"JESUS FREELY JOINS THE SINNER’S PARTY IN ORDER TO HELP CELEBRATE GOD’S GIFT OF SALVATION."

Singing: (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 1:1
Psalm 17:2
Psalm 85:3,4
Psalm 119:15,21
Psalm 101:2,3

Beloved Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Christian freedom is a frequently debated subject. What may the Christian do? The one says this, the other that; the one says a Christian may go here, may wear this, may do that – and the other says No. The intriguing thing is that both parties to the discussion come with arguments taken from the Bible. Yet brother does not convince brother, nothing is resolved, on so many issues there is no consensus….

Nor, congregation, will we ever achieve full unity among all of us in the nitty gritty of this broken 1ife. We are all different persons, with different characters living in different circumstances. And we are all sinful. So we also need to give each other a certain amount of latitude.

The fact that full agreement on every question is out of our reach does not mean, though, that there are no norms for the subject of Christian freedom. The Lord of all life certainly has given particular norms in His Word. The passage we read from Luke’s gospel shows us Jesus working with the norms that God has established, and applying those norms in His particular circumstances. Here is certainly instruction for us as we seek guidance in the face of the questions that confront us day by day. For over against the list of do’s and don’ts put together by the Pharisees, Jesus upholds God’s gift of liberty, the gift of being free-to-serve the God of our salvation.

I summarise the sermon with this theme:

The elders of Israel had a problem on their hands. As is the case with office-bearers of any age, they too had their struggles to instil in the members of the congregation a sense of what was acceptable behaviour for the child of God and what was not. To assist the membership in understanding what was acceptable and what was not, these leaders of the people developed a list of do’s and don’ts. It made things very straight forward.

Along came this rabbi from Nazareth. This rabbi wasn’t exactly a youth any more, for He was some 30 years old. So it was to be expected that He would behave in a manner that would be a good example for the younger as well as for the weak. The Pharisees had the greater interest in ensuring that His conduct was exemplary because this rabbi was popular with the masses; "great multitudes came together to hear" Hirn (5:15).

But see: by their judgment the conduct of this rabbi was not exemplary. He was rather a thorn in the flesh for the acknowledged leaders of the church. For Jesus of Nazareth did not conform Himself to the type of conduct considered acceptable for the pious Israelite; He did not stay within the guidelines set out by the elders. Whereas the elders had (for generations already) said that the serious Israelite was not to have communion with sinners, Jesus made a point of partying with ‘sinners’ – Levi and his friends. On top of that, the elders in their wisdom had decreed that every believer ought to fast twice a week, on Monday and Thursday. But Jesus paid no attention; He went to a feast on a day set aside for fasting. Here, in truth, was a problem for the elders of the church; what’s to be done in the face of this threat to accepted church morality?!

The leaders of God’s people resolved to question Jesus on His lamentable behaviour. "Why," they queried, "do You eat with tax collectors and sinners?" We understand: it all came down to a protest. Jesus, they were convinced, should have refused Levi’s invitation to come to his house for a party, should have refused it because Levi is a sinner, should have refused it also because today is a day set aside for fasting – and publicly disregarding acceptable behaviour was a poor example to the crowds…. Look at the disciples of John, these Pharisees say, and look at our own disciples too: they all keep to the accepted standard of behaviour. But You don’t; You’re a maverick, You’re a rebel. Why?

It is beyond a doubt, brothers and sisters, that Jesus indeed went beyond the bounds of accepted behaviour when He joined Levi for the party. For us to understand why Jesus joined Levi’s feast despite the standards of the day, we shall have to come to grips with what the accepted standards of the day were, and why those standards were that way. We also need to appreciate why Levi threw a party in the first place. First, then, the Rules of the day. What were they?

The scribes and the Pharisees, as the acknowledged leaders of the church of Jesus’ days, had guidelines for what was permissible and what was not. On the list of ‘don’ts’ was one stipulation that features in our text this morning: do not eat with sinners. On the list of ‘do’s’ was another stipulation that features in our text: fast twice per week.

