Don’t Miss the Point - Matthew 9:14-17

The Bottom Line from this past Sunday’s sermon from our Matthew series was “Obedience to God’s law can’t save you, but brought on by faith, it can transform you into the image of His Son, Jesus.” 

Matthew 9:14–17 (ESV)
14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. 17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

This is an interesting passage, where Jesus is getting questioned by John the Baptist's disciples as if Jesus and His disciples were doing something wrong. In their culture of first century second temple Judaism, following the Law and the pharisaical traditions was expected, anything less was considered unrighteous. So when Jesus and His disciples weren’t fasting frequently like the pious Pharisees, they appeared ungodly by worldly standards. 

But Jesus turned it back around to the true purpose of fasting being mourning or longing, neither of which was appropriate when the Bridegroom, the Messiah, was with them. Why would they be in mourning when there was reason to celebrate? Why would they long for their Lord to be near when He literally came to them as the incarnate Christ Jesus? 

With that in mind He contrasts John’s ministry with His own. The Bible Knowledge Commentary says, “He pictured the relationship between His ministry and that of John the Baptist. John was a reformer seeking to bring about repentance among those steeped in the traditions of Judaism. Jesus, however, was not out to patch up an old system, like sewing a new unshrunk cloth on an old garment, which would then tear, or pouring new wine into old wineskins, which would then burst. His purpose was to bring in something new. He had come to lead a group out of Judaism into the kingdom based on Him and His righteousness. True righteousness is not built on the Law or on Pharisaic traditions.” Paul deeply affirms this sentiment in Philippians 3:1-11, where he begins by listing what’s perceived as his accomplishments or worth by worldly standards, and instead shows them to be garbage, starting in verse 7: 

Philippians 3:7–11 (ESV)
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Paul knows better adherence to the Law or reforming the old covenantal system isn’t going to bring salvation, and this is what Jesus is pointing to in the Matthew passage. He came to bring new life, not to clean up the old life. He came to reconcile us into a new relationship, not to repackage the old. The bridegroom is not here with us but has ascended to the Father for a time, so He sent His Holy Spirit (John 16:7). Therefore, like in so many things, we live in an already but not yet state of celebrating the Good News of new life found only in Him, but also fasting as we long for His return to make all things new.