49 Why Jesus Refused to Fast Like the Pharisees (Matthew 9:14-17)

Krisan Marotta: Thank you for downloading Wednesday in the Word. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today we're going to study Matthew chapter 9, verses 14 through 17. This is the 49th talk in my series on the Gospel of Matthew. Lecture notes for today's talk are on the link below this podcast, or you can find them on wednesdayintheword.com slash Matthew 4-9. Thanks so much for joining me today. Let's get started. We have been looking at a section in Matthew where he describes a number of miracles that Jesus performed, and all these miracles testify to the authority of Jesus. Then Matthew turned to a new issue. Jesus had a fundamental disagreement with the religious leaders of his day, the Pharisees. The issue they disagreed on is what does it look like to pursue righteousness? What does God want us to do? The scribes and the Pharisees had taught their view of what it means to follow the law and to take God seriously. And Jesus says they're wrong in no uncertain terms. This was a key theme in the Sermon on the Mount in chapters 5 through 7. I argued there the entire Sermon on the Mount was aimed at correcting the teaching of the Pharisees. We looked at the first disagreement in the last podcast. Jesus called Matthew a tax collector to be one of the twelve, and that sparked a debate with the Pharisees over why Jesus associated with tax collectors and sinners. That story is found in all three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Likewise in all three Gospels, that story is followed by the story we're going to look at today, where the disciples of John question the religious behavior of Jesus. Let's read Matthew nine, fourteen through seventeen. Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, Can the wedding guest 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. 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. 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. The thematic connection between the last story and this story is pretty clear. Jesus does not conform to the expectations of what a pious religious Jew ought to be doing to show his devotion to God. He ate with tax collectors and sinners, which the Pharisees would never do, and now he and his disciples are not following the expected fasting rituals. Whether or not these stories are linked chronologically is not so clear. It may be that Jesus ate with tax collectors at a time he was supposed to be fasting, and so that's the next question he got. Or these events may have happened on different occasions, but the gospel writers put them together because they are so thematically linked. Before we look at Matthew, we need to understand some things about fasting. Now I'm not an expert on fasting in the New Testament times, but I'm going to tell you what I know and what I learned from my study. The Jews were commanded to fast one day per year on the Day of Atonement, and that is the only fast that is commanded in the Old Testament. This is from Leviticus chapter twenty three, I'm going to read verses twenty six through thirty two. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Now on the tenth day of the seven month is the day of atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord, and you shall not do any work on that day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people, and whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall not do any work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations and all your dwelling places. It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month, beginning at evening, from evening to evening, shall you keep your Sabbath. Now, the first thing you notice is the word fasting is not used in this passage. Instead, we see this language about afflict yourself, which is sometimes translated humble yourself or deny yourself. That phrase is traditionally interpreted as referring to fasting, and I think that's right. However, some scholars will argue that this term afflict yourself or humble yourself is entirely inward and subjective. They argue it's not talking about any outward action at all, and they argue that on this solemn day you are to humble your soul with an inner humility before God. Well, if they're right, then there are no commands in the Old Testament for a religious fast. But I think the traditional understanding that afflict yourself here means deny yourself food or fasting makes a lot more sense. First, I think the best translation is something like deny yourself or afflict yourself, afflict your whole bodily person. And the context suggests that this is an outward practice. Notice 29 and 30, for whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people. And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people. Well, that sounds like there are two practices that will get you in trouble: working and not afflicting yourself. Working is clearly an outward observable action that someone could notice and verify. And it suggests to me that the other action is also an outward act that someone would notice. This outward act of denying yourself food or fasting. So it sounds in context like this is an outward religious practice that you will get in trouble if you don't perform. Second, in Isaiah 58 5, Isaiah is rebuking the people for the hypocritical way that they are seeking God, and he uses this phrase, deny yourself, in parallel with fasting. It seems to me that he uses those two terms interchangeably. God speaks of a fast and then he speaks of it as a day for a man to humble or deny himself. And then finally, the Jews historically understood this term to mean fasting. We can see an example of this in the New Testament. In Acts 28, Paul is about to get on a boat that is sailing for Rome. It