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I. THE CALL OF LEVI.

1. Publicans, who were they? The publicans proper, who paid a certain sum contracted for into the public treasury (publicum), were Roman knights, a wealthy class of citizens. These, again, had their agents who sublet, or acted as their owngents in subletting, the collection of the taxes, usually to natives of the country from which the taxes were to be collected. The correct name of these tax-collectors was portitores.

2. Objects of public odium. No class of men was so obnoxious to the Jews. They were looked on as unpatriotic, because they were in the service of a foreign government; they were regarded as irreligious, because they were engaged in an occupation suggestive of subjection to alien rule, and so derogatory to the high position of that people whom God had chosen fur his peculiar possession and honored with special privileges; in addition to all this, they were generally extortioners who by unjust exactions oppressed their countrymen. Thus regarded as traitors to their country and as apostates from the national faith, while at the same time they were exorbitant in their demands on their fellow-citizens, they were not without some reason subjects of odium and obloquy - men who had thus lost caste, both social and religious.

3. St. Matthew originally a publican. To this obnoxious class of men belonged the son of Alphaeus, called Levi by St. Mark and St. Luke, but in the first Gospel named Matthew, which means" gift of Jehovah," nearly the same as Theodore, or Dositheus or Dorotheus, in Greek. That Levi was identical with the evangelist Matthew scarcely admits of any reasonable doubt. Busily employed in this obnoxious trade, he sat one day as usual at the custom-house or place of toll on the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret.

4. His call. Capernaum, now, as we have seen, probably Tell Hum, was then a busy mart of merchandise and a commercial center, whence roads diverged, one to Damascus in the north-east; a second to Tyre in the north-west on the Mediterranean seaboard; a third ran southward to Jerusalem, the capital of the country; while a fourth led to Sepphoris or Dio-Caesarea, the Roman capital of the province. It was exactly the kind of place where one would expect to find a custom-house for collecting the tolls of the lake, harbour dues, and duties on exports and imports, or other taxes. As our Lord went past, he fixed his eyes on (St. Luke, ἐθεάσατο, equivalent to observed) the tax-gatherer, who sat as usual at his post, not slothful in his business such as it was, and addressed to him the plain, direct invitation, "Follow me." Strange to say, that simple utterance had more than magic effect on this once unscrupulous, perhaps hardened custom-house officer. We are far from affirming that this was the first time that Levi had come in contact with Jesus. Gospel light had shined through all that once dark district; there can be little doubt that he had heard some of his discourses and listened to the gracious words that so often fell from his lips, or he had witnessed some of those works of wonder which he performed. Perhaps he had mingled in that crowd of the Capernaumites, which St. Mark reports in the preceding section of his Gospel, and had been a silent spectator when the poor paralytic had been so benefited and blessed in both body and soul.

5. His love to Jesus. Be this as it may, he, at all events, immediately accepted the invitation, and without demur or delay rose up at once - left all, as St. Luke tells us - and followed Jesus. Nor was this all; he shows his love to Jesus in another way - by an entertainment given in his honor. He made a great feast in his own house, as St. Luke further informs us. From this circumstance we naturally infer that his means were respectable; that, if not very wealthy, he was at least in comfortable circumstances; that by consequence the sacrifice he made for the Master was very considerable, and that his attachment was proportionately great.

6. Further object of Levi's feast. This complimentary feast to the Saviour was at the same time a farewell feast to his former associates, and a feast, moreover, by which he brought them into close contact with all that was spiritually good, in hope, no doubt, that they too might share the benefit and enjoy some measure of the same blessing which he himself had received.

7. His humility. Besides the self-sacrificing generosity of Levi who, no doubt, assumed the name of Matthew on his conversion, and his love to the Saviour as also to the souls of his brethren, he manifests a beautiful humility and an entire absence of ostentation. Acting on this principle, "Let another praise thee and not thine own lips," he makes no mention of the feast, more especially of the fact that it was himself, in his own house (so St. Luke), that gave at his own expense this great feast or reception (δοχὴν μεγάλην), as St. Luke terms it; while in the list of the names of the twelve apostles St. Mattthew alone, in his Gospel, speaks of himself as the publican.

8. A seeming tautology. In the fifteenth verse of this second chapter there appears to be a redundancy, for first we read that many publicans and sinners sat at meat, or reclined (συνανέκειντο), with Jesus and his disciples; and then it is added, "for there were many, and they followed him." This seeming tautology is partially avoided by' the reading οἵ καί of codex D, or by the rendering qui of the Italic and Vulgate; while some understand the first part of the clause as a justification of the former statement about "many publicans and sinners," and a further affirmation of its being literally and exactly true, the expression "followed" being joined, as is done by some editors, to the next verse, that is, "And there followed him also scribes and Pharisees." These expedients are unnecessary, for if we take η΅σαν in the sense of παρη΅σαν, which it sometimes has, the words assign an appropriate reason, or account properly for the large number referred to; thus, "Many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples, for many were present [i.e. in Levi's house], and had followed Jesus [viz. thither]."

