Matthew
9:14-17
Jesus’ first teaching on fasting was in
Matthew 6. In that chapter, Jesus taught that other people should not notice
when a person fasts. Fasting should only be visible to God because it is a
method of humbling self before God. So that we are not mistaken on this
teaching, Isaiah 58 and Zechariah 7 both said this. God told the Israelites
through these prophets that if their fasting was just motions they went through
and they were not taking care of the hungry, poor, naked, and unsheltered, then
He would not hear them. God requires a whole life given over to His service,
not just outward actions. God looks at a person’s heart behind the actions.
Jesus repeated this in Matthew 6. The Pharisees showed they were fasting by not
bathing, anointing their heads with oil, and by wearing sackcloth and ashes. They
were seeking acknowledgement by people. Jesus told them they received what they
desired, public acknowledgement. On the other hand, they did not receive
acknowledgement from God. They received and earthly reward, not heavenly.
In Matthew 9:14-17, the topic of fasting
arose again. This time John's disciples asked Jesus directly about fasting.
John’s disciples approached Jesus and asked why His disciples did not fast like
the Pharisees and them. We need to understand this situation better. John’s
disciples were still Jews. The disciples were sad and at a loss of what to do about
John being imprisoned by Herod (Matthew 4:12). In the past (the Old Testament),
people often fasted when seeking God’s guidance or expressing grief. John’s
disciples acted as most Jews did when they fasted. They did not know a new day
had come with a new covenant, even though John testified to it when he said
“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). They
did not hear Jesus’ teaching on fasting or the new covenant.
What is interesting is that the Pharisees are
involved in this passage. Often when people challenged Jesus on a point of
Jewish religious life, the Pharisees were the challengers. We note that the
scribes and Pharisees were near when Jesus spoke to John’s disciples. (See 9:3,
11.) The Pharisees probably instigated this questioning so that John’s
disciples spoke the challenge to Jesus. The Pharisees forever tried to catch
Jesus in blasphemy or breaking Jewish religious laws. Another thing in this
passage we need to note is Jesus made a point that showed His disciples are
different from John’s disciples and the Pharisees. He called His disciples
“attendants of the bridegroom” (vs. 15). “Attendants of the bridegroom” means
sons, descendants, or heirs of the bridegroom. Jesus called His disciples his
descendants, His heirs. His disciples are new children in Him and are heirs of
the Father now. They will receive God’s love, grace, and salvation, as well as
live with Him for eternity. Paul said this in Romans 8:17. We can imagine the
slap the Pharisees felt when Jesus said this. They felt Jesus slapped them by
saying they would not inherit eternal life with the Messiah. This may have
enraged them. We do not know for sure how they took Jesus’ words at this point.
We do know they never gave up their relentless pursuit to trip Jesus. They
wanted to imprison and kill Jesus. Jesus told them the attendants of the
bridegroom do not fast. He separated His disciples from the Pharisees and
John’s disciples. By Jewish religious law, people at a wedding did not fast.
Weddings lasted seven days and they did not fast for those seven days. Jesus’
disciples are not like John’s or like the Pharisees at this time. Jesus equated
His disciples with being wedding attendants, but not just any wedding
attendants; they were co-heirs with the bridegroom, with Christ.
Jesus punctuated this proclamation with two
parables, the parables of the new cloth and the new wine. In these parables,
Jesus did not speak specifically to fasting, but to the new covenant and new
life in Him. He said, “no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment,
for the patch pulls away from the garment and a worse tear results. A couple of
things we should notice here are the old garment needed a patch and patches
came from shrunk cloth. First, the garment needed patching. The garment needing
a patch was the old way of relating to God. Prior to Christ, the Israelites
came to God through sacrifices for sin, which never took away all sin. They had
to repeat sacrifices regularly. Also, within the religious life of the
Israelites, there were arguments and divisions over how to live before Yahweh.
The strict Jews required obedience to 613 laws. The stringency of these laws
often did not allow for giving of mercy or compassion on the Sabbath. A chasm
between the different forms of Judaism occurred because of their interpretation
of the Law. The people did not need their old ways, the old garment, mended.
They needed a better way to be in a right relationship with Yahweh God. Jesus
came to earth to bring that better way, the New Covenant. The new cloth
represented the better way. Trying to sew a patch of new unshrunk cloth onto
old cloth will not work. These disciples of Jesus were new disciples. They had
not had a chance to wear the cloth, their new life long enough to allow it to
fit them well. The cloth/life was not yet tried, tested, and shrunk to become a
familiar, loved garment. They were just learning about the new garment. Also, the
patch of unshrunk cloth will pull away from the old cloth, but new life in
Christ is not to be an add-on to an already existent life. Jesus came to bring
a new way and a new covenant with God. He fulfilled the old covenant. The old
has gone the new has come, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17. When a person
becomes a follower of Jesus, the person has a new life and it does not fit with
the old life. The habits of the old life do not go with the new life Jesus
gives us. A person must choose which life they will lead. The Pharisees and
other Jews could not realistically expect the new believers in Christ to follow
their old methods of coming before God and of living on the earth. Thus, Jesus
stated, they will not fast according to the old customs of the Jews. (Remember,
nowhere in the New Testament does God mandate His children must fast. Fasting
is one way of humbling oneself and seeking God, but God does not mandate it.
