“Stretched”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Luke 5: 27-39 (Forward, p. 65) CEV p. 1062

One of the things that most people resist is anything that threatens to stretch them out of or beyond their comfort zones. I suspect that even those people who relish fluidity, tension, and unsettledness—I think that the there are such people—dislike being nudged out of those comfortable and accustomed situations, those situations in which they ‘feel at home.’

Today’s passage certainly relates several instances of this. Firstly, Jesus does this through one of His actions, namely in His choice of Levi (otherwise known as Matthew) as one of His disciples. By the standards of most people, even of Levi himself, he would have been the very last person you’d think of choosing. After all, he was a quisling, a collaborator, a traitor to his people and was widely despised and shunned, except by his ‘own people.’ And choosing him would certainly set up tensions within the small group of disciples. After all, all of them had to pay taxes to the likes of him—I hazard to say that nobody, then or now, likes paying taxes—and one of them was even identified as a Zealot, someone totally on the other side of the political spectrum. And Levi himself, he too probably never thought of himself as being worthy to be accorded a place in such a group. Certainly, he’d never thought of himself as making the cut, of being chosen by Jesus. And so, whether it was Levi or the others, they probably all found themselves being stretched.

So, this one of Jesus’ actions stretched people’s minds and perceptions a bit. There were also His words. Some critics of Jesus had come to Him and asked why His disciples never fasted. Jesus replied that fasting is appropriate when you’re waiting for something or mourning something, but not when what you want and desire is right there before you. By implication, Jesus is saying is that He, He Himself, is all that His followers want and need—and so, why should they be unhappy, why should they fast? But His critics didn’t get it.

So then, as if to reinforce this message, Jesus uses a couple of ‘stretching’ images. He says—this was in a day before Sanforized clothing—putting a new piece of cloth as a patch on an older garment only causes more problems as the patch will inevitably shrink and create an even larger hole.

He is arguing for a new, more expansive, more receptive mindset on their parts.

And, in like manner, putting new, alive, effervescent, bubbly wine into an old, stiff, unmovable wine skin will cause problems there as well. The wine would continue expanding, causing the wine skin to burst and the wine to be lost. Not good, not at all. And again, Jesus is arguing for a more receptive mind set, one that has allowed itself to be stretched somewhat.

But then Jesus says something that often perplexes moderns. He says, ‘No one wants new wine after drinking old wine. They say, ‘the old wine is better.’” But that is what ‘modern’ wine drinkers would say, and here they would be right—given modern storage facilities and production techniques. A properly aged and stored glass bottle of wine often is better. But note: it is a ‘glass’ bottle and glass bottles at the time of Christ were rare, and expensive. Instead, it was wineskins that were customarily used and wineskins had the opposite effect. Being relatively porous the leather of the wineskin would allow the alcohol to gradually dissipate, leaving only the ugly, sour dregs behind. And so, what Jesus is saying, with something of a wry sense of humour, is that these obstinate, unyielding folks are like a bunch of old winos who don’t know a good thing when they see it and are quite content with the old, rotten, distasteful stuff. They’re so reluctant to seeing and embracing a ‘new’ thing, so unwilling to be stretched, that they miss out on what is truly and really good. May this never happen to any of us!

Forward notes: “After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me’” (verse 27)

“Much to our chagrin (perhaps), the invitation to follow Jesus is open to anyone. That’s apparent in Jesus inviting Levi—a tax collector—to follow him. One thing the Israelites could all agree on was their distaste for Israelite tax collectors. At best, tax collectors were traitors to their people, history, culture, and heritage. Yet, here was Jesus openly inviting Levi to be part of his inner circle and going to Levi’s house for a party.

“I was once told that the best ability is availability. While many of us Christians try to add stipulations for church membership, the invitation to discipleship has no requirements but to be readily available and willing to follow Jesus. Perhaps then, rather than getting bogged down by pondering if we are qualified enough for Jesus’s invitation, we make ourselves available and ask for courage to follow Jesus wherever he leads us.”

Moving Forward: “How will you make yourself available for the Spirit’s invitation today?