” Now it happened on another Sabbath, also, that He entered the synagogue and taught. And a man was there whose right hand was withered. So the scribes and Pharisees watched Him closely, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him. But He knew their thoughts, and said to the man who had the withered hand, “Arise and stand here.” And he arose and stood. Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one thing: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?” And when He had looked around at them all, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. But they were filled with rage, and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

There are many prominent men who ask you to follow them. Even teachers do this. Taking a class means following the guidance of someone who, hopefully, is smarter than you can can help you do something better. Philosophers down through the ages have attracted those who wish to gain wisdom. This is true in the West with wise men like Socrates and Plato; the east has their gurus. Such men don’t necessarily claim to be any more than a man, just that they have wisdom and if you follow them, you will be a better person.

If you think about it, obedience to your boss or the government is also a kind of following. In that case, your boss isn’t necessarily implying that following him makes you a better person, just that you can keep you job and make money if you do as he asks. The Government may or may not make a moral implication - it demands you follow it or else.

Jesus is, of course, a religious guide. He provides you wisdom that transcends your everyday life to enable you to please God. He promises eternal life, and the solution to the crazy, messed up world in which we live. Unlike other religious guides, he has the evidence to back up his stupendous claims.

But while Jesus asks you to follow him, he is different from all other guides, leaders, or bosses. And I don’t just mean that he is perfect. I mean that following him is not like following anyone else. It is both the easiest thing in the world, and the hardest thing you will ever do. It’s easy, because he promises to provide all the power you need to overcome, if only you are willing to change. It’s hard because you cannot simply turn over a new leaf, or make some slight alternation to your worldview or habits. You must be transformed from the inside out, to become an entirely different person. It’s easy because following Jesus brings blessing; it’s hard because following Jesus always involves sacrifice.

I. Following Jesus Means Repentance

We begin with a tax collector, that Luke calls Levi. Now Matthew relates the same story, but gives the name Matthew (Matthew 9:9). The reason is that many Jews had two names, one Greek the other Hebrew; they would use either one depending on the circumstances.

Matthew 9:9 NKJV

As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.

When I worked for the Chinese, many of them had two names also, because their Chinese name could neither be pronounced or remembered by us poor Westerners. So they would choose a second, Western name for themselves, just for our convenience. A similar thing happened for the Jews. Hebrew names would have been unfamiliar to Greek speakers, so the Jews would pick a Greek name as well. Even today, while the more common Hebrew names are familiar, the rare ones are unpronounable for western mouths, too.

So Levi-Matthew was a Tax Collector. There was a structure in the Roman Tax system. The ones who sat at the tax office would be on the lower end of the totem-pole. Tax collectors generally were hated, so the Romans did compensate them well. But corruption was also rife, due to the method the Romans had for collecting taxes. The tax collectors would bid on getting a certain amount, with an extra amount built in for their living expenses; but if they collected more, the Romans did not care. So pretty much everyone cheated.

I do not know if Levi-Matthew cheated or not; however, when he left everything to follow Jesus, he left behind the lucrative job of tax collector to follow Jesus - because Jesus was eventually hated too, he did not end up getting more respect, just more poverty.

He left behind his entire life, and never looked back. Now, of course, we don’t usually have to abandon our entire way of life to follow Jesus, unless you’re engaged in an actively immoral profession. But that same dedication is still required today. This isn’t for super-Christians, this is the base requirement for being a Christian in the first place. Jesus demands total surrender; he will have nothing less.

So what did Levi do to demonstrate his total commitment to Jesus? He called his friends. Who would want to be the friend of a tax collector? well other tax collectors, obviously. Not too many others. Levi is an outcast in society, even if a well-off one. But these tax collectors are changed men. They aren’t just eating with Jesus and going back to cheating - they have repented. How do I know? Because of Jesus reply - I have come to call sinners to repentance. Jesus has no interest in tax collectors who don’t want to change. But he will forgive anything, even treason against your own country.

And it is just here that we see the difference between following Jesus and following any of the other Rabbis of his day. The Pharisees were fixated on keeping themselves ceremonially cleansed. They correctly discerned that the tax collectors, in general, did not please God. “Sinners” were a category of people who made no attempt to live according to the Law of Moses, such as prostitutes, and, yes, tax collectors. Such people were in a constant state of uncleanness by their own design. God did demand a holy and separate people. However, where the Pharisees neglected to follow God was in repentance. All through the Scriptures, God always allowed repentance, and forgave sins of any degree whatsoever to those who asked him.

