LOC 039 Feast or Fast?

LOC 039: Life of Christ: Feast or Fast?

Two weeks ago we looked at the Call of Matthew, aka Levi.  This morning we will look at the second half of that narrative that deals with a conversation at the great feast or banquet Matthew threw for his friends to meet his new Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

We noted that the feast must have been publicly accessible for we find a number of different folks interacting at the same feast in the same timeframe.  We made two applications regarding the first part of the narrative of Matthew’s call and the question raised by the Pharisee’s about why Jesus would eat with sinners.  They could not comprehend how one who claimed to be the messiah from God, the son of man, could associate with the likes of tax collectors and Roman collaborators.  But, Jesus did.  Before we go on to part two of this banquet, we need to consider one more application.

Application #3 Note Matthew’s compassion for his friends.  He gave all to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.  And, part of that ALL he gave was a luxurious banquet to introduce his Lord to his friends and associates.  Jesus was there, but confronted the religious bigots of the day.  Bigots who were so narrow in their view of things that they condemned Jesus for fraternizing with those who needed his ministry the most.  Beware of your associations--the ultra-religious might hold them against you. 

It can be okay to have unconverted friends and acquaintances.  It is okay to have them over to your house for great feasts.  It is acceptable to take them out to dinner in order to enjoy their presence and influence them with the Gospel.  Jesus would not have been able to preach to sinners, if he had not mingled himself with them.  He could not have healed the sick, unless he was willing to be exposed to their maladies.  The sick need physicians and sinners a savior.  To minister to people, you must be among those with needs.  Jesus knew that; the Pharisees of his day had it all wrong. 

It can be comfortable to only have Christian friends, or to isolate ourselves in our homes or at our workplaces.  We might read a Christian book or even our Bibles so people see them. But do you engage them as friends in accord with mercy and kindness.  Do you allow them to see all of your life that they might see what makes you tick?  Jesus was not afraid of the gaze of sinners or their presence with him.  He remained focused and heavenly minded in their midst.  Beware of Christian smugness around unbelievers.  They are often the first to sense an air of superiority or self-righteousness.  We should be convicted whenever they do.  True righteous works expressed in kindness to serve others are vastly different than things done in self-righteousness.  The one is detrimental to the others.  Consider the Lord Jesus, he was perfect. If anyone had a right to appeal to his own righteousness, it was him.  But he deals humble with sinners and those in need.  He saves his criticisms for the outwardly religious ultra-conservatives of his day.  Be gracious and kind to all men.  Show the character of Christ to undeserving sinners, remembering that that is what you still remain, a sinner saved by grace.

Jesus came to heal the broken, set free the captives and bring deliverance to man.  We can have a part as a means to that end when we bring the gospel to sinners and pray for those who are sick.  If you make a commitment to pray for an unbelieving friend or acquaintance, follow through and follow-up.  Use the request as a means to inquire about matters of soul.  Point them to the need to have sins forgiven as a greater need than bodily health.   Talk freely about the Lord and his wonderful deeds to those who have no contempt for the things of God.  That is what Jesus does in the second part of this story.

We will base most of our comments off of the passage in Luke 5:33-39 with some references to Matthew 9:14-17 and Mark 2:18-22.  It is more important to get the content of the passage than to memorize all the references.

Luke 5:33-39 Feast or Fast?

1. The Direct Question

Luke 5:33 ¶ Then they (Mark tells us it was the disciples of John and of the Pharisees) said to Him,  “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”

2. The Answer in a Metaphor

Luke 5:34 And He said to them,  “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35  “But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”

3. The First Parable--an illustration

Luke 5:36 Then He spoke a parable to them:  “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. 37  “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.

4. A Summary

38  “But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.

5. A Conclusion

Luke 5:39  “And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says,  ‘The old is better.’ ”

Let’s look a little closer at the meaning of all this.

Jesus is still in the North by the Sea of Galilee.  He is at a banquet thrown by Matthew.  At the Feast we have Matthew, his fellow tax collectors, Jesus, the five disciples of Jesus, some Pharisees and some of the disciples of John the Baptist.  This shows how far the fame of the Lord Jesus had already spread.  Matthew gave all to follow the Lord Jesus.  He did not complain that following Christ meant that all was at the disposal of the Lord Jesus.  He willingly gave all to serve his new Lord.  That all included a large dinner party or a great banquet, a feast that others might meet his Lord. 

A Feast is a joyous celebration.  It was the best response by a man of wealth to the calling he had received.  It was this feast and the feasting that went on that confused some of the disciples of John and the Pharisees.  Since Jesus had an openness about himself and how he dealt with those who came to him in droves, he entertained their many questions.

1. The Direct Question

Luke 5:33 ¶ Then they (Mark tells us it was the disciples of John and of the Pharisees) said to Him,  “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”

One of these groups of inquirers would be suspect in our minds while the other would get the automatic benefit of the doubt.  The Pharisees would be automatically condemned; the disciples of John would be excused.  There is no assumed animosity in the question.  Perhaps, these two groups could not reconcile the claims of the one claiming to be the Messiah and the presence of the luxurious feast. 

