11.25.07
Christ’s Authority Over Tradition (Matt. 9:14-17; Mark 2:18-22; Luke 5:33-39)
Christ’s Authority Over Tradition (Matt. 9:14-17; Mark 2:18-22; Luke 5:33-39)
If there was any question that John’s disciples may have not continued or had disbanded in some way, this passage answers that question. Here they approach Christ with a question on fasting. Keep in mind that John had demanded repentance in connection with his baptism, and fasting coupled with prayer was a sign of that repentance. Now with this practice the Pharisees were in total agreement. And that is why the question arose…why didn’t Jesus and His disciples follow the practice of fasting and prayer? Jesus had frequently repudiated Pharisaic tradition, but this well-established tradition was practiced by John…so why didn’t Jesus conform?
Christ answers with figurative language, conjuring up the image of a wedding feast. When the bridegroom arrived, it was time to rejoice! Fasting at this event and on this occasion would be inappropriate. And with Jesus (the Messiah) being with His kingdom right now, this tradition would be inappropriate. And not just for Jesus, for all the guests as well.
Notice Christ alludes to something else in verse 15 - The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast . Here Christ alludes to His anticipated death and return to the Father’s right hand. Just as the departure of the bridegroom signaled the end of the feast, Christ’s departure would bring the disciples to a place where fasting and prayer would be the appropriate response.
Now for application. For this Jesus told parables. Edersheim captures the intent of these parables like this:
In general, the two illustrations employed – that of the piece of undressed cloth (or, according to Luke, a piece torn from a new garment) sewed upon the rent of an old garment, and that of the new wine put into the old wine-skins – must not be too closely pressed in regard to their language. They seem chiefly to imply this: You ask, why do we fast often, but Thy disciples fast not? You are mistaken in supposing that the old garment can be retained, and merely its rents made good by patching it with a piece of new cloth. Not to speak of the incongruity, the effect would only be to make the rent ultimately worse. The old garment will not bear mending with the ‘undressed cloth.’ Christ was not merely a reformation: all things must become new.
Or again, take the other view of it – as the old garment cannot be patched from the new, so, on the other hand, can the new wine of the Kingdom not be confined in the old forms. It would burst those wine-skins. The spirit must, indeed, have its corresponding form of expression, but that form must be adapted, and correspond to it. Not the old with a little of the new to hold it together where it is rent; but the new, and that not in the old wine-skins, but in a form corresponding to the substance. Such are the two final principles – the one primarily addressed to the Pharisees, the other to the disciples of John, by which the illustrative teaching concerning the marriage feast, with its bridal garment and wine of banquet, is carried far beyond the original question of the disciples of John, and receives an application to all time.
The parables clearly indicate that Christ did not come to reform an old and worn out system, but to introduce something new! Hebrews 8:13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear. What was needed was not even a slight rehash of the old, Christ was ushering in a new thing in totality. If men would accept what He was offering them, they wouldn’t want the old. But the Pharisees, having tasted the old, were satisfied with it, and had no desire for what He was offering them.
And us? We don’t want to leave the tried and true. We get so comfortable…how can we break out of ‘tradition’ and better serve the Lord?