The Pharisees, however, did not have a category for “repentant Sinners.” In their mind, you were either holy or a sinner. Jesus, however, has a third category - someone who used to be a sinner, but is now changed. The Pharisees were exact in their pursuit of purity, but to make that doable, they had no choice but to ignore some quite important things. Please understand, they were sincere when they tried to be pure before God, but no one can withstand the blinding brightness of God’s real purity, so they ignored repentance (Luke 16:15). The Pharisees spent most of their time trying to prove to other people that they were good. So the “righteous” that Jesus is talking about are not those who are truly righteous before God, but those who think they are righteous because they focus entirely on looking virtuous before men.

Luke 16:15 NKJV

And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

But God does not care about what you look like; he cares about your heart. So he could see that all this effort - real effort - to be pure was entirely useless as they did not actually deal with the real sin on their soul. They did what would make society call them good, in other words, they were the original virtue signalers. The Tax collectors who followed Jesus, simply could not look good, since they had already stained their reputation forever. But they were repentant, they were following Jesus as forgiven sinners. Forgiven Sinner is the only category that has real purity before God, all the effort in the world will avail nothing except for the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus.

II. Following Jesus means Change

The next story and accompanying parable has to do with fasting. Now fasting was a big part of first-century Judaism, but not much a part of early Christianity, let alone today. The Scriptures nowhere make fasting required, but it was, and is permitted. Jesus himself says that his disciples will one day fast, so whatever we get out of this, it isn’t that fasting is wrong.

So before we get into Jesus’ conclusion about fasting, let’s ask what the application of this is.

Well first of all, the purpose of fasting should be to focus on prayer and on the Lord. God isn’t impressed by just doing without stuff just because, and if you fast to make yourself look religious, well, then you’re part of the hypocrites that Jesus condemned. But if you fast for the right reason, go ahead. To be honest, I’ve never fasted, nor have I ever thought I needed to, however, should you choose to do it correctly, it will be pleasing to God.

However, what if that’s something you don’t normally do. I’m not here to tell you have to do it, so what’s the point of this passage for us? Think about what kinds of activities are parallel to fasting. We’re talking about things that are not required by God, but will please him if done correctly. Furthermore, fasting was something that changed because of God’s new working in Jesus. I’d put all kinds of activities to serve Jesus that are optional.

You are obligated to be faithful to your spouse, but you are not obligated to get married in the first place.

You are obligated to serve God where you are, but you are not obligated to go into vocational ministry as a pastor or missionary.

You are obligated to honor God at your job, but your specific career is optional.

You are obligated to worship God, but he doesn’t require you to sing specific songs.

So to apply Jesus’ instructions about fasting to other optional things we can do for God, we need to think about what he actually said.

He doesn’t argue that the disciples of John and the Pharisees are doing wrong per se. Rather, he indicates that his own presence makes fasting inappropriate.

The analogy is like many of Jesus’ illustrations, simple and derived from everyday life. You don’t fast at a wedding - it’s not just because they have food; it’s because if you refused to eat once you attended a wedding it would be rude. Fasting is just not an appropriate thing to do at a wedding. Doesn’t matter if it’s the elaborate ANE weddings that could last a week or the shorter simpler affairs we have today. It’s just not appropriate to be sad at a wedding.

Same goes for when Jesus was actively preaching on earth - it’s not an appropriate time to be fasting and mourning. That’s not because it’s bad to be sad; it’s because what Jesus is doing is trying to persuade people that good news has arrived; the King is here, so rejoice!

The Parable goes with the previous story; here again, Jesus uses two simple, everyday illustrations.

Newly woven, unshrunk cloth would not work with an old, already shrunk garment. If you patched an old garment with an unshrunk patch, when it shrank it would tear away from the clothes and make the tear worse.

Wine was generally put into the tanned skin of an animal like a goat. Because the skin was flexible, it would hold the wine and allow it to offgas the carbon dioxide from the fermentation process. However, after it had stored the wine, it had already been stretched, so it could not be used for new, still fermenting, wine. If you did put new wine into old wineskins, the old wineskins, having lost their flexibility, would burst and you’d loose both the skins and the wine.

Furthermore, those who drank old, already fermented, wine won’t want new, still fermenting, wine. They like the old better.

What’s the point?

Jesus’ arrival is not merely perfected Judaism, he does bring new things. These new things mean that following him requires adjustment; you can’t just live your life how you used to live; following him means doing things differently.

People generally don’t like doing things differently. It’s scary and confusing. However, Jesus requires it.

It was true for the ancient Jews - Jesus was authorized to change some of their most cherished religious practices.

But it’s also true for everyone else. Following Jesus means living a different kind of life.

III. Following Jesus as Lord

The key verse of this entire section is Jesus’ statement in v.5 - Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. But again, we will need to apply Jesus’ controversy on an ancient practice to today when we don’t do that anymore. The Bible is quite clear we do not observe the Sabbath today Col 2:16.

