The Company You Keep (Isaiah 58:9-14 and Luke 5:27-32)

It seems like there are a number of readings these past few days that contrast the Old Testament and the New Testament. 


In the Old Testament today there are a number of conditionalities attached to God's presence.


If you remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech;
If you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
Then the LORD will guide you always
and give you plenty even on the parched land.
He will renew your strength,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.

If you do this or that, light will rise and the Lord will guide you always. 


In the New Testament however, Jesus calls Matthew the tax collector to follow him. I'd hardly think Matthew qualifies on the count of bestowing bread on the hungry and satisfying the afflicted. More likely, he took bread away from the hungry and afflicted the satisfied (and the dissatisfied). 


And yet Jesus still chose him. And his reasons for doing so reverse the conditions in the Old Testament. He says, "Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners."


It is as if Jesus is saying, 


If you are the source of oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech;
If you take away bread from the hungry
and afflict the satisfied and dissatisfied;
Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
Then the LORD will guide you always
and give you plenty even on the parched land.
He will renew your strength,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.

He came to give light to the sinners and renews their strength like a spring whose water never fails.