To us, these do’s and don’ts sound very legalistic. Yet the Pharisees were convinced they were not; these rules, they believed, flowed logically out of what God had revealed in His Word.

a. Consider the instruction not to eat with the wicked. The Pharisees based this rule on what the Lord God had commanded in Lev 10:10. In that text God told Israel to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean. Israel’s leaders knew themselves and their people to belong to the Lord and so were holy; they knew that unbelievers belonged to the devil. And in as much as God and the devil have nothing to do with each other, are rather in a constant state of war –the antithesis!- the people of God and the people of Satan (the holy and the common, the clean and the unclean respectively) can have nothing to do with each other – they are at war also. Hence their instruction to the sheep in their charge: do not defile yourselves with unclean people, do not even sit down to eat with the ungodly, with those of Satan’s side.

As to exactly who belonged to Satan’s side, who were the sinners, well , did one not know the tree from its fruit? Besides foreigners, such folk as thieves and prostitutes were obviously sinners, and so were such depraved individuals as tax collectors. Yes, tax collectors too for they collected taxes for the hated Romans and so were traitors to the Jewish people and hence also to the Jewish faith. No, to the mind of the faithful Jew it was clear as a bell: the tax collector belonged to the same class of people as the prostitute; both were sinners, children of the devil.

The man Levi, the one who threw the party, was a tax collector. Therefore decent people simply just could not go to this party; Levi was a sinner. And had God not said that you are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean? It was all so easy, so straight-forward….

But lo, Jesus of Nazareth goes to the feast, and drags His disciples along with Him. Surely, this is sin! This is contrary to God’s law – for the holy and the common must not mix together! Here is sin on Jesus’ part; here is also a dangerous example to the brothers and sisters in the faith. Hence the question from the scribes and the Pharisees: Why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners? Do you not know that that’s against the law of God?

Truth be told, brothers and sisters, we can understand their concern…. Join a party with unbelievers? That’s a poor example to the rest of the flock…. The Pharisees had valid point….

On their second point we can also understand the reasoning of the scribes and Pharisees. Admittedly, in the law God commanded Israel to fast but once per year. Specifically on the Day of Atonement the people were to humble themselves because of their sins, were to humble themselves to such an extent that they no longer had an appetite to eat (Lev 16:29).

The leaders of Israel, however, knew that each person was depraved, transgressed God’s law daily. So, they said, the genuine child of God ought habitually to be bothered by sin, and should show that. So they came up with the rule that the serious child of God should fast twice a week, Monday and Thursday as evidence of sorrow for sin. And yes, here too we can understand –and even appreciate- the thinking of the Pharisees. Sin is sin, God hates it passionately, and so God’s people, yea, all men, do well to be broken in heart because of the sins we commit, so bothered by our sins that we haven’t an appetite to eat….

The sinner Levi throws a party on a day set aside for fasting. To the minds of these elders that’s terrible; Levi ought rather to repent of sin, be sorry for sin, and express his sorrow for sin by fasting. Maybe Levi the tax-collector doesn’t understand that…, but Jesus of Nazareth certainly should! And He would join in a feast on a day of fasting?! No, that piles sin on sin! Eating with sinners is in itself wrong; you defile yourself in doing so. But committing this sin on a day when you ought to demonstrate sorrow for sin – that’s not on at all! Instead of joining in the feast, Jesus ought to call Levi to repentance! No wonder the elders of the church of Jesus’ day have their concerns; the example this popular Rabbi gives by attending this feast reflects a cheap view of sin!

Notice Jesus’ response to the question of the Pharisees. He says: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." Jesus’ point? Levi indeed was a sinner. But see, he’d come to repentance! Look at the verses preceding our text. Levi had been busy doing his daily work; he’d been sitting at his tax office collecting taxes from the Israelites for the Romans. Jesus had come along and told him to "follow me." What had Levi’s response been? Vs 28: "So he left all, rose up, and followed Him."

We understand: Jesus did not mean that Levi was simply, in a physical sense, to walk behind Jesus. Rather, this particular call was an invitation to become a disciple of this rabbi from Nazareth; more, it was a command to believe that Jesus was the Christ. As such, this cal1 from Jesus to Levi was an instruction to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. "Follow Me," says Jesus, and with that word the Son of God is busy gathering His catholic church. Levi must come to faith, Levi must leave Satan, Levi must leave behind his life of sin, Levi must align himself with the Saviour God sent into the world. "Follow Me," says Jesus, "be no longer unclean but become clean, join the body of the holy, of those separated from Satan, of those set aside for God."

