Advent Readings: Luke 5

Luke 5

Well-structured chapter. Think about it. First Jesus calls Peter, James, and John as his first disciples. The story is structures by the usage of the word “boat(s)” – total usage 6 times! Fulness of manly impact on the world, as man was created on the sixth day.

Then Jesus heals two people – a leper (5:12-16) and a paralytic (5:17-26). Both of them re-gained access to the Temple. The first one was forbidden access for purity/cleanness reasons, while the paralytic simply couldn’t come on his own.

The third block is call of Levi – a tax collector. It is a unique call by itself – the Messiah invites as a disciple a person who collected money for the occupational forces of Rome. So scandalous! Especially taking into account the fact that he was from the tribe of Levi. He should’ve served as a local pastor of a synagogue, but the challenges of life made a correction of his path of life.

Then comes the conclusion – a parable about the Old and the New. Usually, the parable is interpreted as a strife for new things. Yet, the careful reading suggests that Jesus argues for the proper use of both. It is something new for Biblical history to call the fisherman (prior to Jesus, God more than often called shepherds: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David etc.), while calling a Levi “back” to ministry is an example of Old/good patterns (cp. Lk. 5:39). Change for a sake of change is not what Jesus is rooting for. What He introduced is an invitation of a new type of people as disciples, while maintaining the old flock close to Him.