Old Whiners Or New Wineskins? Series

The Old Testament commanded Jews to fast only one day a year—Yom Kippur—the Day of Atonement. But the Pharisees had taken a wonderful act of spiritual discipline and had changed it into a badge of super-self-righteousness. In answering their criticism, Jesus compared Himself to a bridegroom.

I’ve been to some great weddings and wedding receptions in my 40 years of ministry. But from my study of Jewish weddings, the most elaborate American weddings seem dull compared to a Jewish wedding. The wedding feast is the climax of a year of betrothal. That time of expectation and planning was much more involved than our engagement period. Following the actual ceremony, there was a full week of eating, dancing, singing and celebrating that took place. In America, after the wedding, couples leave immediately for their honeymoon. But in Jewish weddings, the couple stayed and were treated like a king and queen—they were even given garland crowns to wear during the week-long celebration. It was the best week of their lives and the friends of the bridegroom did some serious partying—it wasn’t a time for fasting! It was time to feast!

Jesus identified Himself as the Bridegroom. His Bride is the church. At this point the Bride hadn’t yet been revealed, but she was waiting patiently for her time to make an appearance. Jesus said that while the party is going on, that’s not the time to fast, it’s time to feast. But the Bridegroom was going to leave, and then the disciples will fast.

Personal Application: Life is about a joyous relationship with Jesus; not religious rituals!

There is an important point we need to learn: The Christian life is more like a wedding celebration than a funeral procession. The real issue the Pharisees were addressing was, “It’s not fair for you guys to enjoy life when we have to endure religion! If you were really holy, you would be miserable like us!”

The Pharisees were griping while Jesus’ disciples were grinning. The Pharisees were somber, while Jesus’ disciples were singing. The Pharisees were languishing while Jesus’ disciples were laughing. The Pharisees were criticizing while Jesus’ boys were celebrating. The Pharisees were jealous; Jesus’ group was jubilant. Which group are you?

Jesus promises, “to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” (Isaiah 61:3)

Before you came to church today, you had to make a choice about what clothes you would wear. In the same way, you have a spiritual decision to make daily. You can wear a garment of praise or you can carry around a blanket of despair. Joy and praise are gifts from God.

My mentor, Ray Stedman, wrote this about this passage: “Jesus is commenting here upon the joy that should characterize our lives when we discover the reality of a relationship with Jesus Christ. Church services, for far too many centuries, have been borrowed from an Old Testament concept of worship, and have presented a scene of solemnity and silence and ritual. Today, many people have the idea that a church service ought to be a time of silence, when everyone sits in supposed awestricken solemnity before God. But this is not the picture Jesus came to give. ‘No,’ he says, ‘instead of the fast, it is a feast; instead of the sackcloth, there is a robe; and instead of solemnity, there ought to be joy.’ One reason why so much of the church today is written off by people who have come to see what Christians are like is that they are turned off by the morbidity and dullness of what we call worship.”