Mat 9:14-17; Christ Did Not Come to Patch You Up.

Thursday November 7, 2024

Main idea: Our lives in Christ are new and cannot mix with the old life.

Jesus is going to use three illustrations, all related, to do the same thing. His listeners are not ready for all the details of the new thing to come, but He is going to use illustration to help them. 

Mat 9:14-17

Background: the disciples of John have likely started to follow Jesus since John has been imprisoned. 

Jesus is not what anyone expected, even his disciples. The disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fasted at least twice a week (Luk 5:33). 

Fasting had become a familiar part of the religious way in Israel. 

Should He not be fasting during the times they themselves and others in Israel were known to practice? Shouldn’t He in fact be doing it more so? 

In the view of Rabbinism, fasting was mortification and self-punishment and could avert the anger of God and calamities, the readiest means of turning aside any threatening calamity (drought, pestilence, national danger). It was the acknowledgment of sin and repentance.

Why did Jesus and His disciples not fast? Something new had come and the wedding feast had begun. 

How could Christ fast in this way when He was setting us free from the gloom of sin and the fear of death and all impending doom? His time with His disciples was like a wedding feast, Eph 5:26-27. 

Jewish wedding – a promise to come which now had finally arrived; Hos 2:19-20).

Jesus says that the wedding guests will fast because her Bridegroom would be violently taken from them, and then would be the time for mourning and fasting, but not that this involves literal fasting, any more than it excludes it – it means much more.

Patches and wineskins - the new will not mix with nor fix the old. 

In essence Jesus is saying: “You are mistaken in supposing that the old garment can be retained, and merely its rents made good by patching it with a piece of new cloth. Not to speak of the incongruity, the effect would only be to make the rent ultimately worse. The old garment will not bear mending with the undressed cloth.”

Christ’s new life and new era were not merely a reformation: all things must become new.

Application:

Jesus was odd because He was holy and not doing things to be holy. He was naturally holy. He was a spiritual person and not a religious person. This was new.

It is not a time of fasting as in the old way. The healed and forgiven have not even reached the height that the Messiah has in mind. He is going to make them His bride.

Do you rejoice in the mere fact that you are the bride of the King? 

Do you strive to be holy in character and not just acting that way? 

You must embrace the new life and learn to live it in all situations and with all kinds of people. 

You will not look like every other in the body of Christ. Be unique, be creative, but be genuinely holy. It is better to do this and fail than to mimic or live under ritual religion. 

Take some time in prayer and picture your King at the right hand of God. Picture your wedding feast and then the heartache of your husband you love being taken from you while you wait for Him to return. How do you live with the joy of being His and the lamentation of waiting for Him? Represent Him; care for His others in the kingdom; invite others. Weep, rejoice, wait, dream, work and serve Him.