CRITICAL NOTES
Luke 5:27. Saw.—Rather, “observed,” “beheld” (R.V.). Levi.—The apostle and evangelist, St. Matthew (Matthew 9:9). Probably his original name was Levi, and the name Matthew or Matthias was given to him or assumed by him after he became an apostle. Matthew means “The gift of God.” The receipt of custom.—“The place of toll” (R.V.). The dues or taxes were probably connected with the traffic on the Sea of Galilee.
Luke 5:29. A great feast.—This is an indication of wealth, and implies that the act of renunciation (Luke 5:28) was in his case all the more remarkable. A great company of publicans.—As a class they would be deeply moved by the kindness of Jesus to one of their number. They were accustomed to be despised and spoken against by those of their countrymen who laid special claims to holiness. Sat down.—I.e. reclined at table according to the custom of the time.
Luke 5:30. Their scribes, etc.—I.e. the scribes and Pharisees of that place. As from the character of the objection we cannot suppose that these scribes and Pharisees were themselves present at the feast, the conversation may have taken place some time after it. They may, indeed, have seen Jesus leaving the house with the other guests.
Luke 5:32. The righteous.—There does not seem to be any satirical reflection upon the Pharisees in this reply, as persons who considered themselves righteous, but were not really so. “The argument is, the greater a man’s sin, the more need he has of the call to repentance, as, if he were perfectly righteous, he would need no repentance. These words do not, of course, imply that any man is perfectly righteous, nor is such a supposition necessary to the reasoning” (Speaker’s Commentary).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Luke 5:27-32
The Call of Matthew.—The call of Matthew signally illustrates a very prominent feature in the public action of Jesus, viz. His utter disregard of the maxims of worldly wisdom. A publican disciple, much more a publican apostle, would not fail to be a stumbling-block to Jewish prejudice, and therefore to be, for the time at least, a source of weakness rather than of strength. Yet, while perfectly aware of this fact, Jesus invited to the intimate fellowship of disciple-hood one who had pursued the occupation of a tax-gatherer, and at a later period selected him to be one of the twelve. The eye of Jesus was single as well as omniscient: He looked on the heart, and had respect solely to spiritual fitness. He had no fear of the drawbacks arising out of the external connections or past history of true believers, but was entirely indifferent to men’s antecedents.
I. The call obeyed.—The fact that Matthew, while a publican, resided in Capernaum, makes it absolutely certain that he knew of Jesus before he was called. It was not, however, a matter of course that he should become a follower of Jesus merely because he had heard of, or even seen, His wonderful works. Miracles of themselves could make no man a believer; otherwise all the people of Capernaum would have believed. Christ complained of the inhabitants of Capernaum in particular that they did not repent on witnessing His mighty works. It was not so with Matthew. He not merely wondered and talked, but he repented. Whether he had more to repent of than his neighbours we cannot tell. It is true that he belonged to a class of men who, seen through the coloured medium of popular prejudice, were all bad alike, and many of whom were really guilty of fraud and extortion; but he may have been an exception. His farewell feast showed that he possessed means, but we must not take for granted that they were dishonestly earned. This only we may safely say, that if the publican disciple had been covetous, the spirit of greed was now exorcised; if he had ever been guilty of oppressing the poor, he now abhorred such work. He had grown weary of collecting revenue from a reluctant population, and was glad to follow One who had come to take burdens off instead of laying them on, to remit debts instead of exacting them with rigour. And so it came to pass that the voice of Jesus acted on his heart like a spell: “He left all, rose up, and followed Him.”
