Latest / Reformed Thinking / When the Bridegroom Arrives: Fasting, Fulfillment, and the New Wine of Christ (Matthew 9:14–17)

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When the Bridegroom Arrives: Fasting, Fulfillment, and the New Wine of Christ (Matthew 9:14–17) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed thinking. Today we're jumping into a
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  passage in Matthews Gospel that I think really gets to the heart
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  of how we understand grace in law.
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  We're in Matthew Chapter 9 versus 14 through 17, and the
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  scene is, well, it's pretty scandalous for the time.
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  You have Jesus the Messiah, and he's not in the temple.
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  He's at a meal, a feast really, with the absolute outcasts of
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  society. We're talking tax collectors,
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  known sinners. These are people that
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  respectable society had just completely written off.
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  And what Jesus is doing is putting grace on this, this huge
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  public display. It's a scandalous favor.
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  Right. And that kind of freedom, that
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  kind of fellowship, it just naturally creates tension with
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  the, you know, the religious systems of the.
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  Day. Oh, absolutely.
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  They just didn't have a category for it.
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  Yeah, the Messiah eating dinner with a man like Matthew.
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  It didn't compute. And that leads us right to the
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  question that kicks off our whole deep dive today.
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  Yeah, the disciples of John the Baptist who are very serious,
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  very ascetic men, they come up to Jesus.
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  They're probably following the lead of the Pharisees on this.
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  And they ask this question that's just loaded with a kind
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  of a silent judgment. It is, they ask, why do we and
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  the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?
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  And that's where everything comes to a head.
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  This isn't just about meal planning or, you know, skipping
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  lunch. This question really exposes A
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  fundamental difference in how one relates to God.
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  It's a clash of two totally different systems.
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  It is. It's a clash between the fading
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  shadows of the Old Covenant, all the ritual and preparation, and
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  the bright, radiant substance of the New Covenant that has just
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  arrived in person. So our mission for you, the
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  listener, in this deep dive is to really unpack why Jesus's
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  answer here is so much more than a defense of his disciples.
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  It completely takes apart the whole idea of works
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  righteousness. It shows us that grace isn't
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  something you could just, you know, stitch onto your old life
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  like a patch. Yeah, it demands a total
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  replacement, a new administration, a new heart.
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  OK, so let's dig into that question itself. 14 because the
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  way they phrase it tells you everything about the spiritual
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  danger they're in. It really does.
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  They say, why do we fast, but your disciples do not.
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  That emphasis on we versus them, It's all about comparison.
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  Exactly. It shows you how quickly the
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  human heart can turn a religious discipline into a competitive
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  sport scoreboard. Yeah, scoreboard is the perfect
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  word for it. They're not really asking for
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  information, they're establishing their spiritual
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  rank. That statement we fast.
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  They don't. It's a verdict.
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  It's them deciding who's more righteous, who's more serious
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  about their faith. It's like they're reading off
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  their spiritual resume to Jesus. We see that all the time today,
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  right? People listing off their church
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  activities, their quiet times. All to create a metric for
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  holiness. And the spiritual posture of
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  John's disciples and the Pharisees was really shaped by
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  this idea of pentas or mourning. Their whole view of religion was
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  rooted in performance. Piety was measured by how much
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  you denied yourself. How severe you were, how well
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  you followed the heavy demands of the law.
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  It was a religion of subtraction, in a way.
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  And to be fair, John the Baptist ministry had that serious tone.
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  I mean, he was in the wilderness preaching repentance for the
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  coming judgement. It demanded a certain gravity.
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  It did, and it was a necessary and vital ministry, but the
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  problem is they confuse the posture of preparation for the
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  reality of arrival. That's a great way to put it.
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  They're looking right at the fulfillment at the Messiah
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  himself, but they're still wearing the glasses of the Law,
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  which was designed to show them their need for Him.
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  The sort of stuck in that mindset that God's favor has to
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  be earned through rigor and penance.
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  So when we pull that forward to today, that's the old Wineskin
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  mindset, right? That little voice in your head
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  that says I need to do more, I need to try harder to get God's
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  approval. It's the constant pressure of
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  the law, but Jesus just refuses to play their game.
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  He doesn't get into a debate about whose fasting schedule is
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  better. He flips the whole script.
