Judging a Book by its Eating Habits

Luke 5:33-35

It was the night of the banquet. Levi had left his tax collecting to follow Jesus, and so had invited all his old buddies, his old network, to meet his new ones. It was a great night and everyone was having a good time. Everyone, that is except the religious authorities standing outside of Levi’s house. Their non-participation at the banquet was not because they weren’t invited, it was because they refused to come even if they had been invited.

The disciples had first encountered these religious leaders outside scowling at the boisterous party. And then Jesus came out and mixed it up a bit with them. He would have had to have left the party for a few minutes, for those guys were not going to debase themselves as Jesus had by entering that house of ill repute.

Jesus had already answered their question as to how Jesus and his other disciples could possibly hang out with such sinners. Their next salvo says it all. “John’s disciples are good prayer warriors and they fast a lot. So do the Pharisees (of which we are). But, Jesus, your disciples go on eating and drinking.” If you can’t join ‘em, then trash ‘em.

Some people go around measuring spirituality like tailors go around measuring people’s clothes. Travel to a place like Hong Kong or Thailand and walk down the street in certain districts. In no time, some guy, more often than not from the Indian subcontinent, will be at your side with a tape measure seeing how long your pant leg is.

Sometime go to church like an outside observer and watch how people start out-spiritualizing each other or trumping someone else’s spiritual feats of strength or taking note of a fellow Believer’s politically incorrect speech. It’s like a contest to see who can get to heaven first. Sorry, Enoch already won that race.

The implications of what these teachers of the law were saying was that Jesus could not be that much of a spiritual authority if his disciples were not doing the correct spiritual calisthenics. We who, unlike God in heaven, do not see inside of a person’s heart, resort to measuring meaningless externals in vain attempt to determine how spiritual our fellow travelers really are.

Jesus brushes all this spiritual measurement talk aside, using a wedding party illustration. You don’t fast at wedding parties. You feast. When Levi says yes to following me, Jesus is saying, then is not the time for fasting, but for celebration. Jesus is not dismissing fasting. There will be time enough for that later, he adds. But, he is saying, there is also a time for feasting – and that time is now.

When those spiritual rulers could not discredit Jesus for hanging around sinners, they sought to put him down for not being spiritual enough. But Jesus the great spiritual standard setter himself, is not buying any of that. If anything, these religious experts are flunking out while Levi and his “ilk” are jamming the gates of heaven.

A person can sound very spiritual and be headed straight to hell. Conversely, a person can be very spiritual without sounding spiritual at all, at least to human ears. Who was closer to Jesus that night – the sinner who had not yet repented but was hanging close with Jesus that night, or the spiritual people outside verbally abusing Jesus for sharing life with the sinners inside?

Heaven is all about substance. Hell is for deceptions like appearance.