II. The banquet.—The great decision was followed by a feast in Matthew’s house, at which Jesus was present. It had all the character of a great occasion, and was given in honour of Jesus. The honour, however, was such as few would value, for the other guests were peculiar. “There was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them.” The feast was not less rich in moral significance than in the viands set on the board. For the host himself it was without doubt a jubilee feast commemorative of his emancipation from drudgery and uncongenial society and sin, or at all events temptation to sin, and of his entrance on the free, blessed life of fellowship with Jesus. The feast was also, as already said, an act of homage to Jesus. Matthew made his splendid feast in honour of his new Master, as Mary of Bethany shed her precious ointment. It is the way of those to whom much grace is shown and given to manifest their grateful love in deeds bearing the stamp of what a Greek philosopher called magnificence and churls call extravagance; and whoever might blame such acts of devotion, Jesus always accepted them with pleasure. The ex-publican’s feast seems further to have had the character of a farewell entertainment to his fellow-publicans. He and they were to go different ways henceforth, and he would part with his old comrades in peace. Once more: we can believe that Matthew meant his feast to be the means of introducing his friends and neighbours to the acquaintance of Jesus, seeking, with the characteristic zeal of a young disciple, to induce others to take the step which he had resolved on himself, or at least hoping that some sinners present might be drawn from evil ways into the paths of righteousness. Matthew’s feast was thus, looked at from within, a very joyous, innocent, and even edifying one. But looked at from without, like stained windows, it wore a different aspect; it was, indeed, nothing short of scandalous. Certain Pharisees observed the company assemble or disperse, noted their character, and made, after their wont, sinister reflections. Opportunity offering itself, they asked the disciples of Jesus the at once complimentary and censorious question, “Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?” On various occasions, when the same charge was made against Him, he returned different answers. The answer here may be distinguished as the professional argument, and is to this effect: “I frequent the haunts of sinners, because I am a physician, and they are sick and need healing. Where should a physician be but among his patients? where oftenest but among those most grievously afflicted?” Our Lord’s last words to the persons who called His conduct in question at this time were not merely apologetic, but judicial. “I came not,” He said, “to call the righteous, but sinners”; intimating a purpose to let the self-righteous alone, and to call to repentance and to the joys of the kingdom those who were not too self-satisfied to care for the benefits offered, and to whom the gospel feast would be a real entertainment. The word, in truth, contained a significant hint of an approaching religious revolution, in which the last should become first and the first last; Jewish outcasts, Gentile dogs, made partakers of the joys of the kingdom, and “the righteous “shut out. It was one of the pregnant sayings by which Jesus made known to those who could understand that His religion was a universal one—a religion for humanity, a gospel for mankind, because a gospel for sinners. And what this saying declared in word, the conduct it apologised for proclaimed yet more expressively by deed. It was an ominous thing that loving sympathy for “publicans and sinners”—the Pharisaic instinct discerned it to be so, and rightly took the alarm. It meant death to privileged monopolies of grace and to Jewish pride and exclusivism—all men equal in God’s sight, and welcome to salvation on the same terms.—Bruce.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luke 5:27-32
Luke 5:27. “Follow Me.”—The special call to apostleship is recorded in the case of five only of the twelve: Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew. No doubt the other seven in like manner were selected individually by Jesus, and called to leave all and follow Him—a call not given to all disciples.
“A publican.”—Probably Matthew was one of the subordinate officers belonging to Palestine, who were in the employment of the Roman publicanus, who farmed the taxes. “These inferior officers were notorious for their impudent exactions everywhere; but to the Jews they were specially odious, for they were the very spot where the Roman chain galled them—the visible proof of the degraded state of the nation. As a rule none but the lowest would accept such an unpopular office, and thus the class became more worthy of the hatred with which the Jews in any case would have regarded it” (Smith, “Dictionary of the Bible,” “Publican”).
A Shock to Prejudice.—The shock given to the prejudices of society by Christ’s choosing a publican to be an apostle must have been very great. It was an illustration of the principle of the Divine action stated by St. Paul—the base things of the world, and things that are despised, being chosen to confound the things that are mighty (1 Corinthians 1:26-28).
Matthew “the publican.”—It is worthy of notice that St. Matthew, in giving the list of apostles, appends the words “the publican” to his own name, as if to mark the lowly estate he occupied when Christ called him (Luke 10:3).
“Sitting at the place of toll” (R.V.).—There sat Matthew the publican, busy in his counting-house, reckoning up the sums of his rentals, taking up his arrearages, and wrangling for denied duties, and did so little think of a Saviour that he did not so much as look at His passage; but Jesus, as He passed by, saw him.—Hall.
