Luke 2018-01-09
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Bible Text
Luke 5:27-39 (ESV)
27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered 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 And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” 36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”
Reflection Questions
Luke 5:27-28
- Describe Levi’s response to Jesus’ calling.
- What did Levi leave behind in order to follow Jesus?
- What are the things I am struggling to leave behind to follow Jesus?
Luke 5:31-32
- Whom does Jesus say needs a doctor?
- How do I react to the assertion that I am “sick” or that there is something not right about me?
Luke 5:36-39
“Those who like old wine do not try the new, for their minds are already made up: ‘The old is good.’ So Jesus expects many not to respond to his new way. They are comfortable with life and piety as it is. Jesus’ remark is both a description and a warning. John the Baptist came to tell the people that a new era of change was coming, but Jesus knows that some do not want change.”[1]
- Why does the new wine need to be poured into a new wineskin?
- What do the new wine and new wineskins symbolize?
- Are there some ways in which I have been resisting God because I don’t like to come out of my set “old ways”?
[1] Darryll L. Bock, Luke, NIV Application Commentary Series, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996) 170-171.