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  He does. He shifts the entire
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  conversation away from our practices and puts the focus
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  squarely on his person. He forces them to stop looking
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  at what they're doing and start looking at who he is.
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  And what his presence means. Yes, if we're asking how do I
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  earn God's favor, we're stuck in that war mindset.
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  But if we're asking how do I respond to the grace I see in
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  Christ during the gospel? And that's the great divide.
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  And this is where the conversation takes such a, well,
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  a celebratory turn. Jesus defense isn't an excuse.
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  It's a massive, staggering claim about who he is.
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  It really is. He asks can the wedding guests
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  mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them.
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  He just lifts the whole scene out of their somber funeral like
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  religion and drops it right into the middle of a wedding feast.
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  That shift is huge. Jesus is saying that his
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  physical presence changes everything.
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  It doesn't just allow for joy, it requires joy.
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  It makes all that gloomy legalistic ritual totally
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  obsolete. They came looking for an
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  argument about fasting and he told them the party has already
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  started. They're still dressed for the
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  wake and he's announcing the wedding and the title.
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  He uses the bridegroom. You have to stop there for a
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  second. This is a claim of divine
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  identity. For a 1st century Jew, this
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  would have been, well, shocking. It would have been breathtaking
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  because in the Old Testament the title husband or bridegroom was
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  used exclusively for Yahweh in His covenant relationship with
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  Israel. You see it in Isaiah Hosea.
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  Isaiah 54.5 For your maker is your husband.
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  The prophets are full of this language.
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  So when Jesus calls himself the Nymphios, the bridegroom, he is
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  making a direct claim to be the God of Israel in the flesh, come
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  to claim his bride. This is High Christology, he's
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  saying. I am the one you've been waiting
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  for. And by extension, his disciples
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  are the sons of the bridal chamber, the wedding guests, the
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  groom's closest friends. And in their culture, a wedding
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  feast could go on for a week. A whole week.
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  And during that week, fasting wasn't just inappropriate, it
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  was offensive. It was an insult to the bride
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  and groom. It implied you weren't happy
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  about the marriage. So Jesus is declaring that the
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  Messianic banquet, the great celebration they've been waiting
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  for, has arrived. It's happening right now at the
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  dinner table with Matthew. And to fast while the king is at
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  the table is to completely misunderstand what's happening.
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  It's a failure to recognize that the Kingdom has dawned in him.
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  So the whole tension is between two mindsets.
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  The law mindset says joy is conditional on my performance.
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  Right. I can be joyful after I've done
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  enough, but the gospel grounds our joy in a finished reality.
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  The bridegroom is here. Salvation is accomplished.
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  So joy isn't just an emotion, it becomes a duty, a required
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  response to his presence. It is, and trying to drag the
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  heavy rituals of the Preparatory Age into the presence of the
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  Messiah himself is just It's incompatible.
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  It doesn't fit. Which brings that question right
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  to us, doesn't it? Is our walk with Christ
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  characterized by the delight of a wedding guest or the drudgery
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  of someone trying to pay off a debt?
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  The answer to that question reveals whether we are truly
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  resting in his finished work. But just as he establishes this
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  joy, the mood shifts again. It gets very somber very
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  quickly. With this prophecy, he gives an
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  abrupt turn. He says the days will come when
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  the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will
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  fast. And that phrase taken away is
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  really telling. The Greek word apparo.
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  It implies a violent removal, a seizing.
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  Jesus isn't talking about going on a trip.
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  He is predicting his own rejection and crucifixion.
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  The shadow of the cross just falls right across the wedding
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  feast. It does, and that taking away
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  marks the great transition in redemptive history.
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  While he was physically present, the rule was joy.
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  But now, in this age, we live in the Church age.
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  Between the Ascension and the Second Coming, fasting returns.
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  But its character is completely different.
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  Completely, and this is the critical point, we have to be
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  clear about what New covenant fasting is not.
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  It is not mourning for sin as if we're trying to pay for it.
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  Because the bridegroom paid for it in full.
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  Exactly. So we have to guard against that
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  idea of fasting as penance or some kind of self punishment to
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  earn merit. That is just pouring the old
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  wine of legalism right back into the new system.
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  If you fast to pay for sin, you're actually insulting the
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  cross. You are.
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  The reformed understanding is that fasting now is an act of
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  what we call eschatological longing.
