After the healing of the paralytic, Luke records the call of Levi and the banquet that was held later in his home. This dinner with tax collectors and sinners prompts a strong reaction from the Pharisees, to which Jesus responds, "I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance." Luke then records the question over fasting. The Pharisees are not impressed with the rather sloppy approach to fasting regulations employed by Jesus and his disciples, to which criticism Jesus makes the point that a wedding is not for fasting. A collection of parabolic sayings illustrate this point: new cloth on old; new wine in new wineskins; a person who has started drinking well-matured wine will not put up with a young wine.

v27-28. Tax in the first century was insidious. Not only was it too high, it was fraudulently collected. The tax collectors would often pocket up to 50% for themselves. Levi, often identified by his common name Matthew, was in his tax booth collecting taxes. Obviously he had already been touched by Jesus' ministry, and when asked to be a disciple, he jumps at the chance.

v29. Levi then holds a dinner for his tax-collecting friends so that they can meet his new friends.

v30. Somehow the Pharisees get in on the act, although as the separated ones they would certainly not have entered the home of a collaborator and thief. In their question to the disciples, the Pharisees probe the issue of religious cleanliness. Jesus cannot be the messiah if he allows himself to become ritually unclean.

v31-32. In line with the Old Testament prophets, Jesus declares that the dawning kingdom of God is for the lost, broken, dispersed, enslaved..... remnant of Israel. Messiah comes to gather those who yearn for the day of redemption. Jesus therefore, as the messiah, rightly associates with "sinners" and invites, or better, summons them to enter the kingdom.

v33. The Pharisees note that even the disciples of John the Baptist fast, so why is it that Jesus and his disciples are more prone to partying than fasting?

v34-35. In a simple illustration Jesus makes the point that a wedding is not a time for sadness, but rather joy. The inauguration of the new age of the kingdom is not a time for fasting, but a time of celebration.

v36-38. Jesus then, with two short illustrations, makes the point that some things in life simply cannot go together, they are totally incompatible. There is a total dichotomy between an age when people wait for the coming of God's kingdom and an age when people enter it.

v39. In a final note, only found in Luke's gospel, Jesus observes that the dawning kingdom of God is like a well-aged wine, once tasted nothing else compares.

I was in a discussion with a young clergyman and we got into the thorny issue of Anglican ritual and order. As one of the young bloods, he wanted to throw out all the trappings of Anglicanism. He felt that unless we adapted to the new ethos of the age (whatever that is!) we would undermine the work of the gospel in gathering and nurturing a people of God. As a church we would die. I, on the other hand, even though more inclined to a Country and Western form of worship, argued that I was still willing to do it by the book. He argued that I was hanging onto "old wine sins", old religious form. "New wine" was here which required "new wine skins".

I have to say that I have heard the new wine skins argument used on numerous occasions in support of the destruction of tradition. Of course, tradition has no substance in itself, but then, neither does innovation. Once, the vast majority of Australians could recite the Lord's prayer. Now, what with two attempts to rewrite it, with phrases like "save us from the time of trial" (whatever that means!), we are left with total confusion.

We do need to understand that the Pharisees were the innovators, not Jesus. Jesus is true to the scriptures, through and through; he fulfills the law and the prophets, renews the covenant, realizes the long-promised kingdom. The Day of Atonement is the only Biblical day of fasting, so the Pharisees are the innovators; their religious model has no part with the renewed covenant - a fine, well-rounded, mature wine. Once you taste a beautifully crafted mature wine it's very hard to go back to a drop of fresh plonk.

Jesus inaugurates the long-promised kingdom of God, not the new age of pop-culture worship. Obviously, temple worship can no longer contain a worship that is of "spirit and truth". Yet, the kingdom of God is not "a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit", Rom.14:17. A myriad of frames, of religious forms, of ways of doing church, can serve to celebrate the kingdom. Form is irrelevant; substance is what matters.

So, no more of these new wine skins arguments. Inherited traditions, tested and true to the scriptures, are not in themselves substantial, but they are likely to have more integrity than innovations based on the false premise that "without change there is no growth." We need to forget the focus on shape and rely on substance - worship in "spirit and truth."

1. Why is Jesus a bit of a party animal? Discuss.

2. Why is relevance a dangerous pursuit?