Calling of Matthew
1. AND after these things he went forth, and saw a tax gatherer (named Levi) sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him,
Follow me.
And he left all, rose up, and followed him.
2. And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of taxgatherers and of others that sat down with them. But the Scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying,
Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners ?
3. And Iesus answering said unto them,
They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to penitence.
4. And they said unto him,
Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine do eat and drink ?
5. And he said unto them,
Wherewith shall I liken the men of this generation, and to what are they like? They are like unto children, sitting in the market place and calling one to another and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced, we have mourned to you and ye have not lamented.
6. For John (the Baptist) came neither eating nor drinking, and ye say, He hath a devil, The Son (of Man) cometh eating and drinking the fruits (of the earth) and the milk (of the flock) and the fruit (of the vine) and ye say, Behold a glutton and wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.
7. Can ye make the children (of the bridechamber) fast, while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.
Parable of the New Wine in the Old Bottles
8. AND he spake also this parable unto them, saying,
No man putteth a piece of new cloth upon an old garment; for then the new agreeth not with the old, and the garment is made worse.
9. And no one putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles, and both are preserved.
10. None also having drunk old wine, straightway desire new: for they say, The old is better. But the time cometh when the new shall wax old, and then the new shall be desired by them. For as one changeth old garments for new ones, so do they also change the body (of death) for the body (of life)[1] and that which is past for that which is coming.
LECTION 16. 1. -"Levi" is by tradition identified with Matthew, the writer of the second of the four Gospels (as received by the Church), Mark being the first of the four Evangelists, though placed second in the A. V.
v. 9. -It was the custom in Palestine to use the skins of animals to hold wine as we do glass bottles, and such leathern bottles when filled with new wine were liable to burst by reason of the fermentation of the wine within them.
Read: 1 Corintians 15:42-56