New Wine Is for Fresh Wineskins (9:14 17) (Mark 2:18-22; Luke 5:33-39) John s disciples pick the best possible time to talk about fasting, when Jesus and his disiciples were feasting. Is there a bit of self-righteousness here? The Pharisees criticized Jesus for eating with sinners, John s diciples critized Jesus for eating at all. Both are wrong and for much the same reason, they put tradition and ritual ahead of mercy. 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? We are now introduced to a third group (scribes in v. 3; Pharisees in v. 11; now John s disciples) who express their disapproval of Jesus practice. 1 the disciples of John. We cannot know the motives of these disciples. It could have been legitimate confusion they deny themselves, Jesus disciples do not. What s with that? But it could also be some form of superiority they were suggesting that they possessed and Jesus disciples did not. Although John pointed to Jesus as the purpose of his own ministry, there were some of John s followers who never accepted Jesus supremacy and who by the end of the first century had developed their own sect. 2 fast. What is envisaged is a voluntary (as far as the Law is concerned) but collective and regular discipline of piety, as was the Pharisaic practice of fasting on Mondays and Thursdays. 3 Was this a legitimate question or was it a claim to superiority? We cannot tell. Jesus answer, however, appears to address both. your disciples do not fast. For John s disciples that indicated a movement which did not take its religious commitment seriously, and the feasting in Matthew s house only deepened their suspicion. 4 But in fact, Jesus disciples did fast and he even instructed them how to fast. 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. (Matthew 6:16 18, ESV) This suggest a bit of self-righteousness on the part of John s disciples; because they did not fast publically, these disciples jumped to the conclusion that they did not fast at all. As in so many similar conversations, it would have been better to start this discussion with a question. Do you fast? The humility in asking critical questions keeps one from the arrogance of knowing what in fact one does not know. 1 France, R. T. (2007). The Gospel of Matthew (p. 355). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co. 2 (Vol. 8, p. 226). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. 3 4 France, R. T. (2007). The Gospel of Matthew (p. 356). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co.
Just as there are times when feasting is not appropriate, so there are times with fasting is not appropriate either. It is essential that we understand this, otherwise we can become slaves to mindless tradition and ritual that interferes with true worship. A Bridegroom and Guests (9:15) Matthew 9:15 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. bridegroom. Since John himself introduced the bride/bridegroom metaphor, this should resonate with John s disciples for he himself used it earlier. And in fact this may be the very reason Jesus used it. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. (John 3:29, ESV) Another part of the picture here is the fact that the bridegroom metaphor was applied to God in the Old Testament as well. Jesus now alludes to himself as the bridegroom, who in the Old Testament is Yahweh (cf. Isa. 62:5; Hos. 2:19 20). 5 In the OT the bridegroom metaphor was repeatedly applied to God (Isa 54:5 6; 62:4 5; Hos 2:16 20); and Jews sometimes used it of marriage in connection with Messiah s coming or with the messianic banquet. 6 For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name. For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. (Isaiah 54:5 6, ESV) And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me My Husband, and no longer will you call me My Baal. (Hosea 2:16, ESV) Both John and now Jesus apply the bridegroom metaphor to Jesus. The audience both then and now were expected to think carefully about this bridegroom symbolism and identify Jesus as the LORD. the wedding guests. The wedding guests are the disciples, the bridegroom s attendants, as those most closely identified with the bridegroom in the joy of the wedding celebration. 7 The arrival of the kingdom of heaven has brought to fulfillment the promises of Israel, which should cause a time of rejoicing, like what would be experienced during marriage ceremonies (cf. Matt. 25:12 13). 8 5 Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke (vol. 1; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 64. 6 (Vol. 8, p. 227). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. 7 8 Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke (vol. 1; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 64.
