(27) And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me. (28) And he left all, rose up, and followed him. (29) And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them. (30) But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? (31) And Jesus answering, said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. (32) I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (33) And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink? (34) And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? (35) But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. (36) And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old. (37) And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. (38) But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. (39) No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.
We have this passage almost literally, Matthew 9:9, etc. I refer therefore to the observations which were then offered. The last verse indeed is an addition to the subject, and only made by Luke; but the sense and doctrine is the same. It should seem to have been a proverbial expression, and well understood in a wine country like that of Judea. But the spiritual sense of it, in application to our Lord's discourse, appears to have been thus: No man having drunk into the spirit of the faith of the old disciples, the Patriarchs, and Prophets, concerning Christ, will desire to taste of any other. That which was from the beginning, and in which the fathers among the faithful all lived and died, is the old wine of God's covenant love. And he which hath drank into this will drink of no other. Christ's love is better than wine! Song of Solomon 1:2.