Old Fasting and New Feasting
Matthew 9:14-17
The Gospel of Matthew presents Jesus’ person and ministry in contrast to the scribes and the Pharisaic Judaism of His day.[1] Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount was full of contrasts between the traditional teaching of the scribes and what Jesus taught. Theirs was a religion of external conformity and ritual. Jesus demanded an internal righteousness free from hypocrisy. At the end of the Sermon, Matthew records, “And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” (Matt. 7:28-29).
Not only was Jesus’ teaching different from others, but what He did was different also. In Matthew 8 and 9, we see Jesus demonstrating His authority by His miraculous signs. Matthew has shown that Jesus has power over sickness and disease, over nature, evil spirits, and sins. Both by His teaching and His miracles, Matthew has shown that Jesus is very different from what people had known or expected. And the more Jesus says and does, the more that contrast surfaces. And the more obvious that contrast becomes, the greater the opposition to Jesus grows.
When Jesus forgave the sins of the paralytic, they accused Him of blasphemy. When Jesus feasted with tax collectors and sinners, the Pharisees complained that He associated with the wrong kind of people. They were scandalized by what Jesus said and did. Jesus replied, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” (Matt. 9:12). The Pharisees thought they were well, that they were righteous. But Jesus diagnosed their malady when He told them to go and learn what the scripture means when God says, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” (Matt. 9:13). They knew religious formality, but they were strangers to mercy which is the very heart of God.
Today we see another discipleship dialogue in Matthew 9:14-17 that further explores this contrast between religious formality and a real relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
Today’s passage begins with a question about fasting, specifically, why don’t Jesus’ disciples fast? And although Jesus’ answer includes fasting, Jesus uses this particular question to teach us a much broader truth: that everything changed when Jesus came.[2]
1. The Question: Why don’t your disciples fast? (Matt. 9:14)
Jesus and His disciples had just come from the feast in Matthew’s house; and this seems to have occurred on a day when the disciples of John, and the Pharisees likewise, thought they ought to fast (Mark 2:18). Here they were all fasting, and the disciples of Jesus were feasting![3]
Look at the question in Matthew 9:14: “Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?”” It might seem surprising to see the disciples of John on the same side as the Pharisees in criticizing Jesus. Why do I say that? Clearly, John was no favorite of the Pharisees, for he had sternly castigated the Pharisees calling them a ” Brood of vipers!” (Matt. 3:7), commanding them to ” bear fruits worthy of repentance,” (Matt. 3:8), and not to think they were safe from judgment because they had Abraham as their physical father (Matt. 3:9).
Remember from Matthew 4:12, that John the Baptist had been put in prison. But there were still many who considered themselves disciples of John and continued in his teachings. Unlike the Pharisees who usually questioned Jesus to accuse Him, theirs seems to be a legitimate question. Yet it also reveals their lack of understanding of the person and work of Jesus. Even though John’s ministry prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry, and they both preached “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matt. 3:2; 4:17), John’s ministry was in some ways quite different from that of Jesus. John lived an austere lifestyle out in the wilderness, subsisting on “locusts and wild honey” (Matt. 3:4). Jesus Himself alludes to that difference in Matthew 11, declaring, “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.” (Matt. 11:18-19).
This contrast is behind their question about fasting. We talked about what the bible teaches about fasting when we studied how Jesus instructed His disciples to fast in Matthew 6. Recall that the Law of Moses only commanded one regular fast: on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:29, 31; Lev 23:26–32; Nu 29:7–11). But people also fasted as an expression of sorrow, mourning, and grieving either for a loss in your life or for repentance of sin. It was usually associated with prayer and sometimes the whole nation would fast and pray together.
The Pharisees in Jesus’ time made fasting a formal ritual. Many of them fasted twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, like clockwork. They considered this to be a religious act of outward piety, and they often went to great lengths to make sure that other people knew they were fasting. Jesus taught His disciples not to fast “like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting” (Matt. 6:16). Instead He said, “when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting” (Matt. 6:17-18). Jesus’ disciples were not fasting in this passage, but even if they did fast, no one should have even noticed. Jesus taught that fasting is not a formal ritual or mechanical routine to follow merely on fixed days. Fasting is a response of a heart that is humbled, grieving, and repentant. Fasting is not a means by which to get God’s attention, fasting is evidence that God has your attention.[4]
Here we find that John the Baptist’s followers practiced fasting, too. Remember that John preached a message of repentance in preparation for the coming of Christ. Fasting would be a natural expression of repentance for their sins in preparation for Christ.
And so here we have two different groups, each fasting for different reasons, but they both had something in common. They were fasting, while Jesus’ disciples were not. And John’s disciples wanted to know why.
