Matthew 9:14 Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast. 16 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Jesus was still reclining at Matthew’s table, chatting with his guests when one of John’s disciples came up and began questioning him. It’s tough to know whether this fellow was an honest seeker or whether he was hoping to embarrass Jesus. After all, here was Jesus, feasting with the local tax collectors! What a scandal!
As we listen to the question, we can practically hear the sly insinuations in these questions. “Oh, we and the PHARISEES (the spiritual super – stars) have been fasting often, but YOUR disciples do not fast.” What is this? Spiritual one-upmanship masquerading as a truth – seeking question? Is this guy complaining? bragging? or does he really want an honest answer? No matter what this man’s motivation, Jesus is more than equal to the occasion. We can see Jesus as he sits up and turns to the man and smiles with delight at these questions. This is going to be good!
First, Jesus reminds this man that nobody fasts during a wedding feast. Weddings were times for delicious food and plenty of wine. People would defer their fasts until after the wedding was over and the bridegroom was no longer around. As long as the wedding was going on, people were going to enjoy themselves. Here Jesus was actually prophesying his death and resurrection; however, the disciples would not realize that until much later. But Jesus doesn’t leave the matter there but goes on to answer using two examples from every day life.
When I was learning to sew in the 1950’s, the first thing we had to do with our material was to wash it in hot water so that it would shrink as much as it was going to. Any seamstress foolish enough to sew a garment without first pre-shrinking the material would find that the garment would not fit and that the pieces might be distorted the first time the garment was washed. Jesus reminds his questioner that using new unshrunk material to patch a garment would be foolish because the patch would pull away, making the tear worse. Then Jesus goes on to remind this man that new wine must be put into new wine skins so that as the wine ferments and expands, the wine skins can stretch. Old wine skins have no elasticity and therefore cannot stretch to accomodate the gases generated by the fermentation of the new wine.
The questions that this man hoped might embarrass Jesus only gave Jesus the opportunity to give new insights into the Kingdom of God. Jesus was comparing himself to a bridegroom, to someone whose coming brought joy and laughter and excitement and fulfillment. God was doing new things and attempting to squeeze the Holy Spirit into old patterns would be just as useless as filling old wine skins with new wine. As Jesus was answering this man, he may have already been looking forward to Pentecost when the Holy Spirit would descend on the disciples and nothing would ever be the same again.
Today, do you feel that your life has become like one of those old wine skins? You are doing the same things over and over but nothing is changing spiritually? Perhaps you are looking to a pastor or to a church or to a particular leader for answers. Why not ask Jesus instead?
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, please open our eyes to the new things you want to do in our lives. Help us to open our hearts and to give your Holy Spirit the chance to fill us and to change and empower us. In your mighty and precious Name, Jesus. Amen.
Burunche's Blog 
Leave a comment