Jesus addresses a major issue in New Testament Doctrine. It signifies yet another critical departure from Judaism.
Levi Matthew is, according to a rather strong Early Church tradition, a cousin of Jesus because their mothers were sisters. That makes James the Less (either “smaller” or “younger”) a brother of Matthew and another cousin of Jesus. By this tradition, Alphaeus is also called Clopas (or Cleopas). Nobody today is in a position to verify or deny this tradition.
Matthew collected taxes for Herod Antipas, stationed in one of the cities along the shore of Galilee. We have no idea where folks get the idea he collected taxes for Rome. Augustus had done away with tax-farming (publicani was the Latin term for tax farmers) about the time Jesus was born. It took a long time coming back into play, at which point we know the Roman administrators didn’t trust Jews to tax their own on behalf of the Empire.
Besides, Roman taxes didn’t amount to much at that point; it was all the customs and business taxes levied by the “native” rulers that fell so heavy on the people. The reason Pharisees despised tax-gatherers so much was because it made it difficult for religious leaders to collect various religious taxes, since the government taxes had left everyone too poor to pay. Free-will offerings were nowhere near enough to fund the lavish Temple services and all the priests and Levites on duty. Synagogues were also donation starved, and most peasants never attended in the first place.
So our text tells us that Jesus had another teaching session somewhere on the shore of Galilee. After that, He went to the tax office and found His cousin Levi Matthew. Mark makes it sound like Matthew surely heard some of this teaching and was moved. He knew this rabbi as his cousin, so it wasn’t hard for Jesus to convince him to join the merry band of disciples.
This meant Matthew had a career change, and he hosted a farewell party before going on the road. Naturally, he invited his friends who were also tax collectors. Keep in mind that, by ancient Hebrew tradition, eating at the same table was a declaration of peace with whomever shared the meal. The Pharisees had made it official doctrine that these tax collectors were “sinners” and covenant outcasts. It was tantamount to eating with Gentiles, in their eyes. So they questioned why Jesus, in His rabbi regalia, was eating with these people. Matthew’s friends were big fans of Jesus and His unique sense of authority in teaching the Covenant, instead of the Talmudic traditions.
The Pharisees had addressed themselves to the disciples, and Jesus overheard it. He rose to answer Himself. Using a parable about how those who were ill knowing they needed a physician, He pointed out how this crowd was eager to repent at His teaching. The Pharisees had convinced themselves long ago that they needed no repentance, as John the Baptist had noted. This betrays the whole point of the sacrificial system, founded on the understanding that everyone is fallen, and in need of a constant reminder that sin costs blood. At the core of the Covenant, everyone must live in a constant state of penitence.
Matthew, Mark and Luke together say that it was during this same event that the Pharisees raised another issue. Most likely this feast fell on one of those fast days spuriously declared by the Pharisees twice every week. Given that John the Baptist and his disciples kept this tradition, why did Jesus and His disciples break with it?
Jesus answered by acting as if this feast was a wedding feast. That would have made it exempt from the Pharisees’ fasting schedule. It was common for rulers in the Ancient Near East, and a Messiah in particular, to treat the people as his collective bride upon enactment, and every renewal, of treaties and covenants. Jesus was the Messiah, and He was renewing the Covenant of Moses with the Hebrew nation. He was restoring people who had been unjustly ostracized. At some point, He would have to return to His eternal throne, and would no longer be with them in person. Thus, there’s no reason to force them all to fast, when they should feast and celebrate every moment they had with Him.
When the time comes, fasting will be restored with a new purpose that had nothing to do with Pharisaical legalism.
Then He pulls out two closely related parables, one about cloth and the other about wine. You do not sew unwashed patches onto old garments, lest it shrink the first time it gets wet and tear an even bigger hole in the old garment. You do not take the first flush of juice from the wine vat, with all that extra sugar content, and pour it into old wineskins, lest the fermenting wine swell and burst the skins that have already been stretched to the limit.
Jesus was coming to renew the Covenant of Moses. This was no simple patch job. It was going to be updated to the Covenant of the Messiah. What served so well for some 1400 years was going to be translated into a new context. Doing so meant the older version would be closed out. All the more so since it had been neglected by the Jewish leaders. It had gotten pretty crusty and was no longer capable of expressing the eternal will of the Father in the current situation. The Messiah was the personified will of the Father, and would be coming to live in His people’s hearts. He is the New Covenant. It was the same wine from the same vineyard, but a new vintage that needed new forms that could stretch to fit.
