Expository Thoughts On Mark – Mark 2:13-22 - John Charles Ryle
The person who is called Levi, at the beginning of this passage, is the same person who is called Matthew in the first of the four Gospels. Let us not forget this. It is no less than an apostle and an evangelist, whose early history is now before our eyes.
We learn from these verses the power of Christ to call men out from the world, and make them His disciples. We read that he said to Levi, when “sitting at the receipt of custom, Follow me.” And at once “he arose and followed him.” From a tax-collector he became an apostle, and a writer of the first book in the New Testament, which is now known all over the world.
This is a truth of deep importance. Without a divine call no one can be saved. We are all so sunk in sin, and so wedded to the world, that we would never turn to God and seek salvation, unless He first called us by His grace. God must speak to our hearts by His Spirit, before we shall ever speak to Him. Those who are sons of God, says the 17th Article, are “called according to God’s purpose by His Spirit working in due season.” Now how blessed is the thought that this calling of sinners is committed to so gracious a Savior as Christ!
When the Lord Jesus calls a sinner to be His servant, He acts as a Sovereign; but He acts with infinite mercy. He often chooses those who seem most unlikely to do His will, and furthest off from His kingdom. He draws them to Himself with almighty power, breaks the chains of old habits and customs, and makes them new creatures. As the magnet attracts the iron, and the south wind softens the frozen ground, so does Christ’s calling draw sinners out from the world, and melt the hardest heart. “The voice of the Lord is mighty in operation.” Blessed are they, who, when they hear it, harden not their hearts!
We ought never to despair entirely of any one’s salvation, when we read this passage of Scripture. He who called Levi, still lives and still works. The age of miracles is not yet past. The love of money is a powerful principle, but the call of Christ is more powerful. Let us not despair even about those who “sit at the receipt of custom,” and enjoy abundance of this world’s good things. The voice which said to Levi, “Follow me,” may yet reach their hearts. We may yet see them arise, and take up their cross, and follow Christ. Let us hope continually, and pray for others. Who can tell what God may be going to do for any one around us? No one is too bad for Christ to call. Let us pray for all.
We learn, for another thing, from these verses, that one of Christ’s principal offices is that of a Physician. The Scribes and Pharisees found fault with Him for eating and drinking with publicans and sinners. But “when Jesus heard it, He said unto them, Those who are healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”
The Lord Jesus did not come into the world, as some suppose, to be nothing more than a law-giver, a king, a teacher, and an example. Had this been all the purpose of His coming, there would have been small comfort for man. Diet-regimens and rules of health are all very well for the convalescent, but not suitable to the man laboring under a mortal disease. A teacher and an example might be sufficient for an unfallen being like Adam in the garden of Eden. But fallen sinners like ourselves need healing first, before we can value rules.
The Lord Jesus came into the world to be a physician as well as a teacher. He knew the necessities of human nature. He saw us all sick of a mortal disease, stricken with the plague of sin, and dying daily. He pitied us, and came down to bring divine medicine for our relief. He came to give health and cure to the dying, to heal the broken hearted, and to offer strength to the weak. No sin-sick soul is too far gone for Him. It is His glory to heal and restore to life the most desperate cases. For unfailing skill, for unwearied tenderness, for long experience of man’s spiritual ailments, the great Physician of souls stands alone. There is none like Him.
But what do we know ourselves of this special office of Christ? Have we ever felt our spiritual sickness and applied to him for relief? We are never right in the sight of God until we do. We know nothing aright in religion, if we think the sense of sin should keep us back from Christ. To feel our sins, and know our sickness is the beginning of real Christianity. To be sensible of our corruption and abhor our own transgressions, is the first symptom of spiritual health. Happy indeed are they who have found out their soul’s disease! Let them know that Christ is the very Physician they require, and let them apply to Him without delay.
We learn, in the last place, from these verses, that in religion it is worse than useless to attempt to mix things which essentially differ. No man, “He tells the Pharisees,” sews a piece of new cloth on an old garment.” “No man puts new wine into old bottles.”
These words, we must of course see, were a parable. They were spoken with a special reference to the question which the Pharisees had just raised–“Why do the disciples of John fast, but your disciples do not FAST?” Our Lord’s reply evidently means, that to enforce fasting among His disciples would be inexpedient and unseasonable. His little flock was as yet young in grace, and weak in faith, knowledge, and experience. They must be led on softly, and not burdened at this early stage with requirements which they were not able to bear. Fasting, moreover, might, be suitable to the disciples of him who was only the Bridegroom’s friend, who lived in the wilderness, preached the baptism of repentance, was clothed in camel’s hair, and ate locusts and wild honey. But fasting was not equally suitable to the disciples of Him, who was the Bridegroom Himself, brought glad tidings to sinners, and came living like other men. In short, to require fasting of his disciples at present, would be putting “new wine into old bottles.” It would be trying to mingle and amalgamate things that essentially differed.
The principle laid down in these little parables is one of great importance. It is a kind of proverbial saying, and admits of a wide application. Forgetfulness of it has frequently done great harm in the Church. The evils that have arisen from trying to sew the new patch on the old garment, and put the new wine into old bottles, have neither been few nor small.
How was it with the Galatian Church? It is recorded in Paul’s epistle. Men wished in that Church to reconcile Judaism with Christianity, and to circumcise as well as baptize. They endeavored to keep alive the law of ceremonies and ordinances, and to place it side by side with the Gospel of Christ. In fact they would sincerely have put the “new wine into old bottles.” And in so doing they greatly erred.
How was it with the early Christian Church, after the apostles were dead? We have it recorded in the pages of Church history. Some tried to make the Gospel more acceptable by mingling it with Platonic philosophy. Some labored to recommend it to the heathen by borrowing forms, processions, and vestments from the temples of heathen gods. In short, they “sewed the new patch on the old garment.” And in so doing they scattered the seeds of enormous evil. They paved the way for the whole Romish apostasy.
How is it with many professing Christians in the present day? We have only to look around us and see. There are thousands who are trying to reconcile the service of Christ and the service of the world, to have the name of Christian and yet live the life of the ungodly–to keep in with the servants of pleasure and sin, and yet be the followers of the crucified Jesus at the same time. In a word, they are trying to enjoy the “new wine,” and yet to cling to the “old bottles.” They will find one day that they have attempted that which cannot be done.
Let us leave the passage in a spirit of serious self-inquiry. It is one that ought to raise great searchings of heart in the present day. Have we never read what the Scripture says? “No man can serve two masters.” “You cannot serve God and mammon. Let us place side by side with these texts the concluding words of our Lord in this passage, “New wine must be put into new bottles.”
John Charles Ryle