He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.
Christ's choice to call Levi from the tax booth is a wonder of grace, not merely that He admitted fishermen, but that He admitted publicans, men of notorious ill fame. No heart is too hard for His Spirit to work upon, and He keeps company with the unconverted so that He might heal their souls, which is the very design of His coming.
AI summary
Commenting on Luke 5:27-39
And no man putteth new wine into old bottles,.... To which the Scribes and Pharisees are here compared, into whose hearts the new wine of Gospel grace was not put; or to whom was not made known the love of God Comparable to new wine; nor the blessings of the new covenant of grace, now exhibited; nor the truths of the Gospel now more clearly and newly revealed.
Verse 36. No entry from BARNES for this verse. (a) "And he spake a parable" (b) "agreeth"