Matthew 9:14-17
Leviticus 16:29-34
Uncontainable
Friends, Jesus is our great high priest, He is my great high priest, He is your great high priest.
As our great high priest, he is the one mediator between God and man. No-one approaches God except through Jesus.
It is amazing to think, as Romans 8 tells us, that Jesus is now interceding for us, at His father’s side.
Now, before our great high priest- Jesus, came to this earth, lived, died and rose again to atone for all our sins, once and for all……there were many other high priests who were but shadows of Jesus. High priests, such as the brother of Moses- Aaron, or high priests who descended from the tribe of Levite.
And one of the duties of these high priests would be to go into the Holy of Holies, which situated in the heart of the Holy temple, once a year, and make multiple sacrifices which would atone not only for the sins of the high priest, but for all the sins of the people.
During this Day of Atonement which would happen once a year, year after year, the people of God would stop work on that day, they would wear sackcloth on that day, and they would fast- which means they would go without food for that day, to symbolise how sad that day was, as their sins would be remembered, animals would be sacrificed and blood would be spilt.
It would be a sombre day of fasting on the day of atonement as the people showed penitence for their sins.
And yet when Jesus our great high priest came to this earth, lived and died and offered himself as the ultimate sacrifice the lamb of God, we no longer have to have commemorate the Day of Atonement. We no longer have to take our sacrifices to a temple, we no longer have to stop work and fast on that day, because Jesus is the true temple, Jesus is the true sacrifice.
The earthly temple of Moses, David and Solomon, could not contain the high priest Jesus, the earthly temple could not contain the sacrifice of Jesus Himself, - Jesus atoned for all of our sins, once and for all, past, present and future. The old ceremonial laws and the old temple laws, which were part of the old covenant made between God and Moses, simply could not contain Jesus.
The earthly temple was just a shadow of the heavenly temple, were Jesus presented himself as the ultimate sacrifice for all our sins, once and for all.
As we look at this question of “fasting” that the disciples of John the Baptist asked Jesus, we will see that in his response to the issue of fasting that Jesus wanted them and us to know a bigger truth than just one about fasting.
It was this:
Jesus didn’t come to bring in a new Judaism, a new Jewish sect, and he didn’t come to try and fix the religious man-made rules which many had attached to Judaism…….. but Jesus came to bring in something so new and so different, that Judaism and its man-made rules simply couldn’t cope with Jesus.
Jesus came to show that those ceremonial laws which were required by God to the Israelites to fulfill, such as the Day of Atonement, were no longer required, since Jesus Himself fulfilled them.
But before we explore that a little more, let us look at this issue of fasting.
Look at verse 14 with me:
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
So, the disciples of John the Baptist fasted, but the disciples of Jesus did not fast, and John’s disciples asked a good question- why not?
Now even though Jews were only required by law to fast one day a year on the day of Atonement, many Jews practiced fasting twice a week.
And just based from the passage we read from Leviticus about fasting on the day of Atonement, fasting would have been done in a sober manner as they particularly focused on their sins being atoned for and so essentially as they fasted, they fixed their hearts and minds on the things of God.
And so, we can assume that some Jews who fasted twice a week, did so in order to fix their minds and hearts upon God as they focused on a particular thing.
And this fasting was a good thing.
Today, it is a good thing to fast, to spend a focused time on praying for a particular thing and forgoing food at the same time. It tells us in Acts 13, that the early church fasted when they were setting Paul and Barnabas apart for their missionary work. Today, many Christians and churches fast around the world, and so fasting is a good thing.
However……like all good things, they can be used and manipulated, and quickly, can turn into bad things…..
And so many of the Jews, who practiced fasting twice a week, considered it a way of trying to earn merit with God. They thought that God would reward their hard work and so instead of fasting being a “grace”: thing, as they humbly threw themselves at the mercy of God, it became a “works-based” thing, were they thought they could build their own self-righteousness- curry favour with God as it were.
And so many Jews walked around in sombre moods while they fasted and let others know what sacrifices they were making, woe is me- I am so pious….look at me- I’m fasting fasting….and oh- you are not fasting….I must be more righteous.
Friends, it is so easy for us to take something that God has graciously given us and turn it into our own work of salvation. The gifts that God has given us can so easily become superstitious nonsense.
The Lord’s supper can become a work of penance, instead of just celebrating what Jesus did for us. Baptism can become a rite of passage, instead of a celebration of what Jesus did for us.
It easy to receive God’s work of salvation and turn it into our own works.
This is what was happening with some of the Jews in the days of Jesus.
Just look at what Jesus first said in response to this question about fasting?
