Get Ready Here Comes the Bride ... Of Christ! Matthew 9:14-17

Jesus Questioned About Fasting

Technically according to the Law, fasting was only required once a year.

"Not at all, or very seldom, but on the contrary eat and drink freely. “In the law, we find only one fast-day enjoined, namely, the tenth of the seventh month, on which the national atonement was made. But the Jews, of their own accord, observed many other days of fasting." (Benson)

14 Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”

This shows the fact that John's disciples were still running separately from Jesus' newly formed band of disciples.  Most think John was in prison at this time.  John's disciples fasted and practiced true repentance, whereas the Pharisees did it more for the outward appearance.  Apparently the Pharisees fasted twice per week.  

Interestingly Jesus' disciples did not fast and we will find out soon enough. 

15 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.

Fasting was a sign of mourning and repentance.  And yet that is what John had preached to the people to prepare them for Jesus.  Now Jesus was in their midst and it should be a time of joy, especially since he would not be with them for long.  This lays for the foundation of the theology of the church being the bride of Christ and Jesus the bridegroom.  

"The words can hardly be looked on as a command imposing fasting as a formal obligation, but, beyond all doubt, they sanction the principle on which fasting rests. The time that was to follow the departure of the Bridegroom would be one of sorrow, conflict, discipline, and at such a time the self-conquest implied in abstinence was the natural and true expression of the feelings that belonged to it." - Ellicott

16 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 

Jesus then uses two analogies to show how the new covenant he is bringing is different than the old one.  The problem with the old covenant was that because of their sinful nature the Jews could not keep it.  What Jesus was going to offer was a whole new way.  If you tried to apply Jesus' way to the old way it would be like putting on a new piece of cloth on an old one.  

"Our Lord further reminded them of common rules of prudence. It was not usual to take a piece of rough woolen cloth, which had never been prepared, to join to an old garment, for it would not join well with the soft, old garment, but would tear it further, and the rent would be made worse." -  Henry

17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” 

Jesus uses a very similar analogy to the last one.  

"Nor would men put new wine into old leathern bottles, which were going to decay, and would be liable to burst from the fermenting of the wine; but putting the new wine into strong, new, skin bottles, both would be preserved." - Henry

The bottom line was Jesus was coming to do something new.  The old forms had seen their usefulness, which was to prepare people for Jesus' coming.  The Law had served its purpose in revealing our sinfulness, our decay like the old cloth or wineskin.  When we accept Jesus, the new wine, all things are made new.  We don't try to fit Jesus into an old system of works.  

"By "new bottles" are meant sinners, whom Christ calls by his grace, and the Spirit regenerates and renews, who are made new creatures in Christ; who have new hearts, and new spirits, and new principles of light, life, love, faith, and holiness, implanted in them; who have new eyes to see with, new ears to hear with, new feet to walk with, to and in Christ, new hands to work and handle with, and who live a new life and conversation"  - Gill

What the law could never do by making us right with God, Jesus did on the cross. As St. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation."  

Are you like the old wineskin, trying to put Jesus into an old system of trying to be a good person? If the church is the bride of Christ, do you think the church is experiencing the joy of the groom in its midst?  Why do people prefer the old over the new? Are you experiencing the joy of the bridegroom through the Holy Spirit?  Do our church services look more like a wedding or a funeral?