9. Exception taken to such company. "How is it that he eateth with publicans and sinners?" rather," Why is it that he consorts with such?" the full expression being τί ἐστιν ὅτι, or τί γέγονεν ὅτι as in John 14:22. This complaint was addressed to the disciples, as though these separatists and sectaries still stood in salutary awe of the Master himself; but Jesus heard or overheard it, if the reading παρακούσας be admissible, and made reply by the aphorism, "They that are whole or strong," according to St. Matthew and St. Mark, but more precisely and perhaps professionally, according to St. Luke, "in sound health (ὐγιαίνοντες)" "have no need of the physician." He then applies the maxim to the particular case before him in the words, "I came not to call righteous [persons] but sinners to repentance."

10. The objects of the Saviour's mission. Theophylact understands by" the righteous" here those who think or speak of themselves as righteous, and imagines that our Lord terms them so by way of irony (κατ εἰρωνείαν). This explanation of Theophylact, and others who hold with him, that by "righteous" in this passage are meant those who think themselves righteous, who are so in their own estimation, presents only one aspect of the matter. While there are many degrees in unrighteousness, self-righteousness is but one of those degrees, and, as such, is not a characteristic of the class, viz. the righteous which our Lord excludes from the objects of his mission. The meaning is rather that, as there is none by nature righteous - none righteous till made so by the Saviour himself, none really and perfectly righteous - the unrighteous (and all in their natural state are such, notwithstanding certain differences in degree); the sinful (and all belong to this category, for all have sinned though in varying grades) - these are the very objects of his search and saving power. In a word, the morally unhealthy are those on whom the skill of the great Physician needs to be exercised, and who most require its exercise. Those that are such and feel themselves to be such are just the persons contemplated in his mission, and to whom on his errand of mercy he comes and calls.

11. The Saviour's proper place. Instead, then, of going out of his way, or his presence being found in the wrong place, our Lord, in consorting with publicans and sinners - sinners the vilest and the worst, as the objectors at least esteemed them - was just among those lost ones whom he came to seek and save, those sorely diseased ones whom he meant to restore to spiritual health and moral vigor. As in a hospital or lazar-house the physician's work is most abundant, so among such moral lazars the great Physician found the widest field of operation. We may not forget, however, that it is with much caution and certain restrictions that any mere man can so have intercourse with the degraded of his species; but Jesus, the God-man, ran no risk of moral taint, or of compromising character by associating freely and fully with such.

II. FASTING.

1. Fasting. In the former case just considered, the objectors shrank from directly assailing our Lord; they only took the disciples to task. Now, however, they have waxed bolder, and they attack the Master himself. The disciples of John imbibed the ascetic spirit of their master, who came neither eating nor drinking; the Pharisees, in addition to the one great annual fast appointed to be held on the Day of Atonement, and the four annual fasts observed after the Exile and enumerated by Zechariah 8:18 as "the fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth" (held in the same month, and probably the same as that on the Day of Atonement), observed also the two weekly fasts which superstition or will-worship had superadded, namely, Thursday, the day on which, as was alleged, Moses reascended the mount, and Monday, on which he returned. Holding a common principle, the disciples of John and the Pharisees make common cause, and question our Lord about the laxity of his disciples in this regard - not fasting, while they themselves were so strict in such observances.

2. The true nature of fasting. This is made manifest by our Lord's reply. Nor do we find any new doctrine here; it is the restatement of an old truth or rather principle. As rending the garments was a token of grief, so fasting was at once an effect and evidence of grief. But if the reality were absent, the former was meaningless and the latter hypocritical; hence the prophet warned his countrymen to rend their hearts and not their garments, and turn truly unto the Lord. So here the disciples of Jesus had not as yet any cause of grief. Why, then, indulge in empty pretense, employing the sign when the thing signified was absent, and when, in fact, no occasion existed for either, and when from the time and the circumstances both were uncalled for?

