New Wineskins

Matthew 9:9-17

April 27, 2003

 

The call of Jesus Christ to follow Him as a disciple is unlike the call of any other religious movement. Some religions seem to call the emotions or bodies of devotees but lack a call to the whole person. For instance, many of the Eastern religions call their followers to a mystical, emotional religion that is propped up by endless chanting. Devotees go through prescribed chants, mindlessly repeating the same word or series of words until they are caught up into a state of euphoria. Other religions, like Islam, seem to emphasize giving the body to certain rituals or prescribed actions but without necessarily devoting the mind. A person becomes a Muslim by embracing the first pillar of Islam - that of simply reciting the shahadah, which declares Allah to be the only God and Mohammed his prophet. In addition, Islam adds four more pillars: the salat - a series of prescribed prayers; the sawm - a prescribed fast during Ramadan; the zakat - almsgiving of one-fortieth of the income; and Hajj - the pilgrimage to Mecca during his lifetime. A person can be a good, devout Muslim without even engaging the mind.

 

Unfortunately, in light of the explosion of nominal Christianity throughout our world, a person can be considered a Christian without devotion of heart, mind, soul, and will to Christ. As long as the form of religion fits into the broad definition of Christianity then that is all that matters. And so you can have one of Saddam's inner circle confidants, Tariq Aziz called a Christian. You can have gay-branches of Christianity that flaunt open defiance of morality yet consider themselves Christian. You can have multitudes that never darken a church door or engage in worship or read the Scripture or support Christian ministry, yet unabashedly call themselves Christian. However embracing forms of human ingenuity cannot make anyone a Christian.

 

The call to follow Jesus Christ is radically different. It involves the whole person - mind, will, emotions, lifestyle, and all that you are, following in faith after Jesus Christ. That is what the Pharisees had trouble understanding. They had narrowed religion down to a set of rules and regulations. Follow them, regardless of the condition of the heart and the thoughts of the mind, and you were considered righteous. But such form cannot handle the call to be a disciple of Christ. "Discipleship means something very different from anything the Pharisees had imagined," writes Leon Morris [The Gospel of Matthew, 218], and I would add, different from anything other religions have imagined as well. The old wineskins of human forms and imaginations cannot handle the new wine of the gospel and Christian discipleship. How did Christ deal with old wineskins in light of the gospel?

 

I. Christ's call

 

Jesus was still in Capernaum, His new hometown, with His disciples. He had healed many, cast out demons, and set forth the gospel of the kingdom in that community. Quite likely, Matthew, the tax collector, had observed Christ and His work. How much he understood we do not know. How deeply under conviction he may have been we do not know. But it is obvious that something had been taking place in his life for him to leave the wealth and position of tax collector to follow Jesus Christ as a disciple. The reality that a tax collector in First Century Palestine would follow Jesus Christ was nothing short of radical! I believe we can learn some important lessons about Christian discipleship by studying this portion of Matthew's Gospel.

 

1. Deliberate call

 

To say that tax collectors were looked down upon in that era is an understatement. To say that no one was more looked down upon than tax collectors is probably closer to the truth. Jewish thought refused to accept the reality that they could not longer exist as a theocracy. Living under the Roman government and paying taxes to Rome struck a raw nerve in every zealous Jew. They resented supporting a government that catered to idolatry and accepted immorality without problem. Since tax collecting was dirty business, the Romans gave this job to locals with their authority and arm backing them.

 

Alfred Edersheim explained that there were two types of tax collectors, the Gabbai and the Mokhsa. The Gabbai collected the regular income tax, one-percent of the income, and additional taxes on grain, produce, as well as a levy on each person. The Mokhsa, of which Matthew was likely a part, contracted with Rome to deal with other matters of taxation. They actually had no limit to the type things they could tax. They would tax the boat used for fishing, the fish caught, and the use of the harbor for unloading the boat. They would tax the axles on wagons, the animals pulling the wagons, and the goods on the wagons. They would even open packages and letters, rifling through to see if there was anything taxable. Travelers passing through their toll booths would have to unload all their goods, facing the humiliation of the tax collector sifting through all he had and adding a tax to the collectors liking. Rome had a basic amount that they received, while the collector added whatever he deemed desirable for his trouble. Matthew's place in the collection house posits him as a Mokhsa that profited exorbitantly from his position. Edersheim remarks of the Mokhsa, "They were a criminal race" [The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, 515-516].