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  OK, that's a big term. Let's break that.
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  Down. It just means we're expressing
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  our deep desire for the end, for the final consummation of all
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  things. We fast because the Bridegroom
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  is physically absent from us. We have His spirit, but we don't
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  have Him. So it's not a fast of despair.
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  Not at all. It's a watchman's fast.
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  It's a fast of anticipation. We are eagerly awaiting his
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  return, longing for the marriage supper of the lamb.
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  So it's less about making yourself miserable to impress
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  God and more about making yourself hungry for Christ.
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  That's it exactly. It's a physical discipline that
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  says two things at once. First, Christ is my true
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  sustenance, not bread, and 2nd, I ache for the day I see my
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  Savior face to face. It keeps us spiritually awake.
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  It helps us live in that already, but not yet reality.
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  We already have salvation's joy. But we do not yet have the King
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  in person. Fasting helps us feel that
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  tension properly. Which again forces that self
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  examination. Are my spiritual disciplines
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  driven by a Pharisee's need to perform, or are they driven by a
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  wedding guest's love for the groom and a longing for his
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  return? The motive is everything.
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  It changes the entire nature of the ACT.
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  OK, so after dealing with the affections, joy, and mourning,
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  Jesus moves to the structure of salvation.
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  With these two parables, He's showing that this new reality he
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  brings requires a whole new framework.
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  Right, he moves from the feeling to the foundation.
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  He starts in verse 16. No one puts a piece of unshrunk
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  cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the
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  garment and a worse tear is made.
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  This is just a powerful absolute prohibition against syncretism,
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  against trying to mix 2 incompatible things.
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  The Greek uses a universal negative.
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  No one. It's not advisable.
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  It's impossible. The Gospel of Grace refuses to
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  be just a minor update. It refuses to be an add on to
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  any other system. Let's think about the actual
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  mechanics he's describing. The UN Shrunk cloth is new.
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  It's potent, It's reactive. Any old garment is worn out,
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  it's brittle, it has no stretch left in it.
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  And the problem comes when it gets wet, the new patch.
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  When it gets washed, it contracts, it shrinks, and that
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  powerful pulling force on the weak, brittle old fabric.
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  It doesn't just fail to mend it, it rips it apart.
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  Creating a Charon Schisma, a worse tear, a greater division
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  than you had before. The theological point is so
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  sharp. You cannot try to blend the
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  vibrant life of the new Covenant with the dead rituals of the
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  old. You can't mix Christ's finished
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  work with your own human effort. You just can't.
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  It's like trying to add something to 100%.
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  The two systems are mutually exclusive.
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  Let's apply this. The first this parable just
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  demolishes is moralism. Moralism is so common because
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  it's, well, it's flattering to our pride.
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  The moralist sees Jesus as a patch, a way to fix up a few of
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  their bad habits. They want to keep the old
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  garment of their own autonomy, their own goodness, and just use
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  a little bit of Jesus to cover the obvious holes.
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  They're looking for a repair job, not a total replacement.
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  But the gospel is too strong for that.
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  The raw contracting power of Christ's righteousness when you
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  try to sew it onto our rotten, sinful nature.
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  It just exposes the rod. It rips it wide open.
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  The tear gets worse because the hypocrisy is laid bare.
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  You realize you don't need a patch.
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  You need to completely new garment the road of
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  righteousness that Christ provides.
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  The outline also mentions how this applies to High Church
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  legalism, specifically the Roman system.
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  How is that a patchwork theology?
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  Well, it's an attempt to sew the new cloth of grace onto the old
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  garment of the Levitical priesthood.
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  You have a system of masses of penance of priests offering
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  sacrifices on an altar. It makes Grace a kind of an
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  assistance program for your own merit.
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  Right. It's a hybrid system and it
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  creates that worst tear in the conscience of the believer.
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  Am I saved by Christ's work, or do I also need to do these
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  penance? Am I secure or do I need another
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  mass to return to the shadows after the substances come?
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  And bringing it right up to the present day, we see this when
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  people try to patch the gospel onto modern secular
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  philosophies. It's the same error in a
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  different form when the church tries to blend the non
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  negotiable truths of scripture with, say, worldly ideas of
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  justice based on power dynamics or intersectionality.
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  The terror is inevitable. Because those worldly systems
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  have their own definitions of sin and their own paths to
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  redemption that are totally alien to the Bible.