is very late in the season to be sailing. It is after the Day of Atonement, and Luke describes the Day of Atonement as the fast. This is Acts 27, 9. Since much time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous because even the fast was already over. The fast Luke is talking about there is the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement is late in the year, indicating how late this voyage is in getting started. But because the Day of Atonement was so associated with fasting, they could just refer to it as the fast. Well, putting all that together, I think the best understanding is yes, God commanded the Jews to fast on the Day of Atonement. And as I said, that is the only fast commanded anywhere in the law. On the Day of Atonement, we have a God ordained religious practice. The Day of Atonement involved ceremonial dress, ritual washings, sacrificing, and fasting. And performing these rituals was an expression of submission to God's priorities and served as a physical reminder for the people of Israel. The author of Hebrews says that the temple sacrifices did not actually solve the problem of sin, but they were a great lesson for the people. The rituals and the sacrifices made them think about the fact that there is no bigger problem than the sin that separates us from God. In addition to what was happening at the temple on the Day of Atonement, individuals were called on to fast. The physical hunger was to heighten and strengthen the reminder of our need for God's mercy. The rituals expressed to God our humility before Him, and the hunger pains were a physical reminder of our need for God and His mercy. The other kind of fasting we see in the Old Testament was not a regular scheduled kind of fasting. Rather, it was a response to a specific situation, usually a bad one. So while we have only one command for a religious fast, there are many stories in the Old Testament that include fasting. And in these stories, an individual or a group decides to fast in response to a specific situation. This type of fasting often went along with repentance. An individual or the community would realize they'd broken the covenant in some way, and as part of their repentance, they would fast. One example of this is King David after the prophet Nathan confronts him about his sin with Bathsheba. David confesses his sin. Nathan assures him that he is forgiven, but the child David and Bathsheba conceived will die. And in response to this news, David fasts. This is 2 Samuel twelve verses thirteen through twenty three. David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord, and Nathan said to David, The Lord also has put away your sin, you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die. Then Nathan went to his house, and the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and he became sick. David therefore sought God on behalf of the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground, and the elders of his house stood beside him to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. All right, so here's a situation. David has repented. God has decreed some of the consequences of David's sin, and David fasts and prays in humility in response, and specifically David prays that God will spare the life of the child. Then going on in twelve eighteen, on the seventh day the child died, and the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive we spoke to him and he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm. But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David understood that the child was dead, and David said to his servants, Is the child dead? They said, He is dead. Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes, and he went into the house of the Lord and worshipped. He then went to his own house, and when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate. Then his servants said to him, What is the thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died you arose and ate food. David said, While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live? But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me. David gives us a fairly clear description of the reason he fasted. He's fasting, weeping, and prostrating himself on the ground before God as he seeks God's mercy for the child. His fasting is an expression of his humility and his unworthiness before God. But after God has clearly said no, David says, Why should I fast? The fast was associated with repentance and the request he was making. Now that God has answered that request, there's no need to continue. This fasting is not an empty ritual for David. He's not fasting out of a sense of obligation because it's a certain day on the calendar, or he needs to get X number of fasts in this quarter. He's deeply invested in the request he's making toward God and he's denying himself food to focus on the request. He doesn't see fasting as some kind of magical or spiritual way to manipulate God into granting his request. He says, who knows whether or not God will have mercy. He recognizes this situation is in God's hands, and God, for his own purposes, may or may not be gracious. David's fasting is part of a broken cry to God from a humble and trusting heart. So that's one example of fasting. We also see fasting associated with community repentance. This is first Samuel 7, verses 3 to 6. And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the ashtra from among you and direct your heart to the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hands of the Philistine. So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtarath, and they served the Lord only. Then Samuel said, Gather all Israel at Mitzpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you. So they gathered at Mitzpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord, and Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mitzpah. So here we see fasting again associated with the confession of the people that they have sinned. The prophet Samuel rebukes them for turning away from God. They repent and remove all the tokens of their foreign gods and the idols. Fasting is part of their expression of repentance. Just like David expressed his individual repentance, we now see the community expressing their humility before God and their need for his mercy and forgiveness. So we see fasting associated with repentance, both of the individuals and community. Sometimes it's associated with sorrow and mourning. For example, this is 2 Samuel 112. And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. So here the people have learned that the King Saul and his son Jonathan have been killed in battle. As part of their grief, they fast. This is not an expression of repentance, but sorrow and mourning over what has happened in battle. Again, this is not a ritual that they must perform for X number of days. This is a response of their grief. They are sad, they are grieving over what's happened to their king and his son, and as part of their grief, they fast. Another situation where we see fasting is when the people are in danger and they are calling out to God for deliverance. We see this in the book of Esther in chapter four. The people are in exile in Persia, and one of the king's advisers convinces the Persian king to sign an edict that will round up and destroy all the Jews. When the Jews of the day hear the news of this decree, they fast and weep, calling on God to act on their behalf. This is Esther 43. And in every province, wherever the king's commands and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes. So the Jews in exile are in peril, they are about to be rounded up and executed, and they seek deliverance from God, and they fast as part of their humble request in seeking God to act on their behalf. Now a Jew named Mordecai convinces his niece Esther to appeal to the king on behalf of the Jews. Esther is Jewish, but she is one of the king's many wives, but she is not allowed to go before the king unless he sends for her. If she goes before the king when he did not send for her, she can be executed. So before she does this, before Esther goes to the king on behalf of her people, she calls upon them to fast with her. This is Esther four, fifteen and sixteen. Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish. Here we see the Jews in exile are in peril. In order to save them, Esther is about to risk her life by seeking an audience with the king when he has not sent for her, and she asks the community and the women with her to fast as part of their request for deliverance from God. Again, this is a fast in response to a specific situation. They are calling out to God for deliverance, and as part of that humble request, they fast. We also see individuals fasting when they need advice or protection or deliverance from God. For example, after the exile is ended, Nehemiah hears news of the plight of his people in Jerusalem and how the city has been destroyed. He seeks wisdom to know how to act in response. He fasts and he prays for several days when he is seeking wisdom for this decision. This is Nehemiah chapter one verses one through four. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah. Now it happened in the month of Chislev in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa, the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped who had survived the exile and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are destroyed by fire. As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. Nehemiah must make a life-changing decision whether or not to return to Jerusalem to help those who have returned from exile or not. And in seeking wisdom for that request, he prays and he fasts. He weeps for the hardships his fellow Jews are facing, and he fasts as he seeks wisdom for how to respond. So rather than being a habitual practice or a prescribed discipline, other than the Day of Atonement, in Old Testament times, fasting was a response to specific circumstances. We see it associated with repentance, with mourning, with humility, and with seeking God's favor. The practice is nothing in and of itself. It acquires significance and meaning when a believing heart practices it in conjunction with humility and repentance before God. Without such a heart, the practice is empty. In fact, we see Isaiah rebuke the people for an empty practice of fasting. This is Isaiah 58, 1 through 9. Cry aloud, do not hold back, lift up your voice like a trumpet, declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. So Isaiah starts out announcing the sin of the people, and this next part is a little bit confusing until you realize that I think God is being sarcastic. He's being ironic. He's describing their hypocrisy. The people have transgressed, and he says in 58 2, yet they seek me daily and delight to know my life. My ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God. They ask of me righteous judgments, and they delight to draw near to God. So he's saying, Look, they approach me with fasting, but their hearts are hard and rebellious. They describe themselves as delighting in God and seeking his favor, but in reality their hearts are far from him. Then the people talk, and they ask God why he is not rewarding them for all their religious piety and all their adherence to the rituals. And they say, Why have we fasted and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves and you take no knowledge of it? Then God speaks, Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose? A day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord? And so God says, Look, do you