3. Allusion to an ancient custom. John the Baptist had spoken (John 2:29) of Jesus as the Church's Bridegroom; our Lord accepts the name John thus gave him, and adopts the figure, identifying himself with the bridegroom. In "the children of the bridechamber" we have an expression of Hebraistic impress, and equivalent to the more classical παράνυμφοι or νυμφαγωγοί, who were the friends of the bridegroom - the groomsmen - and who sat or went beside him to fetch the bride, and conduct her from her home, with merry music, gay procession, bright torches, and festive joy, to the house of her husband. Thus we read, in Judges 14:10, 11, "So his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do. And it came to pass, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him." The allusion makes the meaning manifest. "Can," asks our Lord by a particle (μὴ) which usually implies a negative answer, "the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?" The answer was obvious. The presence of the bridegroom made it a time of feasting instead of fasting - of joy and not of grief; and so he returns answer to himself, "As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast." Here the ancient Syriac Version omits this clause altogether, and substitutes for it the bare negative "no," as our Lord's reply to his own question.

4. Our Lord's first intimation of his sufferings. Yet he points to a time suited to fasting, and we can well imagine how a cloud shaded his benignant brow as he pronounced the darkly ominous words: "But," he says, "days shall come, yea, days when" (such is the import of the καὶ ὅταν of St. Luke) the bridegroom shall be taken away from them; then will they fast in those days." The Revised Version renders perhaps more simply, though somewhat less significantly, we think, as follows: - "But the days will come; and when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, then will they fast in those days." This is the first public intimation which our Lord gives, of his future sufferings and death. He had indeed enigmatically hinted it to the Jewish rulers in the words, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19); and he had dimly alluded to it in his private conversation with Nicodemus in the words, "Even so must the Son of man be lifted up" (John 3:14). When that gloomy prospect should be realized, then it would be a time of real grief and consequently a suitable season for fasting.

5. Maxim teaching the avoidance of things incongruous. Our Lord takes occasion, from the notion of persons indulging sorrow when the occasion was festive and joyous, to enunciate a maxim of deep import and great significance, as also of far-reaching tendency and manifold applications. The new patch on an old garment is a sample of incongruity. The words in St. Mark read thus: "No man also seweth a piece of unfulled cloth on an old garment: else the new patch [or new piece that filled it up] taketh away something from the old, and the rent becomes worse;" or the second clause may be rendered as follows: "Else the patch [or piece that filled up] takes away the new from the old." Also in the Gospel of St. Luke the words as commonly read are, "No man putteth a piece of new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then beth the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taker, out of the new agreeth not with the old;" or if the reading (σχίσας) of א, A, B, D, L, Χ, and the Syriac be adopted, the rendering may be, "No man having rent a piece from a new garment putteth it upon an old; if otherwise, he will both rend the new garment [i.e. by taking the ἐπίβλημα, or patch, out of it] and the piece from the new garment will not agree with the old." The word "unfulled," used by St. Mark, makes the meaning plainer, and implies that the unfulled patch, from its nature being stronger or more liable to shrink, works the mischief.

6. Ill effects of such incongruity. The following ill effects are produced: -

(1) The new garment is marred and rendered incomplete;

(2) the old is not made better, but worse, the rent becoming larger;

(3) the entire want of suitability or consistency; in other words, obvious unseemliness, as well as unsuitability. The Latins called a man "inept" (ineptus) who neglected what time, place, or circumstances demanded. Even a thing which may be proper enough in itself, if done out of season, is spoiled. On the contrary, everything that God makes is beautiful in its season; and everything that man does should aim at and imitate the same. Thus is it also when the proper requirements of place, and those of circumstances, are neglected.

7. Variety of applications. This parable or proverbial representation is capable of a great variety of applications, all showing the necessity of duly attending to the fitness of things and the exceedingly inconvenient consequences sure to result from the opposite course.

(1) The old dispensation and the new may not be mixed up together. Though they were one in essence, and though one vital principle pervaded them, yet the externals differed - the outward forms were distinct.

(2) The gospel was never meant to be used as a patch on the old threadbare garment of the Law. The old economy was not to be repaired in this way; it had to be renovated. The legal dispensation was not to be patched up with gospel grace. Christianity was never intended to be a patched-up Judaism; the old had served its day and died, the new came in to take its place. Nor is the new Christian life of individuals a purple patch here and there upon the old.

(3) More directly still to the present instance, the young life of new discipleship was not to be forced into conjunction and so crushed into conformity with Pharisaic asceticism, nor was their moral freedom to be hampered by such unnatural and unwelcome restrictions.

8. A close connection. Again, as the incompatibility of fasting with a time of feasting, of sorrow with a season of gladness, is exhibited by the comparison of a wedding feast, the wedding feast naturally suggested the wedding garment, and again, by a similar association of ideas, the wine in use at a wedding. Thus, too, the garment as an outer garb refers to externals, and the wine to something internal; so the principles of true freedom infused by the gospel must burst through the narrowness of mere ceremonial swathing-bands. - J.J.G.

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KJV: And he went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them.

WEB: He went out again by the seaside. All the multitude came to him, and he taught them.