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  If sin is just privilege and redemption is just activism,
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  then you've created a different religion.
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  You have and it's a religion that is structurally
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  incompatible with the gospel of blood atonement and individual
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  regeneration. The two cannot be patched
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  together. The gospel demands that the old
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  garment be thrown away entirely. The old self is crucified.
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  We stand in Christ's righteousness alone.
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  And that rejection of patching leads right into the second
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  parable, which is about internal structure.
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  Jesus says neither is new wine put into old wineskins.
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  Right. If the batch parable is about
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  external compatibility, the Wineskin parable is about
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  internal pressure and structural integrity.
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  So the physical context here is these goatskin bags, the ascoy
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  that they used for wine. Yes, and you'd pour new
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  unfermented wine into them. And as that wine ferments, it
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  releases carbon dioxide. It creates an enormous amount of
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  internal pressure. The container has to be flexible
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  enough to expand with it. But the old wineskins?
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  They've already been through that process.
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  They're stretched out, They've become hard, rigid, brittle.
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  There's no elasticity left. So if you pour new expanding
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  wine into that old rigid container.
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  It's a catastrophe waiting to happen.
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  The skin will rupture, the wine is spilled and lost, and the
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  skin itself is destroyed. You lose everything.
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  OK, so theologically, what do the skins and the wine
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  represent? The old wineskins are the entire
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  structure of the Levitical system.
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  The temple, the sacrifices, the priesthood, the dietary laws.
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  They were God-given for a time, but they were preparatory and
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  rigid. And the new wine.
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  The new wine is the dynamic, expansive life of the Holy
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  Spirit that is unleashed by Christ's death and resurrection.
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  It's the very life of the New Covenant.
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  So the explosive freedom of the Gospel simply cannot be
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  contained by the old ceremonial structures.
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  It's structurally impossible. This is why we don't build a
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  temple and offer animal sacrifices today.
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  To do that would be to pour the new wine into the old skins.
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  You would destroy the freedom of the gospel and rupture the
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  integrity of the old forms. This also speaks directly
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  against any system that tries to recreate a Levitical style
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  priesthood in the New Testament era.
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  Yes, that's a perfect example when a religious system tries to
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  contain the once for all finished sacrifice of Christ
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  within the old wineskin of a continual sacrificing priesthood
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  on an altar. The skin bursts.
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  It has to. And what you lose is the pure
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  gospel. You lose the clarity of
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  justification by faith alone. It gets replaced by a system of
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  ongoing rituals. The church itself is the new
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  wineskin, a new entity with new ordinances like baptism and the
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  Lord's Supper designed specifically to contain the
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  expansive life of the Spirit. This has to apply to the
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  individual heart as well, right? This points to the necessity of
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  regeneration. It's the most personal
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  application of all. The new wine of the Holy Spirit
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  cannot live in the old scare of the unregenerate human heart.
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  The natural person is rigid in their pride, dead in sin.
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  They cannot stretch to accommodate the life of God.
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  So conversion isn't just turning over a new leaf.
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  No conversion. Is God giving you a new
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  wineskin? It's resurrection.
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  He takes out the heart of stone, gives a heart of flesh, as
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  Ezekiel promised. He makes you a new creation, a
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  vessel that is actually capable of containing His divine life.
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  This gives us a really sharp lens to critique some modern
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  church trends like pragmatism or the seeker sensitive movement.
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  It really does, because they often make both of these
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  mistakes. On one hand, they try to
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  manufacture new wine. They try to create spiritual
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  vitality through emotionalism or slick marketing.
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  And on the other hand, they pour their message into the old
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  wineskins of secular culture. Exactly.
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  They use the structures of worldly entertainment or
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  corporate business models to try and contain the message of the
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  gospel. And that structure is too rigid.
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  It can't handle the real thing. The minute you preach on sin and
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  repentance, the skin bursts because it was designed for
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  comfort and consumerism, not conviction.
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  And Jesus's promise is that the right combination, the new wine
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  in the new skins, preserves both.
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  It does, and the only vessel designed to do that is the New
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  Testament Church, operating according to Scripture,
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  preaching the whole council of God, administering the
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  sacraments properly. That structure is designed by
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  God to hold the life He gives. OK, so let's try to synthesize
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  all of this. We have the joy of the
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  bridegroom, the problem with the patch, the need for new
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  wineskins. Jesus isn't just improving an
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  old religion, he's creating something entirely new.