really think all I want you to do is go through the motions of fasting when your heart is full of evil and greed and arrogance? Do you think that's what I want? No, let me tell you what I want. And then he goes on, is not this the fast that I choose, to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the naked to cover him and not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer, you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am. God says quite clearly what he really wants is not the religious practice of fasting, but a humble heart. He wants his people to show their devotion to him by pursuing justice, mercy, and compassion. If they really love God and want his approval, then they will pursue the things that God loves, like justice, kindness, mercy, and compassion. If they repent, humble themselves, and pursue righteousness, then God will answer and say, Here I am. So we see in this passage, he's basically saying, You guys think your fasting and pious prayers require a response, but your pious prayers with a heart of stone mean nothing. It's when you call out to me with a humble, repentant heart that I'm going to answer. Okay, so all of that is background. From the Old Testament, then we learned there was one fast that was commanded, and that was on the Day of Atonement. And it was meant to create a physical reminder of their humility and dependence on God and their need for His mercy. Then we also see that fasting was a voluntary practice. It was practiced by both individuals and the community in association with repentance, prayer, mourning, and seeking God. It was sometimes accompanied by other physical symbols like wearing sackcloth and putting gnashes on your head, and it was both a physical expression of humility before God and a physical reminder of that humility. But we also see from Isaiah that fasting has no power in and of itself. When hard-hearted, unrepentant people fasted before God, God says, I'm not going to answer that, and I am not pleased with that kind of ritual. So that's the picture I have of fasting going into this passage. So now let's go back to Matthew. Matthew 9 14. Then the disciples of John came to him saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? Okay, now we have to know a little bit about fasting in New Testament times. The disciples of John are not talking about the Day of Atonement. That's not the fast they're talking about. Jesus was a believing, practicing Jew, and I feel certain that he fasted on the Day of Atonement. He is not being accused of breaking the law here. Instead, we are talking about a kind of fasting that had become common practice at the time, but was not required in the law. Both the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist had made fasting a regular religious practice. This is a tradition of the elders that was taken very seriously, and Jesus is being asked, why is he ignoring it? Okay, so what did the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist do? Well, we don't have a whole lot of information to go on. In New Testament times, the evidence we have, which is not a lot, but what we have suggests that fasting had become a regularly scheduled event, at least for the Pharisees. In one of the parables of Jesus, one of the Pharisees describes himself as fasting twice per week. That's Luke 18, 12. It's in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax gatherer. And as evidence of how righteous he is and how devoted to God he is, the Pharisee says, I fast twice a week. Presumably, fasting twice a week is something the Pharisees typically did. That was not prescribed in the Old Testament law, but it had become their tradition. The other evidence we have is an early Christian document which is known as the Dedake. It dates from about the first century and it urges Christians to fast. And it says, But let not your fast be with the hypocrites, for they fast on the second and fifth day of the week, rather fast on the fourth day and the preparation. Now most scholars think the hypocrites there refers to the Pharisees, and that this language is echoing the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus says don't fast like the hypocrites. And this early writer is saying, Don't be like the Pharisees, they fast on Mondays and Thursdays. Rather, you should fast on Wednesdays and Fridays instead. So continue your practice of fasting two days a week, but make a distinction that you're not doing what the Pharisees are doing. Our best guess then is that the Pharisees fasted twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays as an act of religious devotion. We can also see part of Jesus' criticism of the Pharisees' practice in this parable of the Pharisee and the tax gatherer. The Pharisee thinks that he is better off. The Pharisee thinks he is righteous and holy and worthy before God in part because he follows these religious practices. He fasts twice a week, and therefore the Pharisee thinks that makes him a godly man. Yet in the parable, it is the humble tax collector who confesses his sin who is justified before God. The Pharisee is using his fasting as an aid to self-righteousness. He thinks God approves of him because he does these religious acts, including fasting twice a week. The Pharisee is also using this ritual of fasting as a kind of litmus test for other people. He seems to know who the Godforsaken sinners are because they don't follow the rules of fasting like he does. Yet, like the generation of Isaiah 58, he is hard-hearted and unrepentant. He goes through the motions of being religious, but he has not humbled himself before God. And Jesus concludes that parable saying, The tax gatherer, not the Pharisee, is the one who's justified before God. We saw another critique of the way the Pharisees fast in the Sermon