That’s the question, now…
2. The Answer: Jesus’ coming calls for celebration (Matt. 9:15)
As He often did, Jesus answered their question with a question in order to make a point. Look Matthew 9:15, “And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?”” (Matt. 9:15).
The answer to Jesus’ rhetorical question is obvious. The friends (or literally sons of the bridegroom) can’t mourn when the groom is with them. A wedding is a time of feasting and joy. It’s a time of celebration. It’s a time to gather family and friends. It’s a time to fill yourselves with food and wine. It’s a time for music and dancing. Fasting is a time for sorrow and self-denial. There is a time to fast and a time to feast, and the wedding celebration is a time to feast. It wouldn’t make any sense to fast and mourn while the bridegroom is right there. It would be totally inappropriate.
So, what was Jesus saying by all this? Jesus is saying that He is the bridegroom! He is the one that Israel has been waiting for all these years. So yes, it made sense to fast before, when they were waiting for Him and preparing for His coming, but now that Jesus has come, everything changes! The bridegroom is here! This is a time to rejoice!
In the Old Testament, the imagery of the bridegroom or husband was used of God in relation to Israel. In Isaiah 62:5, the Lord says, “For as a young man marries a virgin, So shall your sons marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So shall your God rejoice over you.” Isaiah 54:5 says, “For your Maker is your husband, The LORD of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.” In Hosea, the Lord says, “I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the LORD.” (Hos. 2:19-20). In the New Testament, the imagery of the bridegroom and bride it is used of Jesus in relation to the church (2 Cor. 11:2; Rev. 19:7; 21:2).
John the Baptist himself pointed to Jesus as the bridegroom. In John 3 he says,
28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ 29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:28-30).
John rejoiced as a friend of the bridegroom. His disciples should have followed his example and turned to follow Jesus. The bride belongs to the bridegroom. Matthew shows that Jesus is the bridegroom who is “with them” (Matt. 9:15). He is Emmanuel, God with Us (Matt. 1:23). This was not a time for fasting because the bridegroom was present. How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while He is with them? And the answer is: they cannot, so long as they have Him with them.
That’s why Jesus goes on to say in the rest of Matthew 9:15, “But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
Jesus is speaking here of His death. When Jesus says that the bridegroom will be “taken away from them,” he uses the same word found in Isaiah 53:8 which also speaks of Jesus’ death: “By oppression and judgment He was taken away.” (Isaiah 53:8 NASB) The disciples are rejoicing in His presence now, but the day will come when He is taken from them, and then they will mourn His absence. Then they will fast.
On the night He was betrayed, Jesus told His disciples,
16 “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.” … 20 “Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.” (John 16:16, 20).
Jesus is speaking about the period between His death and His resurrection, then, indeed, they shall fast, and no one will need to tell them to do so.[5] Does fasting apply to us today? We know that Jesus is with us today through the presence of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, but we still long for His appearing. And so, fasting may be appropriate as an expression of our longing and desire. But our fasting is different than the fasting of the followers of John and the Pharisees. We no longer fast in mourning, waiting for the Savior to come. We fast in anticipation, waiting for our Savior to return.
Everything changed when Jesus came. The Old Testament laws no longer applied in the same way. The Jewish ceremonies and sacrifices were fulfilled in Christ’s death on the cross. All the Old Testament looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. And now the Messiah had come! You can’t just keep on living as if Jesus never came. Let there be joy!
Let me ask you. Is your life characterized by joy because Jesus is with you?
3. The Illustrations: The old is incompatible with the new (Matt. 9:16-17)
Jesus says, “No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matt. 9:16-17).
Jesus uses two matching illustrations here to make the same point: the old is incompatible with the new.
A. The illustration of the unshrunk cloth (Matt. 9:16)
First, he uses the illustration of the unshrunk cloth. Most of our clothing today comes preshrunk, but it was different back in Jesus’ time. Most of the garments were made of wool or linen which tend to shrink when they get wet. So, if you had an older garment that had been washed multiple times, it would already have shrunk as far as it was going to shrink. If you got a hole in that garment, and you sewed a patch of unshrunk cloth over the hole, the patch will shrink. And when it does, it will tear away from the unshrunk cloth and make an even bigger hole in the garment. What is Jesus saying here? The old is incompatible with the new. No one would sew a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. It wouldn’t make sense. Lenski comments, “To preserve the old by attaching a little of the new is worse than useless. Discard the old entirely and accept the new completely. Not a new patch but a new robe.”[6]
Jesus did not come to just patch up Pharisaical Judaism. He did not come just to reform their formal religion. He did not come to fix the Old Covenant. He came to inaugurate the New Covenant.
