The Newness of Life in the Kingdom

The Newness of Life in the Kingdom

Matt. 9:14-26 sermon manuscript

6/24/18

“This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood,” Jesus said the night before he died.[1] In that same conversation, he also said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”[2] The apostle Paul later would write, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”[3] And, in another place, he writes, “We were buried…with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”[4] And, a little further on in the same letter, he explains how “we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.”[5] A new covenant, a new commandment, a new creation, newness of life, a new way of serving—Jesus has changed everything. He has brought newness into this old world. And, when he comes into your life, he changes everything, too. He brings a deep and lasting newness to your life.

But what does that newness look like? As we began looking at Matthew chapter 9 last week, we read about how Jesus healed a paralytic and even forgave his sins. The Jewish scribes couldn’t handle the newness of a man who claimed the authority to forgive sins. Then, Jesus summoned a despised tax collector to follow him as a disciple, Matthew, the author of this very Gospel. And then Matthew invites Jesus to join him at his home for a party with other tax collectors and other sinners. The Pharisees couldn’t handle the newness of a popular rabbi and known miracle-worker sitting down to eat with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus refuses to fit into their pre-conceived notions.

As we press on in Matthew chapter 9, some time later on,[6] after Jesus has been feasting with tax collectors and sinners some disciples of John the Baptist approach with a question for Jesus. Let’s read verses 14 and 15, Matthew chapter 9, verses 14-15: Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” Here we learn that the followers of John the Baptist have something in common with the Pharisees, which probably isn’t a good thing. The wording of the question is somewhat humorous; it sounds like they are asking Jesus to explain the reason why they and the Pharisees fast and also the reason why his followers don’t fast. But, of course, what they want to know is why Jesus’s followers don’t fast.[7]They’ve been feasting, quite publicly, even in the home of Matthew the tax collector. Perhaps we could say that Jesus and his followers were fasting from fasting.[8]Jesus’s response seems to indicate that fasting in general is inappropriate for Jesus and his followers.

Look at the first part of his answer again in verse 15. He asks a rhetorical question: Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The expected answer is, “No, of course not. Fasting as an expression of mourning is not appropriate during a wedding. Weddings should be accompanied by feasting and celebration.” When you go to a wedding, you shouldn’t act like you’re at a funeral! In his answer, he highlights one of the primary purposes for fasting: it was an appropriate expression of grief.[9]

The reason given for celebration is the presence of the Groom. Now, Jesus is using a metaphor. Jesus did not marry a woman during his lifetime. But, he is also speaking theologically. He is subtly identifying himself as the Groom of Israel from the Old Testament, who was God himself. Many Old Testament passages speak of God as the Groom of Israel or refer to Israel as God’s wife, and some passages look forward to a day when their marriage would be made new.[10] Jesus is essentially saying, “I am God, the Groom of Israel, and I have come to take my bride home with me!” In a twist on the imagery, Jesus refers to wedding guests, and it’s clear that these friends refer to his disciples, his followers. The reason I call this a “twist” is because his disciples, his followers will become his bride. Nevertheless, Jesus is viewing the wedding from the vantage point of its preparation, the pre-wedding celebration, if you will. He’s highlighting the joy of anticipation, not only between bride and Groom, but also among friends and family of the bride and Groom. In any case, his point is clear: Jesus is with his disciples; therefore, fasting is inappropriate.[11]

But then he speaks of something unexpected, the removal of the Groom. Now, if you follow the imagery, you might expect that this “removal” is the joyous removal of the Groom to go be alone with his bride. However, Jesus seems to indicate an ominous removal here, because then it will be time for his disciples to fast as an expression of grief and mourning. So, what’s he talking about? Most students of Scripture conclude that Jesus is referring to his upcoming murder. He will be “taken away” violently by sinful people and executed on a Roman cross.[12] So, until Jesus’s death, fasting is not appropriate for his followers, but after his death it will again be appropriate.

