Matthew 9: Fasting, Wineskins, and Garments

Well, today I read Matthew 9. This chapter contains what has got to be my favorite Jesus story. It’s the one where he calls the bluff of the Pharisees who tell him that anyone can just go around forgiving people.

Anyway, I’m not here to talk about that one – although I could. I’m writing because I have some questions about the way jesus approaches a question about fasting. The disciples of john the Baptist come to him at dinner and mention that while they and the super-religious Pharisees fast regularly, they have noticed that jesus and his disciples do not. Jesus responds with three analogies: one about a bridegroom who is still hanging out with his buddies before the wedding, one about new wine in old wineskins, and one about a new patch on old clothing (“no one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment for the patch pulls away from the garment and the tear is made worse”). Immediately after this interaction, jairus, a temple official come to jesus with a pressing need concerning his dead daughter and very quickly the context surrounding fasting seems, to me, to come to an end. What I don’t get is how a few comments about wineskins and garment patches relate to the initial question about fasting. I resisted the urge as best I could to peek at the footnotes and see if they had any wisdom to offer. I generally dislike footnotes in my bible because I don’t trust them and I’ve been in too many bible studies where people just contribute to discussion by reading the footnotes everyone has in their own bible. Also, footnotes are typically very brief and I’d like to entertain the possibility that more explanations are open for debate. I’d much rather take the opinion of a person I know; someone I trust and respect when it comes to biblical matters. Unfortunately, against all my better judgment, I read the footnote and the explanation was quite simple: jesus was alluding to the fact that his kingdom was new and differed greatly to the one understood by john the Baptist and the Pharisees. Ok, easy enough. I consulted my friend, ken, and he corroborated the story so I guess I’m satisfied with the insight provided by the editors, but he also added a bit. Ken placed the passage in the context of an earlier statement jesus makes in chapter 6 where he says, “I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill.” That’s what the wineskins and patches were! The disciples could not attach the ministry of jesus to the old mosaic law because the two were incompatible. Jesus had no intention of wrecking the older system and that could only be done by not trying to fit the his with old. In fact, this whole idea is unveiled very clearly in chapters 5-7 where jesus tells the masses tons of stuff like, “you have heard (this) before, but I tell you (that).” This little dialogue with some john-the-Baptist cronies was just an extension of his earlier sermon on the mount, ultimately reiterating the revolutionary concept behind his whole mission. Jesus was ground-breaking and he was here to bring a whole new way of life.

Personal application? Well, I never knew the old way of doing things. I think I may have fasted two times in my life, once for sure. In fact, I wasn’t even there when jesus was describing his “new” and “revolutionary” way of doing things so I wouldn’t be very good at contrasting the two, but I love realizing how radical jesus was and because of that I think this section of the bible is very important. I don’t need to know about fasting and about the way things used to be to know that jesus’ way still holds appeal in a human culture that gets bogged down in patterns of self-interest and trendiness (at least in my neck of the woods). The fact of the matter is that I am still bombarded with stimuli that tell me to look out for myself and my agenda or to side with someone who will. No matter what the issue, people in my culture are drawing lines in the sand and giving me two options for everything: agree or disagree. And it’s always set up so that I am petitioning to fall into favor with someone. No one ever tells me to turn the other cheek or to love my enemy; that the meek, the merciful, and the pure in heart are blessed ; and certainly no one has ever dared to tell me that I am a sinner, incapable of making it by myself. This is not one of those passages that make me want to go out and tell people about jesus and it’s not illustrating some huge theological or philosophical principle. but it does, however, make me want to get to know jesus and his ideas more and try to approach my friends, my circles, and my culture with the same sort of revolutionary attitude that he had. I like it.