Look at verse 15 with me
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
The first reason that Jesus gives for his disciples not fasting is this:
When people fasted on the day of Atonement, it was done with mourning as the people remember their sins.
And so fasting was associated with mourning, but Jesus said his disciples had no reason to mourn at that time, because Jesus- the bridegroom- was with them. It wasn’t a time of mourning,- that would come late, but that was a time of celebration- Jesus, the king of the universe was with them.
Jesus’ disciples did not need to mourn at that particular time, because it was the greatest time on earth- Jesus- the bridegroom was there with them.
It would be like guests of the bridegroom going to a wedding and being completely miserable and refusing to eat anything- it would be silly.
Who would go to a wedding feast, and not eat?
Hopefully no-one. A wedding is a time for Joy and celebration.
And so, Jesus said, his disciples didn’t need to fast then, because Jesus was with them.
Although he did say that there would be a time when the bridegroom was taken away from them and then they would fast.
And we know that time came when Jesus died on the cross, and was dead for 3 days, and we also know that time came when he rose again and ascended to heaven.
Friends, we now live in a time where the bridegroom- Jesus is not physically with his bride the church- although we know he is with us by his spirit, and so we live in a time where fasting is appropriate, although not commanded.
We live in a time where we still suffer the consequences of sin and so there will be time of mourning and a time of bringing our focused prayer before God. We live in a time where Jesus is not physically with us. The bridegroom is heaven on his throne.
We also know, that one day, just like in the days of Jesus and his disciples, we will no longer need to mourn or fast, as Jesus, the bridegroom returns this earth and gathers his bride the church, and together we will share in the wedding supper of the lamb.
That day will be a day (however long that day may take) of great Joy, of feast, of celebration, - no—one will be fasting that day, no one will be mourning.
On that day, when we feast with Jesus and all the saints: the Joy, our Joy will be uncontainable.
It will be a day that our thoughts and our imaginations just cannot contain.
Just think of the best day you have had on this earth and that day doesn’t even come close in its Joy.
Jesus had an uncanny knack of blowing people’s expectations out of the water- didn’t he?
God- in flesh, born as a baby in a stable in Bethlehem- mind blown!
A bloke who lived in Nazareth, Nazareth for goodness sakes- mind blown!
God- died, what God died on a cross- How can God die? mind blown!
God comes back to life- mind blown!
And here again, in this passage in Matthew, Jesus reminds us that we shouldn’t try and pin Jesus down to meet our expectations, to meet our rules, to meet our ways of doing things, because as Jesus made it clear that day, even those ceremonial laws that were given to the Israelites, he came and fulfilled those laws in ways which people just couldn’t have imagined.
Look at verse 16 with me:
16 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.
As Jesus often did, he used every day illustrations to make his teaching point.
Jesus knew that everyone knew, that if your coat had a rip, you never took a piece of new cloth and sewed it on the old coat. The old coat would have been worn and the material would had been through wear and tear. If a new patch was but on the old coat, the new patch would be much stronger than the old, and so if the coat was ever pulled again, it wasn’t the new patch that would tear, but it was the old coat cloth that would tear.
Instead of fixing the problem with a new patch, it just made it worse.
Friends, Jesus didn’t come to patch up a worn-out Judaism which had been tarnished by man-made rules, but he was brining something new. Something, far better than the old.
To further this point, he then used the illustration of New and Old Wineskins
Look at verse 17 with me:
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
Everyone knew that you could not put new wine into old wineskins…… because the old wineskins lost their elasticity and so as the new wine ferments, the old wineskins would burst.
Everyone knew you had to put new wine in new wineskins.
Friends, Jesus could not be contained within the man made Jewish religious practices.
In John 2 which tells us of the story of when Jesus turned water into wine, he was also showing this teaching point.
Those 6 jars of water which were used for ceremonial washing, were no longer needed as Jesus turned the water into wine. No longer did the Jews (although they never did) need to bathe themselves clean every day, because there was coming a day when all who stand in Jesus were going to be clean before God- Jesus was going to wash all their sins away.
No longer was a ceremonial washing needed.
Jesus was going to clean us from the inside out.
Jesus was showing that one day, and this is the day we are now living in, people all over the world were going to worship Jesus in spirit and truth. No longer was the worship of Jesus confined to a certain mountain, or a certain temple, or a certain place, but the worship of Jesus is uncontainable in the hearts of men and women across the world, through his Holy Spirit.
Friends, let us ask God to help us, not to try and contain Jesus by our religious practices, our forms of worship, our good works, but let us humbly come before him each day and ask Him to have his way in our hearts.
Let us pray.
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