“Went forth, and saw.”—It would seem to have been an accidental passing-by—one of those chance meetings which so often turn the course of a man’s life, and even that of a nation’s history. Yet there was nothing accidental in the life of Christ, any more than there is in our own lives. A long train of circumstances led up to this meeting, and found in it a natural completion. It was in Capernaum that Matthew lived—the headquarters of Christ’s public ministry. Matthew had, no doubt, often seen and heard Christ: he had known of His mighty deeds, and of the authority with which He spoke and acted; and perhaps the publican had been slowly making up his mind as to what his duty towards Christ was. So that when this moment came, and the Saviour paused before him and held up His finger and said “Follow Me,” he was ready to obey. The vague thoughts and feelings took definite shape: the gesture and word of His Lord concluded the struggle. His choice was made—the die was cast, and he arose and followed Him. “Doubtless he immediately made, or had previously made, every requisite arrangement for leaving the affairs of his office, not in confusion, but in order. Jesus was no patron of confusion. It is the desire both of God and Jesus that all things should be done “decently and in order” (Morison).
Luke 5:27-28. “Rose up, and followed Him.”—That word was enough, “Follow Me”; spoken by the same tongue that said to the corpse at Nain, “Young man, I say to thee, Arise.” He that said at first, “Let there be light,” says now, “Follow Me.” That power sweetly inclines which could forcibly command: the force is not more irresistible than the inclination. When the sun shines upon the icicles, can they choose but melt and fall? when it looks into a dungeon, can the place choose but to be enlightened? Do we see the jet drawing up straws to it, the loadstone iron, and do we marvel if the omnipotent Saviour, by the influence of His grace, attract the heart of a publican? “He arose, and fellowed Him.” We are all naturally averse from thee, O God; do Thou but bid us follow Thee, draw us by Thy powerful word, and we shall run after Thee. Alas! Thou speakest, and we sit still; Thou speakest by Thine outward word to our ear, and we stir not. Speak Thou by the secret and effectual word of Thy Spirit to our heart, the world cannot hold us down, Satan cannot stop our way, we shall arise and follow Thee.—Hall.
The Privileges and Honours conferred on Matthew.—The skill of Matthew in using his pen was afterwards to be employed in writing the first biography of His Lord and Master: his name, which had up till now borne a mark of infamy as that of a publican, was destined to be inscribed on one of the foundations of the heavenly Jerusalem (Revelation 21:14).
Luke 5:28. The obvious moral of the story is that we are none of us beyond the reach of Christ, none so base but that He can redeem us, none so hateful but that He would fain save us. The one fatal thing is to despair of ourselves, because we despair of His mercy and its power to recover us. Whatever we may be, whatever we may have done, there is in Christ a grace which can sweep away all our sins, and a saving health which can redeem us into spiritual life and vigour, into heavenly service and rest.—Cox.
Luke 5:29. “Levi made him a great feast.”—The feast in the house of Matthew took place evidently a few days or weeks later, and seems to have been a farewell feast to his former friends and associates. Probably in the meantime he had been making arrangements for the new mode of life he was to follow, and for the proper transaction of the business with which he had been connected.
“A great company of publicans.”—The call of Matthew seems to have been accompanied by, if, indeed, it did not occasion, a great awakening in the outcast class to which he belonged. Many would be touched in heart by the mercy shown by Jesus to one of their number. There is something very beautiful in this mutual fellowship of the disciple and the Master—the one being the host and the other a guest at the same table. When we consider the relations between the two—how Jesus was to Matthew the King to whom he had sworn allegiance, the Redeemer by whom he was to be saved, the Judge by whom his eternal destiny was to be decided, and the Object of his worship—there is something very winning and beautiful in their sitting together at the same table. They were a motley company that met in the house of Matthew: men hated and despised by their neighbours for their trade or for their evil lives—persons on many of whom it was only too evident that the stamp of sin had been set deeply, who repaid scorn with scorn, and grew only more hardened and reckless as they found that they had lost the respect of others and of themselves. Yet along with them the Son of God sat down as a fellow-guest—He whose holiness was so perfect, whose hatred of sin was far more keen than that which any other mortal ever felt. The loathing and scorn of men only hardened those on whom it was spent. But these publicans and sinners were touched and melted and won by the love of Jesus, who treated them as though they were worthy of fellowship with Him, and was hopeful of even the most depraved among them. Is there not here a lesson for us? The hard, Pharisaic spirit that prides itself on its own immaculate virtue, and passes harsh judgments on the faults of others, incapacitates one for recovering the vicious or restoring the outcast and banished. Even if we were justified in cherishing such a spirit, it has no power to cope with and overcome the evils which it condemns. It is by love, by sympathy, by tenderest compassion that the wayward and erring are to be won to a love and practice of goodness. The feast in the house of Matthew is a subject which, strangely enough, has not been treated by any of the great artists. Yet it is one of the most striking and picturesque scenes in the life of Jesus. The Son of God surrounded with publicans and sinners! Imagine Him with His face and mien of holiness, and love, and majestic peace. See the change wrought even in the countenances of those who received Him as their Saviour—the John-like, the Stephen-like expression beginning to show itself in the faces of men who up to this time had been intent only on gain and vicious pleatures—the rapt, Madonna-like air already beginning to transfigure the faces of sinful women! “O happy publicans and sinners that had found out their Saviour! O merciful Saviour that disdained not publicans and sinners!”