Jesus is going to elaborate on this using a couple more metaphors, but before we look at those, I want to take a few minutes to talk about Christian fasting. John Piper regards these verses as the most important in the Bible on the topic of fasting,[13] so it’d be good to step back and get the big picture in place from the Scriptures. Fasting is quite simply abstaining from eating or drinking for a period of time. It can be limited to certain kinds of food or drink. Recently, it has become common to “fast” from things besides food, like fasting from Facebook use, or from watching movies. However, this is not in the same category as true fasting, because true fasting is withholding from yourself an essential, something you truly need.[14]

Did you know that fasting is not a specifically Christian practice? Fasting has been practiced as a feature of religious devotion in almost every religion throughout history. But, it’s not even a distinctly religious practice. Also throughout history, fasting has been used as both a political strategy and a physical health strategy.

Now, I’m going to say something that may shock you. Are you ready? Fasting is not a distinctly biblical practice. That is to say, it is nowhere commanded in all of Scripture. Now, let me qualify that before you all get out your computer concordances and try to prove me mistaken. There are five occasions in the Old Testament where someone in Israel’s leadership “proclaimed a fast.” So, on five occasions in Israel’s history, someone called all the people together to fast for a period of time.[15] But there are no commands in the Mosaic Law for Israelites to fast either publicly or privately.[16] Now, many folks assume that the command to “afflict yourselves” on the Day of Atonement was intended to include fasting,[17] and that is what Jews began to practice at some point in their history. But that “afflict yourselves” means to fast remains unclear and an assumption.[18] From verses like Psalm 35:13, which says, “I have afflicted myself with fasting,” it would seem that you have to make it explicit with the actual word “fasting” to see a reference to fasting in the phrase “afflict yourselves.”[19] In other words, you can “afflict yourselves” in lots of different ways, and fasting is one of those ways.

Fasting accompanies prayer often throughout the Bible, and there may be some personal value in the practice, but let’s be careful about insisting that, for Christians, it is inherently something that will improve your spiritual life, or it’s something that every Christian ought to do. The Bible never, as far as I can tell, explains a special spiritual significance for fasting. Now, I’m sure that many of you could share experiences of how fasting has helped you personally. And there are tons of books out there that talk about how fasting increases spiritual power (one writer even called it a “spiritual atomic bomb…to destroy the strongholds of evil and usher in a great revival and spiritual harvest around the world”)[20], enables spiritual breakthroughs, and guarantees certain answers to prayer, and those books contain story after story as evidence that fasting caused these wonderful things to happen in their lives. I remain skeptical of those stories. Some of them have been examined and shown to be fabricated. But I think most of them are the result of failing to heed a well-known principle from science that should apply in theology and, especially, when we’re evaluating our experiences: Correlation does not necessarily imply causation. You line up two separate things in your life, and you say one caused the other. For example, you might say, “I got a check in the mail that covered a bill I couldn’t pay because I fasted twice last week.” Two things happened: you got a check in the mail and you fasted twice last week. You have chosen to connect those two things as cause and effect. Could it be that God simply worked in someone’s heart that week to send you the exact amount of money you needed completely by his grace, apart from consideration of whether or not you had been fasting? God nowhere in the Bible, as far as I can tell, ever promises any kind of specific benefit to come from fasting. Jesus did say in the Sermon on the Mount that your Father will reward you if you fast properly. When Pastor Barry preached from that passage in Matthew 6, he emphasized how the reward promised seems to be heavenly, eternal rewards, not so much temporary, earthly rewards, like money in the bank. And, the reward is not so much promised for fasting itself but for the attitude and motive while fasting.

In light of this biblical framework for fasting—the facts that fasting is never commanded for God’s people and no spiritual significance is ever specified for fasting—I view fasting as something we could label a cultural practice that, when done with a certain attitude or for a certain purpose, may provide some benefit for the individual who chooses to fast. Fasting was common as an expression of mourning and grief, repentance, or lamenting because of some crisis.[21] And you can see those purposes clearly in the Old Testament examples of fasting.