is taken away. Is taken away refers to an unnatural removal since the guests and not the couple are left at the end of the celebrations. This removal is ominous. The anticipated fasting is related to an anticipated disaster. The fasting will lament the loss. 9 As he so often does in his ministry, Jesus is alluding to his death. John s disciples introduced what was to them a problem. Jesus will now address this problem. It involves far more than fasting. New Cloth and Old Garments (9:16) Matthew 9:16 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. unshrunk 10. The unshrunk cloth is literally unfulled: the fuller cleaned and combed the cloth to remove natural oil and gum and bleached it ready for use in making garments. Cloth not pre-shrunk in this way would shrink when washed, and so would have a disastrous effect if sewn onto an old, and therefore already shrunk, coat. 11 The illustration is straight forward, old garments cannot be patched with new cloth. What s the point? New Wine and Old Wineskins (9:17) Matthew 9:17 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. If new wine, still fermenting, were put into such an old skin, the buildup of fermenting gases would split the brittle container and ruin both bottle and wine. New wine was placed only in new wineskins still pliable and elastic enough to accommodate the pressure. 12 Of course, this illustration makes no sense if you are sure that Jesus and all Israel drank nothing but grape juice for fermenting produces alchoholic wine, apparently a common drink in Israel, grape juice does not. 9 10 unshrunk ἄγναφος pertaining to an unshrunken condition of cloth, that is, before it has been washed and dried unshrunken, not as yet shrunken. Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 524. 11 France, R. T. (2007). The Gospel of Matthew (p. 357). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co. 12 (Vol. 8, p. 227). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
Conclusion Jesus does not stop and draw conclusions about these parables, at first reading they are somewhat esoteric. And he does not explain their meaning to John s disciples, but he leaves them to ponder the meaning of all this on their own. And so we are left with the same problem; what do they mean? The first, the bridegroom is more obvious; it deals with fasting. Fasting is about mourning; it is not appropriate to mourn now, that time will come later when the bridegroom (Jesus) is no longer present. The second and third are of one kind and different from the first. They do not deal directly with fasting as does the first. But they do suggest that there will be greater changes in religious practices than even fasting. It is as if the question on fasting provides Jesus with an opportunity to discuss subjects of even greater importance with greater changes. Let s look at the context, we see that in chapters 5-7 Jesus exercises his authority to properly interpret the Law. In chapters 8 and 9 the text focus on the authority that Jesus possesses and demonstrates in his actions to heal a leper, to heal the centurion s servant with a word, to heal Peter s mother-in-law, to rebuke the winds and the waves, to cast out demons, to forgive sins, to seemingly violate purification laws by eating with tax collectors and sinners and to set aside fasting for a time. After this section, he goes on to heal a woman and raise a girl from the dead, then give sight to two blind men. Our passage is in this context right in the middle of a series of illustration on Jesus authority to act in ways others cannot. And it is here that he addresses new cloth and
new wine. With Jesus and the proclamation of the coming Kingdom something new is about to happen. Changes will soon take place on how one lives and worships God. It is with the authority that Jesus possesses and demonstrates in his teachings and miracles that he makes this point. Because he does possess such authority, he can make these changes. It is not clear yet what these changes will be but Jesus makes it clear right here that change is coming. Moreover, when they come, they must not take the new to patch up the old; old Israel has fulfilled its purporse and will soon be no more. They must recognize that the greatness of the coming kingdom, his Passion and his Church, require the people of God to be aware that these changes are ordered by his own authority. And they therefore must meet them with a positive anticipation. The new is upon them. When Jesus gives the interpretation of a parable, he thereby limits what later readers my say that it means. But in this case, he leaves these parables open ended. His hearers are required to think, meditate and ponder what he means. This also provides opportunity for unrestrained speculation. There are those who identify themselves as dispensational who in this passage take opportunity to tell us that grace is now replacing law, something the text says nothing about, attempting to maximize the break between the Old and New Testaments. In fact, there is a strong continuity between the two as Jesus just recently illustrated in his teaching on fulfilling the law in the Sermon on the Mount, not setting it aside. The thing to remember here is that Jesus is exercising his authority to make changes in how we must live and worship God. Soon, those changes will be unpacked by his Apostles.