 

"As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax collector's booth; and He said to him, "Follow Me!" And he got up and followed Him." No one was a more unlikely disciple of Christ among the Twelve than Matthew the Mokhsa. He had no reputation in the community except that of disreputable. He would have worn the contemptuous, old Southern title "carpetbagger" quite well. His whole life was one of taking advantage of his position to legally rob people blind! But the call of Jesus Christ changed all of that in Matthew's life.

 

"Follow Me," Jesus commanded. We can assume that there may have been additional talk and discussion. But we can also assume that Jesus understood precisely the kind of man he had in Matthew, one that was most despised and deserving the scowling looks of the people of Capernaum. And we can assume that Matthew understood precisely what Christ called him to because he does not hesitate to leave everything, as Luke adds, to follow Christ (Luke 5:28). The term "follow" leaves no doubt as to the meaning. It is a call to follow as a disciple. The disciple no longer claimed that his life belonged to himself; he now belonged to Another. His rights were laid before his master. His one passion was to obey the One that called. Whereas before Matthew had great passion for amassing more and more things regardless of whom he cheated, now his one great passion was to follow after Jesus Christ as Lord.

 

Jesus picked him out - a man that would have been unwelcome at the synagogue and avoided in public gatherings. Jesus deliberately called a sinful man to become His disciple! And he has called countless millions in the succeeding years, sinners of every stripe, to become His disciples. Have you heard the deliberate call of Jesus Christ through the gospel? Have those resounding words, "Follow Me!" thundered in your mind and heart until you abandoned every passion and desire for the world or for yourself and followed after Christ?

 

2. Decisive response

 

Matthew is somewhat modest in his own appraisal of his response. He just simply adds, "And he got up and followed Him." Luke, as I noted, explains it more clearly. "And he left everything behind, and got up and began to follow Him." All of his security, power, and position, Matthew considered worthless and even a hindrance in comparison to the singular joy of following Jesus Christ. We must not misunderstand. It was not that he left behind the normal obligations of family, which we can assume he had. He did not abandon reality to follow Christ as though chasing after a shadow driven by the wind. But those things that stood in defiance of being a disciple, the sins that had enslaved him, the greedy passions that had dictated his life, the ruthless inconsideration for others that had become the norm, he left behind. Nothing that stood in the way of following Christ remained. To borrow the title from a popular novel, "Left Behind" describes the old life and desires of the disciple of Jesus Christ - left behind to follow Jesus Christ.

 

What better indication of Matthew's seriousness can we find than the description that follows in verse ten? "Then it happened - that is after the decisive response on Matthew's part to Christ's call - that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples." The local Mokhsa had employees under him to do much of his dirty work. They were probably part of this festive gathering along with other Mokhsa and the local riff-raff of Capernaum. This was a primo-evangelistic gathering! Matthew, now delivered from the bondage of his sin, called his friends together to meet his new Master and Lord. That is just like a new believer! He is so filled with joy over the mercy of Christ shown to him that he wants all of his old friends to know this Christ in the same way. Would to God that we would never get so comfortable and complacent that we lose something of this joy and desire to see others come to Christ!

 

"And he got up and followed Him." Is that little sentence precisely what some of you need right now? You have heard the gospel so much that you can explain it to others. You've thought long and hard upon what it means to know Christ. You've contemplated the cross of Christ, the weightiness of your own sin, and the sufficiency of Christ's work for you before God. You've thought about forgiveness and even prayed from time to time for forgiveness because you are bothered about your sins. But have you decisively followed Christ? What does this involve? Consider Matthew's situation. He heard the call of Christ. He understood that Christ does not demand part of us but all of us. And in a decisive moment he turned from the sinful pattern of his life and gave himself in obedient, faithful following of Jesus Christ. Did he understand everything that Christ was going to do in his life or everything that Christ demanded? Obviously not; but he understood enough of his own spiritual bankruptcy and the worth of Christ above all things to entrust his life and eternity to Jesus Christ. "Follow Me!" Jesus commands. Are you following Him?

 

II. Christ's compassion

 

Some stumble over their own sinfulness in balking at the call of Christ. But consider how this story explains the depth of Christ's compassion for sinners.