on the Mount. There Jesus accuses the Pharisees of fasting so that they would be noticed by other people. This is Matthew six, sixteen through eighteen. And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces, that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. Now we talked about that in detail in a previous podcast. Let me just remind you briefly that Jesus said the Pharisees were not fasting as an expression of their repentance and humility before God. Instead, they were fasting so that other people would see what religious, pious, good guys they were. Their fasting was all about winning the approval of other people. Now putting all of that together, we can see that Jesus had at least three problems with the way the Pharisees are fasting. One, they think God approves of them just because they go through the ritual of fasting without any humility or repentance behind it. Two, they use the practice as a test by which to judge themselves righteous and condemn other people. And three, their real motivation is to gain worldly approval from others. That's what we know about the Pharisees and their practice of fasting. When it comes to the disciples of John the Baptist, we don't know very much at all. Interestingly, the disciples of John are the ones who are asking this question, why aren't you fasting? We know their practice looks something like what the Pharisees are doing because they say so. They imply that they fast like the Pharisees. Other than that, we don't know much about why or under what circumstances they were fasting. There is one tiny piece of evidence in John 3, and this is really tenuous, but I'll bring it up anyway. John three, twenty-five and twenty-six. Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification, and they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, look, he is baptizing and all are going to him. The disciples of John the Baptist are talking with a Jew about ritual purification. This is the ritual of washing your hands that pious Jews did before meals. Earlier in John, we have a story of Jesus turning the water to wine, and the water was in these big pots at a wedding, and that was the water that was used for this ritual washing that you had to go through before eating. It's interesting to note that Jesus and his disciples do not seem to be following that practice either. And this is another complaint that the Pharisees had against Jesus. Then, after we're told about this discussion, John tells us that some of John's disciples start complaining that Jesus is becoming a bigger deal than John. He's more popular, he's attracting more disciples, and his disciples are baptizing more people. Now, is there a connection between these two things? It's difficult to say with certainty, but John introduces this discussion of Jesus' increasing popularity with this note about the purification debate. Well, what's the connection? Were they talking about how Jesus didn't follow this purification practice either? And that reminds us why is Jesus getting so popular? They seem to be a little jealous on behalf of their teacher, and John sets them straight and says, no, this is the way it should be. But it could be that Jesus didn't follow the hand washing rituals either. Well, that's the evidence we have. The disciples of John may have been concerned that Jesus did not follow the ritual washings before eating. They seem to be jealous that Jesus was more popular than their teacher, and they come to Jesus with a kind of criticism that his disciples don't fast like they do, and they want an explanation. John the Baptist's ministry was focused on repent and prepare for the coming Messiah. We know he included baptism as a sign of that repentance. It would make sense that he included fasting as an expression of that repentance, and so it could be that the disciples of John fast. And they don't understand why the disciples of Jesus don't. I don't think they're overtly hostile like the Pharisees, but I do think there is some implied criticism behind the question, why isn't he teaching his disciples to practice fasting? John the Baptist does, why doesn't Jesus? Okay, with all of that as background, let's look at how Jesus responds. Matthew nine, fifteen through seventeen. 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. 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. 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. Jesus responds with three little stories that draw on their experience, and the first thing we want to do is make sure we understand the stories. The first one draws on their experience of Jewish weddings. Somewhat like our weddings today, the bridegroom had his attendants or his groomsmen, and when the happy couple arrives at the wedding feast, it's a time of great joy. It is not a time for sorrow or mourning. The wedding feast could go on for several days, it was a big party, it was time to celebrate. But imagine a wedding feast where the bridegroom was taken away. That would be tragic, that would be sad. Then it would be appropriate to express sorrow and mourning, and we might express that through fasting. But notice this story has nothing to do with religious duty or rituals. Jesus has moved the discussion entirely away from fasting as a ritual or a duty and moved it into a discussion of an expression of our hearts. The logic of the story is that sometimes joy is a natural response to the situation we're in, and sometimes mourning is a natural response to the situation we're in. When the groom is present at the wedding feast, it is a time for joy. If the groom is taken away, then it's time to mourn, and fasting is associated with mourning. Now the coming of the Messiah when he gathers his people is often compared to a wedding feast. Like the groom and his attendants celebrate the wedding feast, so Jesus and his disciples appropriately celebrate his arrival. This is a time for joy, not sorrow. When the Messiah is among us, why would we fast? The long-awaited day is here, our prayers are being answered. This is a time for joy and celebration. But Jesus, I think, is hinting that he has not come to stay. He's hinting at the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and after that happens, his disciples will be sad. So his first response is, Why would my disciples fast? What motive would they have for doing so? Do they have a religious obligation to fast at a time of celebration over the arrival of the Messiah? No, of course not. Then he goes on, 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. 