“Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house…But the Pharisees…complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:27b-32)

“He told them this parable…” (Luke 5:36a) “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’” (Luke 8:10) π αραβολ ή (parabole) – “parable” a placing of one thing by the side of another. an allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson.

Surface truth Personal application Spiritual truth Studying a parable is like “peeling an onion.” Interpreting parables 1) Surface truth 2) Spiritual truth 3) Personal application

“They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.” (Luke 5:33) νηστε ύ ω (nesteuo) – “fast” to abstain as a religious exercise from food and drink.

“…I fell prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you’d committed…” (Deut. 9:18) “On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads.” (Nehemiah 9:1) “They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the Lord and for the nation of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.” (II Samuel 1:12)

“They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.” (Luke 5:33) “So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.” (Daniel 9:3)

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter - when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isaiah 58:6-7)

“This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work - whether native-born or a foreigner residing among you - because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins. It is a day of sabbath rest, and you must deny yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance.” (Leviticus 16:29-31)

“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:16-18)

Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them.” (Luke 5:34) “I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.” (II Corinthians 11:2b)

7) Entrance into bridal chamber. 8) Consummation of marriage. 9) Announcement of consummation. 10) Week long wedding feast. 11) Revealing of bride. 12) Married couple goes to their home. 1) Offer of Betrothal. 2) Negotiation of price for bride. 3) Covenant established. 4) Separation period. 5) Arrival of groom for wedding. 6) Processional to groom's father's house. “The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice.” (John 3:29b)

No one goes to a party to be miserable. Jesus is our husband in a covenant.

“But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.” (Luke 5:35) “When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.” (Mark 16:9-11)

No one goes to a party to be miserable. “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” (Proverbs 17:22) Jesus is our husband in a covenant. Christian living is joyous because being in a relationship with Jesus is cause for rejoicing.

“No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old.” (Luke 5:36)

“By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.” (Hebrews 8:13) Doing so ruins both garments. “You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” (Galatians 5:4) The Gospel is incompatible with Judaism. “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17)

Doing so ruins both garments. The Gospel is incompatible with Judaism. Just as Jesus came to institute a new covenant, He intends to recreate His followers anew. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (II Corinthians 5:17) Doing so ruins both garments. The Gospel is incompatible with Judaism.

“And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’” (Luke 5:37-39)

This bursts the skins and spills the wine.

“You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.” (Matthew 23:24)

“So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them with his son David to Saul.” (I Samuel 16:20 - NIV) נֹאד (nod) – “skin” or “bottle” skin, bottle, skin-bottle. “…Jesse took a donkey laden with bread, and a bottle of wine…” (I Samuel 16:20 - KJV)

“For I am full of words; the spirit within me constrains me. Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins ready to burst.” (Job 32: ESV)

As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:15) We must seek new truth from Scripture. If we shut ourselves to new truth, we become hard-hearted and our faith grows stagnant. He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5a) This bursts the skins and spills the wine.