Also, corporate fasting is common in Scripture, with a few examples of Christians fasting together in the book of Acts. I think it’s corporate fasting, in particular, that is in view in our passage this morning. The disciples of John the Baptist, as a group, were fasting; the Pharisees, as a group, were fasting. The question is: will the disciples of Jesus, as a group, fast? In Acts, churches might fast, or groups of apostles and other leaders might fast together, and it seems that they did so to prepare themselves spiritually for some anticipated important work.[22] Thus, fasting may provide an opportunity for spiritual preparation, like stretching before running a race. It’s not clear to me how group fasting like this fits in with Jesus’s teaching in Matthew 6 about fasting in secret.[23]

Jesus only fasted once, as far as we know, for forty days prior to the beginning of his public ministry.[24] But once he stepped into the limelight as the Groom, celebration time began and fasting time ceased. Jesus taught on the attitude one should have when fasting. Jesus’s fasting and Christian fasting seems to reflect an expression of neediness and dependence on God that is appropriate when praying, but we must not conclude from these passages that fasting makes God more likely to answer our prayers in particular ways, or that there’s some kind of special power that comes from fasting.[25] I don’t think that idea is supported in Scripture at all.[26]

Finally, to reiterate this point from another angle, let me just say one more thing about fasting. If you never fast as a Christian, I don’t believe you are being disobedient to Scripture and I don’t believe you are thereby somehow a spiritually anemic or second-class Christian. You may not be missing anything at all, in fact. A lot of weight is often put on the fact that Jesus says “when you fast” in the Sermon on the Mount. People draw the conclusion from this way of stating things that Jesus certainly expected all of his followers to fast at times. And at the end of verse 15 he says, “then they will fast,” again seeming to express an expectation that all of his followers will fast. However, there is reason to reconsider this way of understanding what Jesus says. First, when we see what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 6, there is something different about fasting from all of the other things Jesus says. He says, “when you give to the needy,” and “when you pray,” and “when you fast.” Both praying and giving to the needy are commanded elsewhere in Scripture, repeatedly. But, as we’ve noted, fasting is nowhere commanded of God’s people in Scripture. Secondly, if we recognize fasting as a cultural practice, then we can hear Jesus addressing his disciples as Jews. Jesus could expect them to fast because they were Jews, not because they were his followers, and not because they were obeying some command in Scripture, because there isn’t one. So, I don’t think Jesus is laying down an expectation, a veiled command for his followers to fast. Instead, he’s extending the freedom to fast.[27] If you want to fast, there is a proper way and a proper time to do so, and there is an improper way and an improper time to do so. After the Groom is taken away, Jesus’s disciples may fast.[28]

So, even though I don’t think we are expected or commanded to fast as Christians, if you find yourself distracted by food, if you could look at your life and say that food might be an idol for you, you might find some benefit in the fight against your sin by intentionally abstaining for a period of time, maybe even regularly. And, the way I have occasionally experienced fasting is somewhat unintentional. I guess you could say it has worked backwards for me, at least backwards from the ways people usually talk about fasting. Christians often say you should fast if you want to desire more of God and find him more satisfying than food. For me, I have sometimes experienced that I am so engrossed in God’s Word or praying that the time to eat passes away without notice. Ultimately, I concur with William Hendriksen, who writes, “Jesus does not say that his followers must fast, neither does he forbid them to fast if that is what they wish to do. In certain circumstances he seems to regard fasting as entirely proper.”[29]

Now, back to Matthew 9. In verses 16-17, Jesus provides two metaphorical illustrations to highlight the newness that he’s inaugurating which makes fasting inappropriate for the time being. Follow along with me as I read verses 16-17: No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved. He begins in the mundane realm of laundry repair. If you want to patch the hole in your jeans, you had better not use a patch made from cloth that hasn’t been washed and properly shrunk. If you do that, when you wash your jeans again, the patch will shrink, pull away from your jeans, and rip a bigger hole. What’s Jesus saying about fasting? Fasting while Jesus is still with them would be harmful to the disciples. It would cause spiritual damage. Just as it would cause spiritual damage for them to fast with the wrong motives, wanting other people to notice how spiritual they are, so also to fast at the wrong time, to mourn at a wedding party, would cause spiritual damage.

Then, Jesus piles on another metaphor, this time from the realm of wine storage. This is a picture of a well-used wineskin. Once the wine is emptied from this, it will dry out and become brittle. If you were to then pour in new wine, wine that had just been freshly pressed from the grapes, as the juice fermented and expanded, the dry, brittle wineskin would crack and burst from the pressure, never to be used again.[30] The wine would spill out on the ground. No more wine; no more wineskin. Jesus expands on this image and gives the proper and obvious corollary. You put new wine, wine that had just been freshly pressed from the grapes, into a wineskin that had just been prepared, that had just been peeled off the animal and folded up for this purpose while it’s still fresh.[31] Sorry, that was a gross image.