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  What does he abolish and what does he reorder?
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  Well, first he completely abolish his merit religion.
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  He dismantles the human instinct to use spiritual disciplines as
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  currency with God or as credentials before other people.
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  The discipline itself, like fasting, isn't the problem.
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  No, the discipline is fine. The flesh is the problem.
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  Our sinful nature weaponizes the discipline to build up our own
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  self righteousness and Jesus will not tolerate that.
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  Second, he fulfills and closes the chapter on the shadow stage
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  of the Old Covenant. That's right, the old garment
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  and the old wineskins weren't bad things.
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  They were God ordained preparatory structures.
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  The moral law, of course, is still binding because it
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  reflects God's character. But the ceremonial structures,
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  the temple, the priesthood, they've reached their
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  fulfillment in Christ. You can't go back to the shadow
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  once the substance has arrived. And finally, he reorders our
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  whole understanding of piety. It's no longer about technique.
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  It's about communion with the bridegroom.
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  Every discipline has to be connected to the person and work
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  of Christ. So what does that mean for a
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  discipline like fasting then? Under the old system, fasting
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  was a way to say, look how pious I am.
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  Under the new covenant, it's relocated.
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  It moves from self display to holy desire.
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  It's an embodied prayer that says I depend on Christ more
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  than I depend on food. And it sharpens our longing for
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  his return. It's a confession of need, not a
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  display of strength. Precisely.
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  And this reordering helps us guard against two opposite heirs
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  on one side, against legalism. Jesus says joy is your duty
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  because the work is finished. The wedding feast is a present
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  reality. But on the other side, against
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  antinomianism, the idea that grace means we can be lazy, he
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  preserves discipline. Right, because discipleship is
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  still a battle against the flesh.
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  We still need to be watchful and sober as we await his return.
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  He holds both things in tension. Settle joy in his finished work
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  and sober discipline in our ongoing walk.
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  This brings us to a really practical pastoral call to
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  everyone listening. This passage forces us to look
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  in the mirror. It really does.
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  It calls us to repent of spiritual comparison, to stop
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  using our Bible reading or our prayer life as a badge.
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  Our hearts are so quick to turn good gifts into idols of self
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  righteousness. And at the same time, we have to
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  repent of using freedom in Christ as an excuse for
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  spiritual apathy. He freed us from boasting in our
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  works, not from the devotion of loving Him.
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  And any discipline we do practice, like fasting, has to
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  be governed by its New Covenant purpose.
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  It's not a hunger strike to get God's attention.
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  It's an act of mortifying the flesh, of training our hearts to
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  prefer Christ over comfort. So the final summons for us is
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  about our posture. Stop using disciplines to try
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  and earn what only Christ can give you, which is acceptance.
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  And start using them as grateful, loving responses to
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  what Christ has already. One for you.
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  Full justification, full adoption, all by grace alone,
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  through faith alone. When we get that right, our
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  holiness starts to flow from love, not from a sense of
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  obligation. This has been a really crucial
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  deep dive into Matthew 9. The message is just undeniable.
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  The Gospel demands replacement, not just repair.
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  Jesus will not be a patch on our self righteousness.
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  He won't be poured into the brittle container of legalistic
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  religion. The wedding feast has begun.
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  So to the religious moralists who might be listening, who's
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  still trying to stitch together a righteousness of their own,
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  Christ's warning here is severe. Your old wineskin of pride has
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  to be shattered so you can be born again.
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  You have to abandon that project of self salvation.
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  But to the weary center, the one who knows they've failed at
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  performance, the invitation is just glorious.
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  The Bridegroom has provided a perfect righteousness for you.
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  Come with empty hands. Receive the new life of the
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  Spirit. And that leaves us with the
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  final thought for you to reflect on.
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  This passage forces us as the church in every generation, to
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  ask not just what our message is, but how we are containing
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  it. So what skins are we using today
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  in our churches? Are they old rigid traditions or
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  are they new but equally brittle?
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  Pragmatic marketing techniques? How do we ensure our methods,
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  the skin, aligned with the expansive life of our message,
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  The wine so that is Jesus promised.
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  Both are preserved.