 

1. A gospel for sinners

 

The Pharisees stood outside Matthew's house and caught some of the disciples to quiz them about what was happening inside. They would not venture into the house of Matthew for fear that they would be deemed unclean. Their whole version of religion was that it belonged to the righteous. So they had no compassion for Matthew or his friends - they did not even want to associate with them.

 

"Why is your Teacher eating with tax collectors and sinners?" they asked the disciples. It was not so much that they were asking a question to gain information as that of making a point: Can you tell us any good reason why your Teacher eats with such sinners? They sought to undermine the disciples' confidence in Christ. If He were so righteous, they were suggesting, then He would surely keep aloof from the unworthy crowd gathered around that table.

 

Jesus intervened. "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick." Wow! An arrow from the lips of Christ pierced the whole argument of the Pharisees. It contained a simple illustration that served to burst their prideful bubble and welcome sinners to the only hope for wholeness. The Pharisees never thought of themselves as sinners and so consequently, they never made sense of the gospel. One does not see the need for good news if he has never understood the bad news of his sinfulness and God's judgment.

 

Everyone has an uncle or grandparent or friend that suffers physical ailments but just will not admit it. "Oh, I'm okay, I'm not sick," they say while hacking and limping and groping along. "I don't need a doctor; I'll be fine." We shake our heads at that kind of stubbornness in the physiological realm. But is there not even greater stubbornness in the spiritual realm? "I'm really not that bad. Oh, I know that I do a few things wrong, but compared to others, I'm really okay." Or like the fellow I talked with on one occasion, "Oh, I'm okay; God and I have got things worked out." And with that kind of cavalier bravado he shrugs at the gospel and ignores it.

 

The gospel is for sinners. It is only when we come to the place of recognizing, "There is none righteousness, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one," that we value the gospel of Jesus Christ (Rom 3:10-12). Until we become "poor in spirit," recognizing our own spiritual bankruptcy and hopelessness before God, we will continue to shrug at the gospel (Matt 5:3). My friend, the call of Jesus Christ to be His disciple is not for the righteous but for sinners. Those considering themselves righteous have deceived themselves into thinking that the gospel message is for everyone else. Sinners find constant refuge in the gospel, and I don't mean just at the beginning of the Christian life. John Knox, perhaps Scotland's greatest preacher, admitted, "In youth, in middle age and now after many battles, I find nothing in me but corruption." Charles Wesley adds, "Vile and full of sin I am" [MacArthur's New Testament Commentary, Matthew, II, 58]. The gospel is for sinners for life and eternity.

 

2. A confession of hope

 

The Pharisees just did not understand this so Jesus quotes from Hosea who called the wayward Israelites to repentance. "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire compassion, and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." First, our Lord uses a rabbinic formula, "but go and learn what this means," to rebuke the stony hearted Pharisees because they did not understand what they should have understood about man's sinfulness and God's mercy. Next, by quoting from the book of Hosea that captures God's pursuit of sinners to show covenant mercy, He reminds them that they had completely missed the teaching of Scripture. They had invested so much in their traditions that they had neglected the Word of God. When Israel was so unfaithful, pictured by the prophet's wayward wife Gomer, God pursued them with steadfast love and mercy. That should have at least been the concern of the Pharisees for the tax collectors and sinners they kept at arm's length. But because they had anointed themselves as righteous they failed to understand their own need for God's mercy. Satisfied with the forms and rituals of Pharisaism they lost sight of relationship with God.

 

And then, as though pulling back the curtain of divine purpose, Christ declares, "For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners" to repentance (as Luke 5:32 adds). The coming of Christ points to the Incarnation. Throughout the Gospels our Lord hints at His deity by such statements. God's purpose in sending His Son into the world involved sinners not the righteous. He came for sinners. His suffering and journey to the cross was for sinners. His cry of abandonment on the cross was for sinners. His resurrection was for sinners. Christ calls sinners to relationship with Himself, and He has provided everything necessary for sinners to be welcomed into His arms of forgiveness, new life, and His family.

 

Here is Christ's confession of hope for sinners. He came for sinners - just like us. But until one comes to the stark reality of his own sinfulness before God, he will not follow Christ as a disciple. Sinners are accepted before God on the merits of Christ, and given new life and eternity with God. Have you discovered the hope for sinners in Christ?

