2. The New Wine

To go on to chapter 6, there we find the Lord setting aside the sign of the covenant between Jehovah and the children of Israel. He has brought in the new wine: the grace of God was presented to man in His person. Not merely could he say, “I am come as the messenger of grace,” but He was the channel of it. It was come in Him. People would not have the Lord. In John 6, where He speaks of the bread that came down from heaven, they say, “Lord, evermore give us this bread;” but the moment He says, “I am the Bread of Life” they will not have Him, they look at Him as the carpenter’s son. But the Lord having come to take up any poor ruined sinner, we see Him in the previous chapter calling Levi, and Levi enters into what the Lord’s mind is; and he makes a feast for the Lord, and invites the very people the Lord wanted. There is a full river of grace flowing now, and the Lord wants vessels for the grace to flow into. Levi brought together the vessels for the grace that was then flowing into company with the Lord. That leads to the murmuring of the Pharisees, which brings out that man’s heart has no taste for what there is in Christ. That leads on to chapter 6, where the Lord virtually sets aside the sabbath, the sign of the covenant between God and the Jews. He says, in Ezekiel 20, “I gave them my sabbaths to be a sign between me and them.” The Lord now sets it aside. They could not eat of green ears or parched corn until the wave sheaf had been offered (Leviticus 23:14); and they were allowed to pluck the ears as they passed through the standing corn of a neighbor. (Deuteronomy 23:15) This the disciples were doing. The Lord of heaven and earth was here, and His disciples were passing along hungry. He was the rejected One, and instead of receiving tribute from those who were His subjects, they suffered those attached to Him to hunger. They were ready to stand upon the outward form, as the flesh always is; but God delights in mercy and not sacrifice. They knew not what was in God’s heart, nor did they realize that the Lord Jesus Christ was the expression of what was in that heart down here. The Lord takes His place here as the Son of man, because everything in title is put under Him as Son of man, consequently He is Lord of the sabbath. He sets it aside. What it meant was, that He was setting aside the system of things which was found to be faulty. The new wine could not flow into the old vessel, nor the new piece be put on the old garment. He sets aside Judaism.