Luke 5:27 - Meaning and Application

Everything here, except the last verse, has already appeared in Matthew and Mark. This is not a story about a miracle in nature that Jesus performed. It is a record of the wonders of his grace, and for anyone who understands rightly, those are no less strong proof that Christ was sent by God.

It was a wonder of his grace that he would call a tax collector, a man sitting at the tax booth, to be his disciple and follower (Luke 5:27). It was already surprising enough that he would honor poor fishermen, men of low social rank. But it was even more striking that he would receive tax collectors, men with a very bad reputation and public shame. In this, Christ humbled himself and appeared in the likeness of sinful human flesh. By doing this, he exposed himself to criticism and earned the accusation that he was a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

It was also a wonder of his grace that the call took effect at once (Luke 5:28). Levi, a tax collector, though people in that work often had little interest in religion, left his good position in the tax office for the sake of Christ and his soul. He stood to gain more there, likely making his living there and perhaps even moving toward a better post. Yet he rose up and followed Christ. No heart is too hard for Christ’s Spirit and grace to work on, and no obstacle to a sinner’s conversion is beyond his power.

It was another wonder of his grace that he would not only receive a converted tax collector into his close followers, but also keep company with unconverted tax collectors so he could do them spiritual good. He defended this by showing that it fit the whole purpose of his coming into the world. Christ came as the physician of souls sick with sin and close to death from that disease. He especially cares for the sick, that is, for sinners who know they need a physician. He came to call sinners, even the worst of sinners, to repentance and to assure them of pardon when they repent (Luke 5:31-32). That truly is good news of great joy.

It was also a wonder of his grace that he patiently endured the arguments of sinners against him and his disciples (Luke 5:30). He did not answer the criticism of the scribes and Pharisees with anger, though he could rightly have done so. Instead, he answered with reason and gentleness. Rather than using the moment to show anger toward the Pharisees, as he later did, or to strike back at them, he used it to show mercy to poor tax collectors, another kind of sinner, and to encourage them.

It was a wonder of his grace that, in training his disciples, he took their condition into account and matched their duties to their strength and stage of growth. People objected that his disciples did not fast as often as the Pharisees and John the Baptist’s disciples did (Luke 5:33). But he pressed most strongly on what fasting is really about, putting sin to death, crucifying the flesh, and living a life of self-denial. That is far better than fasting and outward acts of self-denial, just as mercy is better than sacrifice.

It was also a wonder of his grace that Christ saved the harder trials for his disciples’ later years, when his grace would have better prepared them for those tests than it had at the beginning. For now they were like children in the bride-chamber while the bridegroom was with them, full of joy and celebrating each day as a feast. Christ was welcomed wherever he went, and they were welcomed for his sake too. So far, they met little or no opposition. But that would not last forever. The days would come when the bridegroom would be taken away from them (Luke 5:35). Then Christ would leave them with sorrow in their hearts, work in their hands, and the world filled with hostility and rage against them. Then they would fast, because they would no longer be so well supplied as they were now. We “both hunger and thirst, and are naked” (1 Corinthians 4:11). Then they would keep many more religious fasts than they do now, because providence would call them to it, and they would serve the Lord with fasting (Acts 13:2).

It was another wonder of his grace that he measured their duties to their strength. He would not put new cloth on an old garment, or new wine into old wineskins (Luke 5:36-38). He would not, as soon as he had called them out of the world, load them at once with the full strictness and hardship of discipleship, lest they turn back. When God brought Israel out of Egypt, he did not lead them by the way of the Philistines, because if they saw war too soon, they might repent and return to Egypt (Exodus 13:17). In the same way, Christ trained his followers little by little in the discipline of his household. No one who has drunk old wine will suddenly want new wine, or enjoy it right away, but will say, “The old is better” (Luke 5:39), because he is used to it. So the disciples would be tempted to think their old way of life was better until they were gradually trained into the new way they were called to follow.

Or we may read it another way: let them grow used to religious duties, and then they will take them up as fully as you do, but we must not push them too fast. Calvin takes this as a warning to the Pharisees not to boast about their fasting or the show they made of it, and not to look down on Christ’s disciples because they did not make the same display. The Pharisees’ religion was outward and showy, like new wine that sparkles and is lively. But wise people say the old is better, because though it may not color the cup as well, it is more warming in the stomach and healthier. Christ’s disciples, though they had less outward show of religion, had more of its true power.