Colossians 2:16 NKJV

So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,

So what kinds of practices can get the same treatment as Jesus gave for the Sabbath?

First of all, the point of Jesus being Lord is that he gets to set what’s important. Anything, even your most cherished habits, must be changed if he declares it.

Second, Jesus being Lord of the Sabbath means that He gives the proper interpretation of what the Sabbath always should have been.

Now some background about the Sabbath - unlike fasting, the Sabbath was not optional

It’s part of the Ten Commandments Exod 20:8-11

Exodus 20:8–11 NKJV

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

God commanded someone to be executed for ignoring the Sabbath Exod 31:14-16; Exod 35:2

Exodus 31:14–16 NKJV

You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.

Exodus 35:2 NKJV

Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh day shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.

The reason the Exile lasted for 70 years was to make up for the Sabbath-breaking Lev 26:33-35

Leviticus 26:33–35 NKJV

I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall rest— for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it.

However, since the time of the Maccabean revolt, Israel had completely switched from ignoring the Sabbath, to making it one of the basic marks of Judaism, higher even than most of the other provisions of the ten commandments.

The Pharisees did not have a problem with the disciples taking some grain from a random farmer’s field; that was expressly permitted in the Law Deut 23:25.

Deuteronomy 23:25 NKJV

When you come into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor’s standing grain.

Rather, they had a problem with the fact that it was the Sabbath, since technically the disciples were harvesting, and winnowing grain. Since harvesting is definitely work, they accused Jesus’ disciples of breaking the Sabbath.

The second story is similar. The Pharisees had a problem with Jesus’ healing, because, they argued, healing is work.

Now here they were definitely also looking for an accusation. This means they weren’t sincerely trying to do right, they were looking for an excuse to condemn Jesus. Such activity is an extremely serious offense against any Christian leader, let alone against the son of God.

Still, the Rabbinic ruling was that healing to save a life was permitted, but healing for non-life-threatening illness was not. Since this man had a withered hand, he certainly was in no danger of dying; so the argument was that he should just wait until that evening when the Sabbath was over, and then be healed.

Jesus’ answer in both cases was that a correct understanding of the Sabbath would show he was not breaking the law.

He cited the story of David in 1 Samuel 21. David was fleeing from Saul, and he had nothing. He went to Nod, to the high priest Ahimelech. Now David lied about having men with him, but that’s not important for Jesus’ point. Jesus’ point is that Ahimelech permitted David and David’s men [that he thought David had] to eat the showbread. The reason he did this was the Ahimelech did not have any other bread available.

So the high priest had to make an interpretation of the law - which is more important, giving bread to the needy or keeping the commandment in the law that only the priests should eat this special bread? The high priest made the decision that showing mercy to the needy was more important, since he could not do both. And he was correct; God values mercy above sacrifice.

How does this apply to Jesus’ disciples? They don’t have food with them at this time, because they are constantly traveling and don’t have regular income. Therefore, they are hungry; But since God values mercy above ceremony, it is permissible to fill their belly as the Law permitted. This is a correct interpretation of the Law - it’s not like the disciples were full-on harvesting a field of grain; that would be a rather transparent violation of the Sabbath. They were only plucking grain to ease their hunger.

So when Jesus declares he is Lord of the Sabbath, he is declaring the right to interpret the Law; and he asserts that this interpretation is what God intended all along. He isn’t breaking the Sabbath; he is giving the Sabbath its proper level of importance.

The second story, likewise, has Jesus giving the proper interpretation of the Sabbath

He asks what you should do on the Sabbath, good or evil? Notice he assumes that you have to do one or the other; doing nothing is not an option. Of course, no one would ever say it is right to do evil on the Sabbath, or indeed on any other day. Yet, oddly, they did say it was right to destroy, sort of. When John Maccabaeus began fighting, he realized that the Greeks would attack him on the Sabbath and wipe him out completely. Thus, he pronounced that while he would not begin an attack on the Sabbath, he did consider it acceptable to defend himself on the Sabbath. Jesus argues that the Sabbath wasn’t given to prevent people from helping others; thus, healing on the Sabbath is permitted.

However, Jesus heals by miracle. It stretches the idea of work to say that doing a miracle is breaking the Sabbath. But that’s not his point. His point is that he is doing good, and the Sabbath wasn’t given to stop people from helping others. Thus, he deliberately heals the man.

So why were they so angry? Because the Scribes and Pharisees liked to think of themselves as the interpreters of the law. They got to tell people what the law really meant. And indeed, they spent a great deal of time and energy trying to figure out how to apply the law to many different situations. Jesus demands they acknowledge his authority to be the law’s interpreter. They have made an idol out of their own ability to interpret the law. If you want to see someone get really, really angry, destroy their idols.