Luke 5:29 says, “And Levi made a great reception for Him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining at the table with them.” The Lord’s calling of Matthew must have touched his heart. Immediately, Matthew held a great feast in His honor.
The money used for this feast might have been gained by Matthew unrighteously. This means that the great reception held for the Lord Jesus in Matthew’s house might have been financed with unrighteous money. Some of the Jews could have said, “Why does Jesus attend this feast? Doesn’t He know how Matthew got the money to pay for it? Matthew extorted money from us, and now he uses this money to have a feast. This feast is not righteous.”
The Lord Jesus is not only righteous; He is also merciful. According to James 2:13, “Mercy triumphs over judgment.” We need to exercise mercy to those who are despised and in a pitiful condition. The Lord was merciful toward Matthew, and His mercy must have deeply moved Matthew’s heart. Otherwise, he would not have prepared a feast for the Lord. Matthew must have been happy and full of rejoicing. It was an excellent opportunity for him to invite a large crowd of tax collectors and sinners to eat with the Lord Jesus. In His response to the situation, we see the human virtue of the Man-Savior.
In 5:30 the Pharisees and the scribes murmured at the Lord’s disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?” The Lord Jesus replied, “Those who are healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are ill. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (vv. 31-32). Here we see that the Man-Savior ministered as a physician, not as a judge. The judgment of a judge is according to righteousness, whereas the healing of a physician is according to mercy and grace. If the Lord had visited these pitiful people as a judge, all would have been condemned and rejected. None would have been qualified, selected, and called. But the Lord came to minister as a physician; that is, He came to heal, recover, enliven, and save.
The Lord’s word here implies that the self-righteous Pharisees did not realize their need of Him as a physician. They regarded themselves as strong. Hence, blinded by their self-righteousness, they did not know that they were “ill” and in need of healing.
In 5:36-39 the Man-Savior, speaking in parables, goes on to speak of a new garment and new wine. He implies that He is present to cover the despised ones with a new garment and to fill them with new wine. This new garment is Christ as our righteousness to cover us outwardly, and the new wine is Christ as eternal life to fill us inwardly. Only God can cover us with righteousness and fill us with eternal life. These are the deeds of the divine Being. Therefore, in this case also we see the divine attributes expressed in the Man-Savior’s human virtues. He ministered in His human virtues with His divine attributes.
In 6:1-11 we have two cases of the Lord’s breaking the deformed sabbatical regulations. He did this for the sake of people’s satisfaction and liberation. Sabbath regulations were given in the Old Testament. However, the Jewish religionists misused these regulations and caused them to become deformed. Hence, when the Lord Jesus came as the Man-Savior, He cared for man, not for the deformed regulations. For the sake of man, He purposely broke the deformed sabbatical regulations.
The first case of breaking these regulations is recorded in 6:1-5. “It came about that on a Sabbath He was going through the grainfields, and His disciples were picking and eating the ears of grain, rubbing them in their hands” (v. 1). Some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” (v. 2). Profaning the Sabbath was a serious matter in the eyes of the religious Pharisees. To them, it was not lawful for the Lord’s disciples to pick ears of grain and eat them on the Sabbath. According to their meager knowledge of the Scriptures, they cared for the ritual of keeping the Sabbath, not for the hunger of the people. The Man-Savior, on the contrary, cared for the satisfaction of His followers.
In 6:5 the Lord said to the Pharisees, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” This indicates the Man-Savior’s deity in His humanity. He, the Son of Man, was the very God who ordained the Sabbath, and He had the right to change what He had ordained concerning the Sabbath.
A second case of the Lord’s breaking the deformed sabbatical regulation is found in 6:6-11. Here the Lord restores a withered hand. He said to the man with the withered hand, “Stretch out your hand! And he did, and his hand was restored” (v. 10). Exercising His compassion, the Man-Savior restored the withered hand. Here His compassion and His power to heal are a merging of His human virtue with His divine attributes. Therefore, once again His divine attributes are expressed in His human virtues. In these two instances the Lord broke the deformed sabbatical regulations for the sake of people’s satisfaction and liberation. In 6:1-5 He cared for His disciples’ satisfaction. In 6:6-11 He cared for the liberation of the one with the withered hand.
In 5:1—6:11 we have a composite picture of fallen human beings. A fallen person is occupied, he is a leper, he is a paralytic, he is despised, and he is under bondage. According to the record in this portion of the Gospel of Luke, such a person is attracted from his occupation by the Lord Jesus, and he is cleansed from his leprosy, healed of his paralysis, uplifted from his despised condition, and freed from hunger and bondage. This is a picture of what has happened to us. We all can testify that we were such persons. We have been attracted away from our occupations and we have been cleansed, healed, uplifted, satisfied, and freed. This is the Man-Savior’s ministry in His human virtues with His divine attributes. This matter is an underlying principle followed by Luke in writing this Gospel.