They express this concern in the question: “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”

They asked a question contrasting what they saw Jesus and his disciples doing with the known habits of the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees.  Apparently, they saw Jesus’s disciples as those who neglected the set patterns of prayers in Judaism. And that they would rather feast than fast.

We know feasting when we see it, but fasting is another matter. 

A quick overview of Fasting:

What is in view in the question is not individual times of fasting as an act of special individual service unto God. It is not the willful and personal occasional abstinence from food in order to focus energy on some spiritual good, like divine guidance.  What is behind the question is the set times of fasting that became a part of the essence of Judaism.  Fasting was a part of the conservative, pharisaical religion.  What is interesting here is that the pretentious Jews (the Pharisees) of the day are joined to the devout Jews (the Followers of John who were calling the nation back to covenantal fidelity). 

Fasting: The sole fast required by the law of Moses was that of the great Day of Atonement (q.v.), Lev. 23:26-32. It is called “the fast” (Acts 27:9).

The only other mention of a periodical fast in the Old Testament is in Zech. 7:1-7; 8:19, from which it appears that during their captivity the Jews observed four annual fasts.

(1.) The fast of the fourth month, kept on the seventeenth day of Tammuz, the anniversary of the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans; to commemorate also the incident recorded Ex. 32:19. (Comp. Jer. 52:6, 7.)

(2.) The fast of the fifth month, kept on the ninth of Ab (comp. Num. 14:27), to commemorate the burning of the city and temple (Jer. 52:12, 13).

(3.) The fast of the seventh month, kept on the third of Tisri (comp. 2 Kings 25), the anniversary of the murder of Gedaliah (Jer. 41:1, 2).

(4.) The fast of the tenth month (comp. Jer. 52:4; Ezek. 33:21; 2 Kings 25:1), to commemorate the beginning of the siege of the holy city by Nebuchadnezzar.

There was in addition to these the fast appointed by Esther (Esth. 4:16).

Public national fasts were also part of life in Israel. These were mandated on account of sin or to call out for divine favour.  These were occasional feasts.

(1.) 1 Sam. 7:6; (2.) 2 Chr. 20:3; (3.) Jer. 36:6-10; (4.) Neh. 9:1.

There were also local fasts.

(1.) Judg. 20:26; (2.) 2 Sam. 1:12; (3.) 1 Sam. 31:13; (4.) 1 Kings 21:9-12; (5.) Ezra 8:21-23: (6.) Jonah 3:5-9.

There are many instances of private occasional fasting (1 Sam. 1:7; 20:34; 2 Sam. 3:35; 12:16; 1 Kings 21:27; Ezra 10:6; Neh. 1:4; Dan. 10:2, 3). Moses fasted forty days (Ex. 24:18; 34:28), and so also did Elijah (1 Kings 19:8).

In the time of Jesus, there may have been as many as 15 feasts that were a part of life in Israel.  One’s faithfulness to the Nation and to God was often discerned by one’s practice of the fasts, as well as their presence at the feasts.

Jesus was not against fasting.  In preparation for the work he would take up, our Lord fasted forty days in the wilderness (Matt. 4:2).  In a very real, but quiet and humble way, Jesus had fasted more than the others as he prepared for the labors before him.

In the lapse of time the true practice of fasting was lamentably abused (Isa. 58:4; Jer. 14:12; Zech. 7:5). Our Lord rebuked the Pharisees for their hypocritical pretenses in fasting (Matt. 6:16). He himself appointed no fast. The early Christians, however, observed the ordinary fasts according to the law of their fathers (Acts 13:3; 14:23; 2 Cor. 6:5).

Fasting is ever in danger of turning into an external work to compare ourselves with others or to make ourselves think we are special.  There are times to fast, to mourn for our sin and to seek special guidance in specific matters.  But, as we will see there are also times to feast.

2. The Answer in a Metaphor

Luke 5:34 And He said to them,  “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35  “But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”

One of the times when feasts were expected were at weddings.  People would not argue about a feast held due to a wedding. We saw this in John 2 when Jesus was there with his mother and disciples.  It was the appropriate start of his public ministry.  He is the bridegroom, come to make the way for his bride.  When the bridegroom is present among his friends, it is a time to make merry with feasting.  When he is gone, it will be time to mourn and fast. 

Matthew’s banquet was an appropriate response to the grace he had received.  He was a man of means with many contacts in Israel. He threw a feast to rejoice in his good fortune of being called as a disciple of the Lord Jesus.  Feasting was the right thing to do at that moment in time.  It was time to enjoy the presence of the bridegroom among the people. Jesus is the bridegroom searching for his bride.  As he does, feasting is to be a part of all he represents.

In the future, it will be ours to feast forever at the final marriage supper with him in heaven.  The reception Jesus is holding for his bride is a long and beautifully elaborate time of feasting that never ends.  Although, when he is taken away it is time to fast.  And, he is taken away from us in at least one sense at the present.  We enjoy his presence spiritually, but not physically.  To follow up this instruction Jesus spoke

3. The First Parable--an illustration

Luke 5:36 Then He spoke a parable to them:  “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. 37  “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.

