Parables for Feasting and Fasting, Matthew 9:14-17; Mark 2:18-22; Luke 5:33-39

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.”

Mark 2:18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?” 19 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. 21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

Luke 5:33 They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.” 34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.” 36 He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”

Commentary

I was very interested to learn more about these passages, in particular about Jesus’s views on fasting. I have felt led to fast one day a week over the last several weeks, and I will probably carry on doing it into the foreseeable future. However, it seems fasting is not always appropriate or desirable. Jesus Himself fasted at other times in the gospel accounts, “but the principle taught by our Lord here is that fasting is not an end in itself, but is to be practiced only under appropriate circumstances. The Pharisees’ fasting was part of the righteousness of men, which the Lord condemned” (Nelson KJV Bible Commentary pg. 1193). While there may be some physical benefits to occasional fasting, denying oneself physically is not the same as communing with God. What I have found through fasting is that I can use hunger as a reminder to talk to God, as well as listen, and my fasting days are often productive physically and spiritually, without the distractions of food preparations and dining.

Rather than being a religious requirement, New Testament fasting is always voluntary. With regard to appropriate reasons for fasting, many people fast in order to have a closer communion with God, but often, the reasons for fasting are decision-making or desperation. For instance, John the Baptist was in jail at the time Jesus told these parables, and his disciples were therefore fasting, in their grief, on his behalf. However, Jesus’s disciples were able to be with Him and therefore were not fasting or beseeching God, but celebrating (Nelson KJV Bible Commentary pg. 1241). However, Jesus’s followers would fast after Jesus’s death, as we see recorded throughout the New Testament (Acts 10:30; 13:2; 14:23; and 1 Corinthians 7:5).

“Fasting lent itself to external show and it is this feature of the practice which the prophets attack” (The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol 2 pg. 503). See Isaiah chapter 58 for a specific example. Commonly, fasting in the Old Testament was accompanied by a requirement not to bathe or anoint oneself or even wear sandals (The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol 2 pg. 503). Jesus later encourages men not to fast for show, but in secret, where only God sees (Matt 6:16-18) (The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol 2 pg. 504).

Jesus’s second and third parables in the study passages are further metaphors for religiosity, which may be how they relate to Jesus’s response to the question about fasting. The old Jewish law had boundaries and limits, and Jesus had come to expand on those. “For instance, murder in the Old Testament is physical, but Jesus said that a man can murder by hating” (Nelson KJV Bible Commentary pg. 1241).

The metaphors would have been easily understood by His audience, since winemaking and patching garments were both regular practices. Wine expands while it ferments, and new wineskins are supple, stretching along with the wine. However, old wineskins have already been stretched to their limit when they were new. Therefore, if you fill them to capacity with new wine, they will burst when the wine expands because they have no elasticity left. Conversely, unshrunk fabric will get smaller after it is washed. If you patch a garment with unshrunk fabric, the first time you wash it the new fabric will retreat from the seams where it was sewn on, and the original fabric will pucker around it and tear away. In both cases, it is inappropriate to marry the old with the new because they simply aren’t compatible.

Jesus’s ministry focused on the heart, rather than on law and liturgy. He did not come to nullify God’s requirements of people; He came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17), which means He came to bring that period of God’s history to completion by serving as the final rite on behalf of men. What He introduced during His time on Earth was grace, free for the asking, to those whose hearts were truly repentant. In this way, obedience to God became an overflow of the heart, rather than an inventory of calculated behaviors.

If God is unchanging, why would He have given the law and then released humanity from its burden after thousands of years? I heard a saying a long time ago, and it says something to the effect that “fundamentals are the building blocks of fun”. This applies to all sorts of pursuits, but let’s use music as a specific example. If you’ve ever taken music lessons, you know that the early lessons focus heavily on practicing scales and learning music theory, and those lessons do not allow for any creativity – only rehearsal. However, in order to be able to spread your wings as a creative musician, you must have an understanding of these basic principles (whether they were taught to you or you are a savant who innately understands them). For most people, they have to spend years and years on rote memorization before they can deviate from what is on the page and create their own beautiful music. I see this as a metaphor for God’s establishment of the law and His requirements for people to practice it. I’ve often marveled at the faith of the early church and how it was so much greater than the faith of many Christians today, but those who were part of the early church were in good practice; they had been preparing over generations for a day they didn’t know was coming when they would not practice the law as a prescription, but as a form of worship. Once your eyes are opened and things click, you can make your own beautiful music using the principles you have written on your heart through practice.

See the next post here https://onthepath.online/2019/12/07/healing-an-invalid-on-the-sabbath/

Scripture References

Matthew 9:14

Luke 18:12 I fast twice a week and pay tithes of all that I receive.’

Matthew 9:15

Luke 17:22 Then He said to the disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.

John 3:29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom stands and listens for him, and is overjoyed to hear the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.

Matthew 9:16

2 Corinthians 9:12 For this ministry of service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanksgiving to God.

Matthew 9:17

Job 32:19 Behold, my belly is like unvented wine; it is about to burst like a new wineskin.

Mark 2:20

Luke 17:22 Then He said to the disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.

Mark 2:22

Mark 2:23 One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick the heads of grain as they walked along.

Luke 5:33

Luke 2:37 and then was a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.

Luke 5:35

Luke 17:22 Then He said to the disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.

Luke 5:39

Matthew 5:40 if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well;

Luke 6:1 One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick the heads of grain, rub them in their hands, and eat them.

Commentary

Acts 10:30 Cornelius answered: “Three days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me

Acts 13:2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

Acts 14:23 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

1 Corinthians 7:5 Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Commentary

Matt 6:16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.