He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
‘Comment: Levi, also known as Matthew, who later wrote one of the four gospels in the NT, was a tax gatherer for Herod and thus for the Romans. Most of the Jews saw him as a traitor to their nation. Jesus doesn’t choose only the ‘right people’ to follow Him. As well as Levi, the tax collector, he also called a zealot (they aimed at an overthrow of the Romans) and a traitor! Peter kept putting his foot in his mouth – Jesus still calls imperfect people like you and me to follow Him! And then He caused a situation by eating with ‘tax collectors and sinners’! Shame on Jesus! His trouble was with the self-righteous – which is a title of which we Christians must avoid like poison! Jesus is tactful for He doesn’t give them this title but in a sense hits below the belt by referring to them as righteous and I think sarcastically says to them ‘And you are perfect’ – “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” I’m not sure if the next passage follows immediately but it may well have! The very religious Pharisees and the followers of John (now in prison and maybe by now beheaded!) said something like ‘And you and your followers don’t fast like us and those who were baptised by John?’ What was Jesus reply? Tones and emphases while one is speaking are hard to capture on the written page. Others may disagree but paraphrasing this passage, I think, that Jesus said something like this. ‘Don’t forget the reason behind why people fast. They do it to humble themselves before Almighty God. I am the Messiah from heaven, I‘m equivalent to the Bridegroom at one of your wedding ceremonies and people don’t fast at a wedding reception. After I’m dead and risen and ascended while they wait for Me to return then fasting will be appropriate! But don’t forget this – I’m not here to patch up your old religion, I am bringing a whole New Understanding of what God has done in the past and is doing now and will do in the future!‘ (Remember that my rewriting of what Jesus said is written now and with much of what He said, without explanation, lived through by Him as He, the ‘Bridegroom’ went via the Cross back into Heaven!)
Proverbs 21: 15 When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.
Prayer: Please deliver me from presumptuous sins.
As I read it! 