Out with the old - 24 August 2010 |
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In Luke’s gospel, the account of the Pharisees’ question about fasting and Jesus response about the bridegroom and the new wineskins (5:33-39) takes place on the same occasion as Jesus’ calling of Levi and his feasting with his friends (5:27-32). This simple observation sheds light on a couple of details of the narrative.
- When the Pharisees ask why Jesus’ disciples eat and drink rather than fasting, they’re obviously talking about the newly-repentant tax-collector friends of Levi (5:33). And the eating and drinking referred to is obviously the feast they’re eating at that very moment.
- This means that the “wedding guests” (5:34), too, are those same “tax collectors and sinners,” and that Jesus is their “bridegroom”.
- When Jesus tells the parable of the wineskins, he’s addressing the obvious (implied) question from the Pharisees, “Hey, what about us – we’re God’s people, right; aren’t we the wedding guests at the LORD’s feast?” Jesus has already answered this in part in 5:32 (No you ain’t – I’ve come to call sinners like these, not you righteous people). The old/new wineskins parable takes the explanation further. The new wineskins into which the wine of the feast is poured are to be identified with the repentant tax collectors and sinners sitting around him. After all, they’re at a feast – wine is quite literally being poured into them at that very moment.
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Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Bible, Minister's Blog