As was to be expected, this word from the Son of Cod did not come back empty. For, we read, Levi "left all, rose up, and followed Him." Jesus spoke, and Levi came. He left his paperwork, he deserted his tax office, he left the money he’d collected during the day on the table, he "left all". Here, then, was a radical break with his past; here was a man who gave up money and job in order to follow Jesus. Make no mistake: this is the work of the Holy Spirit in Levi’s heart. The Spirit of God worked in him the beginnings of faith so that he could leave that office, leave his money in order to inherit the greatest treasure possible: the kingdom of heaven. (This Levi, it might be added, became one of the Lord’s twelve disciples, is commonly known as Matthew, the one who wrote the first of the four gospels.)

It is in the context of Levi coming to faith that he organised a party. Note vs 29: Levi gave a great feast for Jesus’ sake. That’s what Luke writes: "then Levi gave Him a great feast." By the grace of God Levi the sinner found The Faith, and in response he called together his friends and his neighbours, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the treasure I lost with the fall into sin’ (cf Lu 15:6,9). And the guest of honour at this feast celebrating God’s saving work is –of course- the Saviour. This feast is an expression of gratitude for the deliverance received; it is at the same time an opportunity for others still lost in darkness to meet the Saviour of the world.

Now tell me, beloved of the Lord: ought Levi to feast today? Or ought he to focus today on the sins he had committed in the past and express sorrow for sin by fasting – according to the rules of the day? Levi chose to feast, and it’s a choice, beloved, we’d have made too; what else is a fitting response to the gift of salvation?! In Paradise God had said to Adam and Eve that they could eat from every tree of the garden, except that one; everything else in the garden was laid at their disposal for food, for entertainment, for whatever they were pleased to do with it; free Adam and Eve were. Now Levi had been delivered from the power of Satan, for him Paradise was restored, and that meant in turn that he was free to eat from every tree in the garden, free to do what he wanted with the gifts God had given. Abstain from food today? Be told on the day of his redemption that he may not eat from any of the trees of the garden? No, congregation, that would not agree with Scripture at all. Today Levi enters the marriage feast of the Lamb, and that means rejoicing to one’s heart’s content. And the Bridegroom is Himself present too yet; that gives al1 the greater reason to celebrate, to feast today instead of to fast. Indeed, to force Levi to fast today would be as harmful and out of place as putting a new patch on a old garment or new wine in an old skin: you would do damage. By the same token, to forbid Jesus to join in the feast of the saved, or to force the Son of God to fast on earth while there is joy in heaven because a sinner has been saved, is out of place. Neither the bridegroom nor the wedding guests can fast when the wedding party is under way.

See there, congregation, the response of Jesus to the question of the Pharisees. Over against the Pharisees’ system of ‘do this’ and ‘don’t do that’, Jesus applies the norm of God revealed in the beginning. O sure, there’s something in the system of the Pharisees that we find very attractive. To have the borders of what is permissible worked out to a Tee so that you know what you can do and what you can’t – that gives a measure of security. Yet we know too: Jesus cannot be wrong…. The principles of the beginning are valid through out the history of God’s world.

Come to think of it, the rule of the Pharisees to fast each Monday and Thursday leads to forced situations. After all, it really can’t be right to insist that on the day of his salvation Levi fast…, simply because it’s Monday….

What shall we learn from Jesus’ reply to the Pharisees? Where are the borders of our freedom?

In the beginning God said that all creation was at Adam’s and Eve’s disposal; they could use it all except for that one tree. Yet in the Garden Adam and Eve were not free to do whatever they may have felt like doing; God gave them an instruction, told them "to till the garden and keep it." They were, in other words, to take care of God’s creation for God’s glory. Within the parameters of that decree Adam and Eve were free, they could do what they liked, enjoy what they wished to enjoy, go where they wished to go, eat what they wished to eat (except for that one tree).