What Jesus brings is new. And it is incompatible with the old. Jesus did not come to just patch up the self-righteous religion of the Pharisees. He did not come to patch up the fasting of John’s disciples. Likewise, Jesus did not come to just patch up your old life. He did not come to reform your religious practices. Jesus came to give you new life, a new birth, to make you a new creation.
B. The illustration of the wineskins (Matt. 9:17).
The second illustration has to do with wineskins. Here Jesus is talking about the goatskin containers that people used to hold water or wine in those days. When these wineskins were new, they were flexible and still had the ability to stretch. So, if you had a new wineskin, and you filled it with new wine that was still fermenting and still expanding, no problem. You could fill it right up, and the skin would expand right along with the wine. But you can only stretch goatskin so far. As the skins got older and all stretched out, they became more brittle. So if you took an old wineskin and filled it with new wine, as the wine expanded it would burst the wineskin and you would lose both the skin and the wine as well.
This illustration makes a similar point to the first. The old is incompatible with the new. As God said through the prophet Jeremiah:
31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah– 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
God said, “the days are coming … when I will make a new covenant.” Jesus is saying, “The time has come.” God’s new covenant is a covenant He made through His Son, Jesus. It is a new covenant in Jesus’ blood. Jesus died for our sins on the cross, and everyone who puts their faith in Him will be saved.
And the new is incompatible with the old. The book of Hebrews says the old covenant is “obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” (Hebrews 8:13). In fact, the whole book of Hebrews explains how everything has changed now that Jesus has come. And not only how everything has changed but how everything has changed for the better, that Jesus and His new covenant is better. That is its major theme. And it is also the theme of these two parables or illustrations. The old is incompatible with the new. It’s time to leave the old behind.
Jesus finishes by saying, “But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matthew 9:17b).
Reformation of Pharisaical Judaism would not work. Jesus had the authority to forgive sin based on mercy and grace. That could not be contained by the self-righteous works system of Pharisaical Judaism. A new container had to be developed to hold Jesus’ teaching about the regenerated heart of a forgiven sinner.[7]
They would have to let go of their old covenant. They would have to leave their old traditions. They would have to follow Christ alone.
When Jesus comes, everything changes. This is true both historically and personally. Historically, we no longer approach God through the feasts and sacrifices of the Old Testament. All of that was fulfilled when Jesus came. Now we approach God only through his Son. That’s historically.
But then personally, when Jesus comes into your life, everything also changes. First, there is the change that only God can bring. No amount of self-effort, self-change, or self-reformation will make your life adequate to accommodate Christ. God must bring a change in you first. That’s why Jesus said, “You must be born again.” (John 3:7) You must become a new person. And that happens when you put your faith and trust in Jesus as your Savior. The Bible says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
You cannot come to Christ and keep living the same life you lived before Christ. A true Christian cannot be satisfied with the empty ritualism of man-centered religion. He must have the life of Christ. A sinner can be reasonably happy in his or her sin. But a true believer will never be happy in their sin. As a Christian sin will only make you miserable. The good news is that God doesn’t leave you in your sin, because the old is incompatible with the new. And so, Christ will change your life.
In closing, let me ask you this morning. Are there ways that you think or things in your life that are incompatible with Christ? Are you resisting Christ and resisting the changes He is trying to bring in your life? Resisting Christ is like that patch of unshrunk cloth tearing at the patterns of your old life. When you become a Christian, you can’t hold on to your old practices and sinful habits without doing serious damage to your life.
Jesus wants to lead you into new ways of living. He wants you to grow in your faith and in your knowledge of God. He wants you to know the joy of Christian fellowship and service. He wants to fill your life with His goodness and love. Trying to restrain Christ in your life is like the old wineskins bursting from the fullness of the new wine. We need to let Jesus do His work in us through the Holy Spirit to make us new vessels for His glory. Will you let Christ change you today?
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[1] Richard Caldwell, Why the Difference? Notes from the sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEwSOKizwiw. I adapted ideas for this introduction from Caldwell’s notes.
[2] Ray Fowler, Leaving the Old Behind. https://www.rayfowler.org/sermons/matthew/leaving-the-old-behind/
[3] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 367.
[4] Rory Mosley, Jesus Vs. Sinners – part 2 (Matthew 9:14-17). https://fbcspur.org/jesus-vs-sinners-part-2-matthew-914-17/
[5] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 368.
[6] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 369.
[7] Scott L. Harris, He Came For Sinners – Matthew 9:9-17. https://www.gracebibleny.org/he_came_for_sinners_matthew_9_9_17
