EXPLORE THE TEXT
We can rejoice in the truth that salvation is not based on religious works or rituals.
14 Then John’s disciples came to him, saying,
“Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”
15 Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them?
The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
16 No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth,
because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse.
17 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined.
No, they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”
John’s disciples also asked Him to explain Himself.
Followers of John the Baptist, who had been put in prison by Herod Antipas.
John’s disciples practiced strict religious disciplines.
They would fast often, not only during national days of fasting, but also as a regular spiritual regimen.
Some writers link their inquiry to Jesus’s participation at Matthew’s dinner.
Alternatively, they could have observed
that the disciples’ general pattern of life did not include fasting rituals.
Some commentators suggest they questioned why Jesus’s disciples
didn’t join them in fasting because John was imprisoned.
Briefly discuss how John's disciples question differed from the criticism of the religious leaders.
He noted that wedding guests are not sad while the groom is with them.
The groom represented Jesus and the wedding guests referred to His followers.
While they were together, it was appropriate that they rejoiced.
However, the time will come when the groom will be taken away.
At that time, they will fast.
The metaphor could include
either his death or Jesus’s departure back to heaven
when the disciples would no longer enjoy His physical presence.
Jesus’s second analogy involved repairing clothing.
Incorporating the old trappings of ritualistic religion with the fresh spirit of Christ damages both.
In some ways, John’s disciples had been trying to follow the teachings of John
while clinging to the rituals of the scribes and Pharisees.
They didn’t yet comprehend the totally new relationship with God that Jesus made possible.
Similarly, no one puts new wine into old wineskins.
Like the analogy of the new and old cloth, this illustration showed the problem of trying to combine the old and the new.
In the same way, the new covenant of Christ needed a fresh container-the church.
We can rejoice in the truth that salvation is not based on religious works or rituals.
We have the living Spirit of God filling us as we trust Christ by faith and follow Him.
Jesus never rejected fasting as a spiritual discipline,
but He did emphasize a new approach to living in relationship with God.
And this new approach stood in stark contrast to both
the legalism of the Pharisees
and the austerity of John’s followers.