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 the new wine is put into fresh wineskins and so both are preserved. So in the first story, a person has an old garment that they want to keep, but it's torn, it has a hole in it. If I put a new unshrunk piece of cloth over the hole, it's going to end up making the tear worse. Because when you wash the garment for the first time after patching it, the new cloth is going to shrink and that's going to pull the tear apart. Similarly, the person has a wineskin that he's been using for a while. Now he has some new wine, which is in the process of fermenting. It would be nice to be able to reuse the wineskin he has, but the old wineskin has become stretched and brittle. It is no longer capable of expanding with wine as the wine ferments. You need a new flexible wineskin that will expand with the fermenting wine. And the only option is to use a new wineskin. It's clear this is an analogy, and the question we need to ask as Bible students is what analogy is Jesus making? As we've talked about in other podcasts, we don't pour everything that we know to be true about wine and wineskins and cloth into the point that Jesus is making. We want to figure out what point of comparison Jesus is making in this context. As you probably expect, scholars debate this point a lot. I may be wrong in my interpretation, but one thing I'm convinced of is that the old garment and the old wineskin are not analogous to the Old Testament or the law. That is not what he's getting at in context. Remember the situation. Jesus is not saying we are going to abandon the law at this point. The issue under discussion is why is Jesus not following the religious customs and traditions of his day? The issue under discussion is the radical break Jesus is making with the religious traditions of the Pharisees. The issue is why doesn't Jesus adapt himself to our current religious practices? And if they need some reforming, you know, he can tweak them here and there. Why doesn't Jesus say, okay, we'll fast twice a week with the Pharisees, but we're going to fast with a different attitude. We're going to fast in joy and we're going to really mean it, or something like that. Why is he provoking them by violating their religious sensibilities? Think about it, if he came today, this would be like him ignoring Sunday worship services and never setting foot in a church building. We'd say, wait a minute, what's up with that? Going to church on Sundays is something that we expect good Christians who are serious about God to do. But here you are and you seem to be serious about God and you're doing something else on Sunday. Why not just go along with our customs? Why not just come to church and then tell us how you want to change it? You know, do you not like the music? Do you not like the format? Too formal, too relaxed. But why not just come to church and then change it as you like it? Why not just take the old garment and put a patch on it wherever it's needed? Well, his analogies are meant to suggest that that can't be done. I think he's saying, my understanding is not compatible with the existing religious climate. I cannot live within it and I can't reform it. What I'm teaching is so fundamentally different that I would end up destroying it anyway. I need to replace it with something new. And remember, the it being replaced is not the Old Testament. It's the religious culture that has grown up under the teaching of the Pharisees. Well, then the big question, of course, is what's the incompatibility? And we can spend a lot of time exploring all the different ways Jesus objected to the theology and the practices of the Pharisees. We talked about that a lot in the Sermon on the Mount. In this context, I'll talk about just one idea. Both the Pharisees and John's disciples seem to be using fasting as a test of who the good guys are. How do you tell who's serious about God and who isn't? Well, the good guys, the ones who fast twice a week, are the ones who are serious about God. This is how you tell who's with us and who's against us. Those with us follow these fasting practices. If I understand what Jesus is saying here, he's saying there is something really wrong with With evaluating others by their religious practices. Religious practices can be good or they can be empty. Religious practices can be a meaningful expression of faith, humility, and submission toward God. They can serve as a physical reminder of our need for God's mercy. They can provide teachable moments for those who are truly interested in being taught. While there's nothing wrong with religious practices per se, as we've seen, they can also be empty practices. They can be done as a badge of honor and self-righteousness. They can be done as a sign to other people of how worthy and religious I am. They can be done in an effort to manipulate God into giving me what I want. When you or I look at someone else doing a religious practice, we have no way of knowing what's really in their hearts or why they're doing what they're doing. Or why they're not doing what we think they should be doing. If Jesus were to join the current religious practices and then suggest a few thoughtful reforms, that would be to suggest that you can and should define godliness by a few outward rituals, and he does not want his disciples judging each other or anyone else by how faithfully they perform rituals on the outside. Putting all this together, then, it seems to me that Jesus has at least two things to say about religious practices like fasting. Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, we saw him say that if you're going to pray and fast and give alms to the poor, they should be a genuine expression of your faith toward God. He doesn't want you to do them as an expression of your own self-righteousness, thinking that God approves of you just because you're going through the motions. And he doesn't want us to use them as a test to reject our fellow believers or as a way to impress other people. If you're going to practice some kind of religious ritual like fasting, do it out of a heart that is expressing a genuine faith and a sincere desire to know and love God. Fundamentally, Jesus wants us to understand that He did not come to establish a new set of religious hoops to jump through. Genuine disciples cannot be defined or recognized by how well or how poorly they perform religious practices. We may do them, but we cannot be defined by them. They do not make us spiritual in and of themselves, they do not mark us as serious Christians, and in and of themselves they do not earn God's favor. The true disciple is the one Jesus described in the Sermon on the Mount, poor in spirit, merciful, longing for holiness, mourning over sins, non presumptuous, a peacemaker, and so forth. And so Jesus must make a radical break with his culture, violating the religious expectations of the day. He can't just patch up the old garment or reuse the old wineskin. He needs a new garment and a new wineskin so that what he is truly calling us to do can be seen clearly and unambiguously. Luke gives us a little bit more detail in his version. This is Luke 5, 37 through 39. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins, and no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says the old is good. So Luke adds, old wine has aged and come into its full flavor. If you've been drinking old wine, then that's what you're used to. New wine is going to taste strange and flat in comparison. And your first thought will be, Well, I like the old stuff better. I think Jesus is saying that's a bad thing. Of course, your traditions and your customs are more comfortable. Just like your old wine tastes better to you, your old customs and traditions are going to feel right to you. But that doesn't mean they're better. It doesn't make it right, it's just what you're used to. It's natural to prefer what you've always been doing, but you need to realize that your old way of thinking was wrong. It was a mistake. We don't need to reform your pharisaic theology. We need a clean break with it and to start with a fresh understanding. So Jesus teaches one, if you're going to do religious practices, they should be done out of a heart that is sincerely seeking God and is humble before Him. And two, He did not come to give us a new set of religious practices. One of the places I think we really need to apply this passage, and this is just my good for nothing worthless opinion, is in our understanding of communion. And we could probably spend a lot of time thinking this through, but it seems to me that many in the modern American church use communion in the same kind of way the Pharisees used fasting. We often see communion as a litmus test of who are my people. You've probably been in churches or denominations where they know who's in and who's out by their view of communion. Some say it's got to be weekly, others say monthly, some say you can't dip the bread into the wine, some say it has to be real wine, not grape juice, others say none of those crackers or the gluten-free stuff, it's got to be real bread. And so on. Churches have developed quite a lot of traditions around communion, and we can get rather self-righteous and condescending toward those who have different practices. But it's not just communion. We can judge each other over how frequently or how infrequently we attend Sunday services. We can judge each other over our choice of music, whether we raise hands or not, how and when we pray, and so on. So it seems to me we ought to spend some time thinking about what Jesus was doing and saying here. I think he's saying religious practices have their value, they have their place. They can be wonderful when they are a sincere expression of a believing heart. But we've built all kinds of cultural traditions around them, and we ought to stop and reconsider before judging each other for failing to meet those cultural expectations. The Pharisees had a theology that told them these rituals were the mark of a godly person, and they could judge how godly others were by how faithfully they met the expectations. They knew who God approved of, and the answer was, everyone who follows the traditions, I follow. And that's an attitude we ought to flee from. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but seeks to show you how to figure it out. You can hear all previous episodes in this series on my website, wednesdayintheword.com, along with many other series. There is no charge, no spam, and no ads. If you've been blessed by this podcast, please subscribe, leave a positive rating or review wherever you listen, but most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by my friend and favorite musician, Reggie Coates. You can listen to more of Reggie's music and find his CDs at heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.