Luke 5:30. “Murmured against His disciples.”—The Pharisees and scribes are still restrained by awe of Jesus, and do not attack Him directly, but impeach His disciples with laxity of conduct. The accusation the Pharisees bring is that of undue intimacy with those outside the pale of respectability and of religion. Christ’s disciples need to keep in mind
(1) that their conduct is watched by a censorious world, and
(2) that they need to have a well-grounded reason for the things that they do. If they cannot justify their actions, they run the risk of bringing discredit upon their Master’s name and cause. Association of an intimate kind with the ungodly may arise from having too weak a sense of their sinfulness, or, on the other hand, it may be deliberately engaged in with the view of effecting a change in them from sin to holiness. A complete separation between the Church and the world is not to be desired, if the leaven of holiness is to be allowed to penetrate and transform society.
Luke 5:31. The Physician and His Patients.
I. A complete and unanswerable defence.—Our Saviour does not dispute the unfavourable character imputed to the publicans and sinners. It is true, therefore, the need of visiting them. He is a Physician, and must spend much of His time and ministry on those who have need of healing. To go to houses that other men shun is the honourable mark of the physician’s profession. His answer could not be misunderstood. He referred to spiritual ailments, and to spiritual healing. Instead of being reproached He ought to be praised. And He will be praised for ever by those whom He has healed.
II. A direction to His followers.—It was a word not only to the Pharisees, but to His disciples. As He was, so should they become in His service. His Church was to be a prolonged expression and an active exponent of healing skill and mercy.
1. Christianity is remedial.
2. Christianity is hopeful. The sin and misery of the world call loudly for the enthusiasm and ingenuity of Christian hope and love; and they please the heavenly Physician best who carry the gospel of His salvation to those whom the successors of the Pharisees despair of or disdain.—Fraser.
A Defence of the Disciples.—Jesus takes up the defence of His disciples: probably they were unable to return a satisfactory answer to their critics. There is humour in His words: an ironical acceptance of the Pharisees, on their own estimate as whole and needing no physician, when in reality they were corrupt and self-deceived. But if there is
(1) irony towards the Pharisees, there is
(2) a serious allusion to the state of the publicans and sinners. Whether the Pharisees were whole or not, there could be no doubt that those, for associating with whom they blamed Him and His disciples, were indeed sick. Not only
(1) sickness, but
(2) admission of the fact of sickness, is required before the services of the great Physician can benefit us. This latter condition the Pharisees did not fulfil: the fact that publicans and sinners did fulfil it was the hopeful element in their case. Was it wonderful that Jesus associated with these outcasts? It was still more wonderful that these outcasts welcomed Him. It was the sick appealing to the Physician—a sight that should have made the Pharisees glad.
Luke 5:32. “Not … the righteous, but sinners.”—Again we find irony in the Saviour’s words: “to call the righteous to repentance!” In the fact that Christ thus describes the purpose for which He came as that of calling sinners to repentance, we have an indication of the part we are to play in the work of our salvation. He calls; it is for us to respond, i.e. to obey His call. The call comes to us, for in the work of redemption God takes the initiative. Repentance includes
(1) a state of feeling—godly sorrow on account of sin; and
(2) a course of action—amendment of evil ways. The feeling should not stand alone, or it will aegenerate into barren regret; it should be the source from which the action springs. Godly sorrow is not repentance, but “worketh repentance” (2 Corinthians 7:10). The Scriptures lay more stress upon the action than the feeling. Thus Isaiah says little about the latter in calling the nation to repentance, but much about the former. “Wash you, make you clean,” etc. (Luke 1:16-17).