The Practice of Fasting.
Mat 9:14 At that time John's disciples came and asked Jesus, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?"
Mat 9:15 "Can the bridegroom's party mourn," He replied, "as long as the bridegroom is with them? But other days will come (when the Bridegroom has been taken from them) and then they will fast.
Mat 9:16 No one ever mends an old cloak with a patch of newly woven cloth. Otherwise, the patch put on would tear away some of the old, and a worse hole would be made.
Mat 9:17 Nor do people pour new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins would split, the wine would escape, and the skins be destroyed. But they put new wine into fresh skins, and both are saved."
Introduction
We have seen Jesus instructions on Fasting in Chapter 6 where we warns against ostentatiousness in Religious Observance.
In this short account of John’s disciples asking Him about fasting. he said fasting should be a practice while we wait for the Arrival of the Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ returning for His church.
Mat 9:14 At that time John's disciples came and asked Jesus, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?"
Notes:
It may well be that John’s Disciples were fasting on a day when Jesus’ disciples were feasting Mark 2:18
A disciple signifies o who is personally attached to his Teacher and follows him in everything.
In the New Testament times pious Jews would fast every Monday and Thursday, plus other solemn religious occasions.
Mat 9:15 "Can the bridegroom's party mourn," He replied, "as long as the bridegroom is with them? But other days will come (when the Bridegroom has been taken from them) and then they will fast.
Notes
"Can the bridegroom's party mourn," He replied, "as long as the bridegroom is with them?
The children of the bride-chamber mourn. The friends of the bridegroom, for the bride was brought to his father's house.
Mourn Fasting was usually a sign of sorrow. He was himself the Bridegroom, and still with his disciples. This is a picture of the wedding feast when mourning and sorrow was far from their minds
"as long as the bridegroom is with them? He is the bridegroom and He was still present.
When the bridegroom will be taken from them. An allusion especially to the crushing sorrow when he was crucified and buried. Real fasting takes place when there is real occasion for it. See Act_13:2; Act_14:23; 2Co_6:5; 2Co_11:27.PNT
Compare The Five wise and Five foolish Bridesmaids
Mat 25:1 "Then will the Kingdom of the Heavens be found to be like ten bridesmaids who took their torches and went out to meet the bridegroom.
Mat 25:2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise.
Mat 25:3 For the foolish, when they took their torches, did not provide themselves with oil;
Mat 25:4 but the wise, besides their torches, took oil in their flasks.
Mat 25:5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, so that meanwhile they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
Mat 25:6 But at midnight there is a loud cry, "'The bridegroom is coming! Go out and meet him!'
and also The Parable of the Invitations to the Wedding Feast for His Son
Mat 22:2 "The Kingdom of the Heavens," He said, "may be compared to a king who celebrated the marriage of his son,
Mat 22:3 and sent his servants to call the invited guests to the wedding, but they were unwilling to come.
Mat 22:4 "Again he sent other servants with a message to those who were invited. "'My breakfast is now ready," he said, 'my bullocks and fat cattle are killed, and every preparation is made: come to the wedding.'
Mat 22:5 "They however gave no heed, but went, one to his home in the country, another to his business;
Mat 22:6 and the rest seized the king's servants, maltreated them, and murdered them.
Mat 22:7 So the king's anger was stirred, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burnt their city.
Mat 22:8 Then he said to his servants, "'The wedding banquet is ready, but those who were invited were unworthy of it.
Mat 22:9 Go out therefore to the crossroads, and everybody you meet invite to the wedding.'
Mat 22:10 "So they went out into the roads and gathered together all they could find, both bad and good, and the banqueting hall was filled with guests.
Mat 22:11 "Now the king came in to see the guests; and among them he discovered one who was not wearing a wedding-robe.
Mat 22:12 "'My friend,' he said, 'how is it that you came in here without a wedding robe?'
Mat 22:13 "The man stood speechless. Then the king said to the servants, "'Bind him hand and foot and fling him into the darkness outside: there will be the weeping aloud and the gnashing of teeth.'
NOW IS THE TIME TO FAST AND PRAY AS WE AWAIT HIS COMING The Messianic Bridegroom
Matthew 9: 15 b But other days will come (when the Bridegroom has been taken from them) and then they will fast.
Notes
He was saying “Carr : “ There is a time of Sorrow in store for my disciples when fasting will have a real meaning, now in my presence they can but rejoice.”
Patching Old Garments
Mat 9:16 No one ever mends an old cloak with a patch of newly woven cloth. Otherwise, the patch put on would tear away some of the old, and a worse hole would be made.
Notes
No man puts a piece of new cloth ... - A second illustration was drawn from a well-known fact, showing also that there was “a propriety or fitness of things.” None of you, says he, in mending an old garment, would take a piece of entire new cloth.
There would be a waste in it. An old piece, or a piece like the garment, would be better. The word here translated “new,” in the original means “rude, undressed, not fulled” by the cloth-dresser. In this state, if applied to an old garment, and if wet, it would “contract” and draw off a part of the garment to which it was attached, and thus make the rent worse than it was. So, says he, my “new” doctrines do not match with the old rites of the Pharisees. There is a fitness of things. Their doctrines require much fasting. In my system it would be incongruous; and if my new doctrines were to be attached to their old ones, it would only make the matter worse. Barnes
New Wineskins
Mat 9:17 Nor do people pour new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins would split, the wine would escape, and the skins be destroyed. But they put new wine into fresh skins, and both are saved."
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Neither do men put new wine ... - The third illustration was taken from wine put into bottles.
Bottles, in Eastern nations, were made, and are still made, of skins of beasts. Generally the skin was taken entire from a sheep or a goat, and, properly prepared, was filled with wine or water. Such bottles are still used, because, in crossing deserts of sand, they have no other conveyances but camels, or other beasts of burden. It would be difficult for them to carry glass bottles or kegs on them. They therefore fill two skins, and fasten them together and lay them across the back of a camel, and thus carry wine or water to a great distance. These bottles were, of course, of different sizes, as the skins of kids, goats, or oxen might be used. Bruce describes particularly a bottle which he saw in Arabia, made in this manner of an ox-skin, which would hold 60 gallons, and two of which were a lead for a camel. By long usage, however, bottles of skins became tender and would be easily ruptured. New wine put into them would ferment, and swell and burst them open. New skins or bottles would yield to the fermenting wine, and be strong enough to hold it from bursting. So, says Christ, there is “fitness” or propriety of things. It is not “fit” that my doctrine should be attached to or connected with the old and corrupt doctrines of the Pharisees. New things should be put together, and made to match.
This account of Eastern bottles may illustrate the following passages in the Bible: The Gibeonites took “wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up,” Jos_9:4. “My belly is ready to burst, like new bottles,” Job_32:19. “I am become like a bottle in the smoke,” Psa_119:83; i. e., like a bottle of skin hung up in a tent filled with smoke.Barnes
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