Jesus used two folksy illustration to make an important point.  Jesus is telling them that there is a right way and a wrong way to do a thing.  Doing a thing the wrong way can cause greater damage even ruin.

Jesus used the illustrations as a parable to throw light on what he had taught in the previous verses. 

Apparently, they were to see that there was something new about what he was doing and in someway it was contrasted with what was old.

Implicitly, Jesus is telling them that Judaism in its present manifestation was irreformable.  He did not come to change the structures of Judaism, he came to do something new.  His ministry as the bridegroom searching for a bride was not to sew new cloth onto an old garment, nor was it to pour new wine into old wineskins, he was doing something radically different that what they expected.  They expected mourning and fasting, Jesus brought a ministry of joy and feasting for those who would follow him.  He did not come to repair rabbinical Judaism, he came to replace it. He came to replace it with the fulfillment of the Jewish Scriptures.  He did not do away with the right understanding of the OLD, he completed it by fulfilling all that was spoken of him in the Scriptures and by fufilliing the demands of the Law for the People. But, also, He did not come to take the mantle from John the Baptist, he came to replace him as the one to whom John pointed. Jesus needed to Increase still as John needed to decrease.  Jesus did not necessarily come to do away with the Judaism of his day.  He did not come to change it.  He came to bring the eternal plan of a realized salvation to God’s covenant people--a people who wanted him for what they could get, who would not follow him on his terms.  Jesus did not meet the expectations of the Jews, that is why he was continually in conflict with them. He understood them, they never understood him.

People still don't understand Jesus as Jesus should be understood.  People want to fit Jesus into their framework and thinking rather than fitting their thinking to what Jesus revealed.  Ultimately the one is discipleship, the other idolatry.

Sustaining the second part of the parable, Jesus continues the picture by giving a brief

4. A Summary

38  “But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.

The new wine of the Kingdom of Christ must be put into the right wineskins.  Damage will be done if it is placed in another receptacle.  The work of Christ is the new wine of feasting in his kingdom, then and in the future.  This new wine must be put into the right containers--there is a right way of doing things and a wrong way.  Be careful to treat the new wine as it ought to be treated.  It will expand greatly, it needs a container flexible enough to handle its expansion.  The Judaism of that day was characterized by an inflexible adherence to the refined rules and traditions of men--Sadducees and Pharisees.  Something new was needed.  The ways of Judaism were not enough to contain the greatness of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  His work must be preserved, what are these new wineskins?

If we look at the rest of the New Testament, we find that they were not the Temple, nor the synagogues of Judaism, but the Churches of our Lord Jesus Christ.  They were new and able to contain the great and ever-expanding work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are one of those new wineskins into which the new wine has been poured.  We are part of this grand enterprise mentioned in seed-form in this first parable. We are among the mew thing Jesus was to do.

We owe a great debt to Judaism in preserving the Scriptures. We must not follow the old ways even if at times the rules and traditions of men seem to have more common sense appeal.  Jesus sympathizes with the inability of the Pharisees and the disciples of John to understand what he is saying.  He gives to them ........

5. A Conclusion

Luke 5:39  “And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says,  ‘The old is better.’ ”

Those accustomed to drinking the Old Wine of the Old Wineskins, will be comfortable with its bouquet, its taste and its texture and find it hard to give up what they have known.  They will not see the need to take and taste the New Wine. They will believe the old is better. In this case, the old ways of rabbinical Judaism and the rigors of John’s discipleship.  Jesus knows it is hard for those who have tasted and become accustomed to one thing to give it up for another.  That is why he came.  To teach men of a new way opened up for many by his work and his blood. 

People think the Old ways are better. But, that is because they refuse to taste what is new.  People have biases based on their traditions.  When they should have convictions based on what God has revealed.  God has revealed himself powerfully in his Son.  At any cost, we should follow the new thing he began many years ago.  In one sense the right understanding of the Gospel is as Old as the work of redemption spoken of in Genesis 3 itself; but in another sense it is ever new to those who by faith embrace the Lord Jesus Christ, the giver of new wine poured into his new wineskins.  The one who makes men new, rather than sewing a patch upon them to fix only a part.  It is this Jesus that all men are commanded to turn to and trust for their soul’s salvation. 

The old ways of traditionalism cannot save.  It is not by following the rules of men no matter how well you may have been taught them.  It is a fresh trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, the bridegroom, as he seeks out his bride to love her forever.  This is what it is all about.

Consider this:  For a Pharisee to have received grace would have been a remarkable thing.  That Nicodemus returned to take care of thebody of our Lord is amazing, but even more, that the Pharisee Saul would become as new wine poured into the new winskine is even more remarkable.  The Apostle Paul knew what he rightly deserved, but what he blessedly didn’t.  Paul was not converted to restore, nor reform Judaism.  He was to become the instrument used in establishing many churches.  It was and remains all of grace, undeserved and free, according to the good purposes of God.