The Jews must realize Jesus wove a new cloth to make them a new set of clothes,
not something just to patch an old cloth. Jesus provided a better way, the new
covenant. He fulfilled the old covenant.
With regard to the parable of the new wine, we
must understand the method used in Bible times for making wine. The wine
bag/bottle is just as important as the wine. People made the wine by pouring
fresh grape juice into fresh skins/bottles. They skinned and tanned goat hides.
The neck of the goat became the neck of the bag. After the person poured the fresh
grape juice into the skins, over time the juice would ferment. As it fermented,
it produced gases. The need for new bags was most necessary for this part of
the process. The new bags were fresh, young, and expandable. They grew with the
production and increased pressure of fermenting gases. Old bags were dry and
inflexible. They could not withstand the pressure of the fermentation gases,
but were not supple and expandable. Old bags could not grow. This analogy is
what Jesus meant when He spoke to John’s disciples and others who listened. The
message Jesus brought of the new covenant, the new way of relating to God, must
go into new wineskins, lives made new by Christ. As people grow more in the
knowledge of Christ and grow more like Him, they expand and grow just as the
fermentation gases from the grape juice expand the new wineskins. The new
wineskin is the new life Christ gives to people. The old way of life was
stagnant, insufficient, and could not bring a person into a right relationship
with God. A person must choose between their old way of life - religious and
secular life - or the new life Christ gives. If we try to put the new covenant (the
wine) Jesus brought into an old lifestyle (wineskins), it will not fit. The old
life fights against the new wine, the new covenant, Christ brings and bursts the
old wineskin, then both the old life and the new message will be lost to the
person. The person will become confused and drift in life. When we allow Christ
to pour the new life He brought (salvation and life with Him forever) into new
wineskins (a new way of living/the new man) both are preserved, the Gospel
given to the person and the person’s life.
Jesus made 4 points. One, His disciples are co-heirs
with Him of eternal life with the Father in heaven. This meant that the
Pharisees were not co-heirs. However, Jesus told them in verse 12, “It is not
those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.” Jesus came
for everyone, but only persons who recognize he or she is sick, who realize he
or she is a sinner, will receive salvation. The Pharisees as a group did not
recognize their sickness. Second, Jesus came to give a completely new
life/cloth, not have some of what He brought for humankind added onto what they
already did in life. Christianity is not a patch for our lives. It is the only
way to have abundant life, to be made right before God (have salvation), and to
have eternal life in God’s Kingdom. Third, the new wine must go into new
wineskins. Jesus gave a new way, the new covenant, to be in relationship with
God and that requires we accept and live out a new life and no longer live as
we did previously. We cannot continue to live our old sinful lives and expect
that since we say we believe, we will be all right with God. Our acceptance of His
grace and forgiveness must bear fruit in our lives. Fruit will show by the way our
lives changed from what they were to a new way of living, a life of mercy,
compassion, and devotion to God. The fermentation gases represent this growth. Fourth,
fasting is a personal issue. For John’s disciples, they mourned the imprisonment
of John and fasted humbly to go before God asking Him to intervene for John. For
the Pharisees, they fasted to advertise their piety hoping to gain praise from
other people. For Jesus’ disciples at that particular time, fasting was not
needed because God, in the form of Jesus Christ, was in their midst. He already
acknowledged them and chose to be with them. There would be a time later, after
Jesus ascended to heaven, when they might want to fast to humble themselves,
recognize and repent of their sin, and ask to be in God’s presence. Fasting is
just one method of coming before God. God does not mandate it. By definition, fasting
is a religious exercise of abstaining from food or drink. It removes our focus
from our wants and needs to focus on God. Every time we think of eating or
drinking the item from which we are fasting, we remember our fast and that we
are seeking God. We remember not to focus on our self, but on God. We are
seeking God’s presence, His will, and His way.
I do not know if you are fasting this Lent.
If you are, why are you doing it? Do you want to be part of the crowd who does?
There is a better reason to fast. Being a part of the crowd will not get you
acknowledged by God. See Isaiah 58 and Zechariah 7. Do you want to be in God’s
presence? God desires a continual relationship with us. He created us to be in
relationship with us. God created us in His image, the crowning glory of
creation. We are the only ones of His creation into whom He breathed His life. It
is for us that He sent His Son, Jesus, to be the once and for all sacrifice, the
only sacrifice ever needed for our sin, so that we could have a renewed
relationship with Him.
Are you ready to accept His love and
sacrifice? Are you ready to become new wineskins for the new wine? Are you
ready to put on the whole new garment that Jesus gives to you, not just the
patch? What do you need to do to come before God today? Maybe fasting? We must
always come to God in humility, recognizing His greatness and our sinfulness,
and asking for His forgiveness, and then we can be in a renewed relationship
with Him.
Christians observe Lent for forty days before
Easter. At Lent Christians prepare for the celebration of Easter by humbling themselves
before God with repentance, moderation in life, and spiritual discipline, some
include fasting in the latter. Lent is a time to reflect on Jesus Christ’s
suffering and sacrifice. Have you taken the time to consider God’s great love
for you? He allowed His Son, Jesus the Christ, to be beaten and crucified for your
sins. That thought is humbling. Take this time now and consider what Jesus did
for you so you could be in a renewed relationship with the Father and have
eternal life with Him. Whatever it takes for you to consider God’s great love
for you do it because He gave everything He had to show you how much He loves you.
