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 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.”
The above teaching of Jesus to the disciples of John has to be put into the context of the day. When Jesus arrived on the scene John the Baptist’s ministry was over and he turned his disciples to follow Jesus. However, not all of them had made that switch in their hearts and minds. When they come to Jesus to ask about “why don’t your disciples fast like we do (and the Pharisees)” they were wanting to know why Jesus was not teaching the need to follow religious tradition. It should be noted that there was only one fast commanded in the Old Testament (and that was during the Day of Atonement ... Yon Kuiper). But in this time and period the Pharisees had established two fast per week. They would often make a big deal out of it. They would walk around with disfigured faces and mourning outload to show their deep anguish in fasting (Matthew 6:16). John’s disciples did not want to know why Jesus was not following the OT teaching, they wanted to know why Jesus wasn’t following the religious practices of the day.
Jesus gives them two reasons. The first answers the point of fasting. The purpose of fasting is that you are mourning over sins, or grief or loss. Jesus tells them there is no reason to mourn at a wedding. The Bridegroom (In this case Jesus) is there. You are to rejoice. Jesus tells them that as long as He is present there is no reason to mourn. There will be time when He is taken away (after His crucifixion) that they will need to mourn via fasting.
The second reason Jesus explains is that He is bringing in a new way to believe and think. He is NOT saying this new way is contrary to the Old Testament. He is saying this new way is contrary to the Pharisees and religious leaders teaching. Jesus is teaching that it is not the outside of something but what we believe on the inside. He is telling them you can’t take His teachings and put into an old way of thinking. In those days they would use animal skins to old their wine, especially for travel. You would put new wine into a new wineskin. The wineskin was new and could easily expand with the new wine. But if you put new wine in an old skin the skin would burst and spill the wine. The word picture is intense for those listening. Jesus did not come to perpetuate what the religious leaders were practicing. He was coming to teach holiness of the heart and genuine faith toward God. Religious practices can’’t contain faith in Christ. Religious practices are based upon our man-made ways and our man-effort. Jesus came to introduce them to a new way of life in Christ through faith. You can’t put that into the old way of thinking. A life of faith does not fit into a life of effort.
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