This is the principle that Jesus drew out in His actions with Levi and in His words to the Pharisees. This is the principle that counts for the child of God today. Is the child of God free to eat with tax collectors and sinners? Is he free to feast when others fast? The answer is Yes, he is free. Paradise has been restored, and that means that all creation lies again at the disposal of God’s people; "all things are lawful," says Paul to the Corinthians (I Cor 10:23). Yet that does not give us freedom to follow the desires of a sinful heart; we’re set free from sin’s domain so that we might be free to live for God and His glory. In the words of the apostle Paul: "whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (I Cor 10:31). That’s the command of Paradise renewed, that’s the limit of Christian freedom: is God praised? And let me be emphatically clear: God is never, ever praised when my words or actions go against any command of God. Christian freedom does not give me license to do things God has forbidden. Christian freedom remembers God’s commands and works with these commands in such a way that God is praised.

Then it’s true that there is room for staying away from the ungodly around us, since the child of God distinctly has nothing in common with the child of the devil; the Pharisees had a point in their application of God’s command in Lev 10:10. But God’s command was not given so that God’s people would closet themselves away from the defilement of this world. According to the command of God there is certainly no room for tearing down the walls of division between believer and unbeliever. But there is room for associating with the ungodly if such association is directed to promoting the kingdom of heaven. After all, it’s not the righteous that Christ calls to repentance but sinners, and He does that by means of people talking to people.

Similarly, there is room for both feasting and fasting. There’s a time to eat, and there’s a time not to eat. There is time for both, as long as both our feasting and our fasting are done in submission to God’s revealed will and are directed to His glory.

Shall we establish a list of hard and fast do’s and don’ts? The lesson of Luke 5 is that we’re not to do that; such a list would involve binding ourselves to a law above and beyond what the Lord requires. For we in our sinfulness would legislate a fast – only to find that the bridegroom is here and so there’s every reason for a feast. Or we’d legislate a feast – only to find that the bridegroom is taken away and so there’s reason for to fast.

I grant: doing without a list of do’s and don’ts does not make things easier. Doing without a list of hard and fast do’s and don’t’s underlines the fact that greater freedom means greater responsibility. God says that "all things are lawful", and so it is for us to see to it that we use this freedom strictly and only for the glory of the Saviour. Now we have to think, have to evaluate the circumstances in which we find ourselves moment by moment, and with God’s word in hand find an answer to this question: "what does God want me to do in this situation?" There is no rule book with a carefully crafted index sending us to the right page with instructions about what to do in this situation and that situation. God in the beginning gave us the ability to think, to analyse, to discuss the revealed will of God with others around us, and God continues today to demand of us that we use the abilities He once gave. So we need to make it our business to know our Bibles, and we need to make it our business also to understand our circumstances, and then consider prayerfully: what kind of conduct is fitting in these circumstances for a guest of the marriage feast of the Lamb? In a word: what course of action will give most glory to God?

That evaluation is difficult, difficult not only because there are so many variables to consider in each situation, but difficult particularly because we remain sinful. Constantly the child of God struggles with his old nature, and the desires of that old nature to pursue personal pleasure and selfish ambitions. Given the sinfulness of our minds and hearts, it would be so much easier for us if God had given to us a well defined list of do’s and don’ts; we wouldn’t have to go through that difficult process of evaluating, thinking, analysing – and doing it all with a heart that lures to personal satisfaction.

But God, congregation, has not given us that option. He holds each of us individually responsible to work with His Word in the concrete circumstances in which each of us finds himself; all who have come of age are responsible before God.

In wisdom God in Christ has set us free, has restored Paradise, so that everything is permissible as long as God is glorified, as long as our actions befit that of guests at the marriage feast of the Lamb. It’s a big challenge we have; let no one jubilate that he’s free to live it up according to the dictates of a sinful heart. The challenge God laid on us requires much humility, much prayer, much study of the Word of God. More, it’s a challenge that requires a great degree of dependence on the Spirit of Jesus Christ. By the grace of God, this Spirit dwells in the hearts of all God’s own, so that we are never alone in the face of the questions and responsibilities we have. Yes, the challenge is great, but God has promised to give His children wisdom so that we are able to live to the praise of His glory.

Today we do it in imperfection, tomorrow in perfection. Amen.