 

III. Christ's correction

 

Some of John the Baptist's disciples entered the scene. While the Pharisees asked a question to make an undermining point, these disciples of John seem to be earnest, asking, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?" In other words, why do we have the form of religion that includes the regular fast days but your disciples do not?

 

1. Empty forms

 

The only fast day required by the Law was on the Day of Atonement. It was a solemn time of remembering one's sins and the sins of the nation, and looking to God for forgiveness. Beyond that, the Pharisees had adopted the practice of fasting on Mondays and Thursdays. And they made sure that everyone knew they did this! John's disciples had embraced something of the austerity of these zealous followers of Judaism but they really did not understand the reason for their fasting. They just fasted. It seemed to be the right thing to do because the most spiritual men in Israel, the Pharisees, did it.

 

Jesus explained that fasting had its place but not as a substitute for relationship with God through Christ. "The attendants of the bridegroom - which was a common Old Testament metaphor for the Lord - cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they?" Weddings were festive occasions, lasting for a week. The feasting, laughing, singing, and dancing were part of the celebration of marriage. To act mournful or morose at a wedding was unheard of in that day. Christ compared Himself to the bridegroom at the wedding, and the disciples were His attendants that shared in His joy. As long as Christ was around there was no sorrow for them. "But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast." The implication is that fasting is part of Christian practice at certain times, particularly times of great sorrow and burden before the Lord. But this was a festive occasion as Christ was in their midst.

 

The problem was with the ways that the Pharisees conducted their religious lives. Their traditions drove them into rigid forms of ritualism (old wineskins) that had no life. They could not see how desperate they really were because they were so actively engaged in following their forms and traditions. Their concern was for the externals of religion and not the inward life of character and devotion to God through Christ. They paid close attention to rituals but neglected the weightier matters of the law, "to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8). They had concern for themselves alone, and not for others. They were unwilling to admit their sinfulness but quick to point out how others that did not follow their forms and rituals were sinners - the very substance of sinfulness, in their thinking, was not doing what they did. They had a false sense of righteousness, thinking that it had only to do with the outward forms (or wineskins, as Christ puts it). They failed to see their own need for divine forgiveness, thinking they were righteous because of what they did.

 

2. Radical truth

 

But the gospel is too weighty to fit into that kind of framework. The gospel is not about what we do; it is about what Christ has done for us. It is not about how righteous we are but about the righteousness of Christ for us. The Pharisees listened to the words of Christ through ears that could only think through their rigid forms. The gospel did not fit because it is centered in Christ and His work, so they rejected it. Jesus explains this by talking about cloth and wineskins. "But no on puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results." In other words, you cannot take the glory of the gospel and try to work it into the human framework of man's traditions. The gospel fits only God's way. Further, "Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved." What do the new wineskins mean?

 

Some have taken this to mean that Jesus tossed out the Old Testament completely, law and all, and replaced it with His teaching of grace. But that is a glaring misunderstanding. John MacArthur rightly explains this:

Jesus categorically declared that He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it and that any opponent of the law was an opponent of God (Matt. 5:17-19). God's law and His grace have always coexisted and have always been perfectly compatible. The old wineskins were not the teachings of the Old Testament but the rabbinical traditions that had come to overshadow, supersede, and often contradict the divinely revealed truths of the Old Testament [70].


So what are the modern wineskins that hinder a person from the gospel of grace? Any structure, form, way of thinking, or imagination that puts confidence in the flesh cannot handle the gospel - it is an old wineskin destined to burst under the radical power of the gospel. Legalism, ritualism, or substituting anything for a solitary dependence upon the grace of God in Christ is a rejection of God's provision for sinner through Christ.

 

It was not that the Pharisees had no desire for forgiveness or God's blessing in their lives. They just wanted God to do it their way and not His way. Their wineskins could not handle the new wine of the gospel.

 

Conclusion

 

Some of us may have more kinship with the Pharisees than we will admit. We do want God's blessings provided in Christ but we want it on our terms and in our timing. That, my friend, is an old wineskin that cannot handle the new wine of the gospel. Christ can give you a new wineskin - a new life of dependence upon Him, if you but hear the call in the gospel, "Follow Me!" And Like Matthew, you get up from the old patterns and practices of your life, and decisively follow Christ in obedient faith.

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