Scripture
If you know anything about the life of Jesus, you know that he faced growing opposition throughout his ministry. He encountered increasing criticism during his three-year ministry to the point where his opponents eventually killed him.
Luke revealed in his Gospel the growing criticism of Jesus.
Last time we examined the conversion of Levi. Levi, who became known as Matthew, was a hated tax collector. However, when Jesus called Levi to follow him, Levi was so delighted that he threw a great party for Jesus. But the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at Jesus and his disciples, and criticized them for eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners.
After Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and their scribes, Luke indicated that they then asked Jesus a question about fasting. Jesus gave a marvelous answer about the inappropriateness of wedding guests fasting while the bridegroom was with them.
Let’s read about Jesus as the bridegroom in Luke 5:33-39:
33 And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” 36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’ ” (Luke 5:33-39)
Introduction
William Barclay, in his commentary on The Gospel of Luke, said that in Palestine during biblical times when two young people got married they did not go away for a honeymoon. In fact, they stayed at home, and kept an open house for a whole week where all the wedding guests enjoyed a party with them. The newlywed couple dressed in their best. Sometimes they even wore crowns; for that week they were king and queen, and their word was law. The daily routine of life was hard and they would never again have a week like that. And during this festive week the groomsmen were called “the sons of the bride chamber.”
If your Bible has subheadings in the biblical text, it probably says something about fasting before Luke 5:33. For example, the English Standard Version says, “A Question About Fasting,” the New International Version says, “Jesus Questioned About Fasting,” and so on. But in actual fact, the focus of this narrative is not really about fasting. It is about joy in the presence of the bridegroom.
In today’s lesson we learn that Jesus is the bridegroom.
Lesson
The analysis of Jesus as the bridegroom as set forth in Luke 5:33-39 shows us what Christianity is.
Let’s use the following outline:
1. The Question (5:33)
2. The Answer (5:34-35)
3. The Parable (5:36-39)
I. The Question (5:33)
First, look at the question.
Luke placed this encounter with Jesus immediately after the Pharisees and their scribes criticized Jesus and his disciples for eating and drinking at Levi’s party (Luke 5:29-32).
Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and their scribes. And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink” (5:33). Although this is a statement in Luke’s Gospel, it is put as a question in the parallel passages in Matthew (9:14) and Mark (2:18). But even though it is a statement in Luke’s Gospel, it is clear that a question is being asked.
I plan to teach on fasting next time. So, I am not going to go into a lot of detail now about fasting.
In his commentary on Luke’s Gospel, John MacArthur notes that “though the Pharisees fasted twice a week (Luke 18:12) on Monday and Thursday, there is only one fast mandated in the Old Testament. On the Day of Atonement, God commanded the people of Israel to humble or afflict their souls (Leviticus 16:29, 31), which is a reference to fasting (cf. The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, s.v. ‘Fasting’). The rabbinical writings forbade eating – even as much as a single date – or drinking on the Day of Atonement. On a day set aside for mourning over and repenting from sin, eating was deemed inappropriate. There are non-required fasts mentioned in the Old Testament (e.g., Judges 20:26; 1 Samuel 7:6; 31:13; 2 Samuel 1:12; 12:16; 1 Kings 21:27; 2 Chronicles 20:3; Ezra 8:21, 23; Nehemiah 1:4; 9:1; Esther 4:1-3; Psalm 69:10; Daniel 9:3; Joel 1:13-14; 2:12, 15), but they were spontaneous, associated with grief, mourning, and humbly seeking God.”
The disciples of the Pharisees, along with the disciples of John regularly fasted. However, they noted that instead of fasting, the disciples of Jesus feasted. “Why?” They wanted to know.
II. The Answer (5:34-35)
Second, let’s look at the answer.
And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days” (5:34-35).
Jesus was using an illustration from his own day to say that while the wedding is going on it would be entirely inappropriate to fast. A wedding, when the bride and groom are together, is a time for joy and celebration; it is not a time for mourning and sorrow, which is one of the reasons for fasting. When the bridegroom is taken away, that then would be a time for fasting. But there should be no fasting during the wedding celebration while the bridegroom was present.
In fact, the Greek for “wedding guests” is literally “the sons of the bride chamber.”
Jesus is basically saying, “I am the bridegroom. I am here with my bride, as well as the sons of the bride chamber, and now is a time for joy and celebration.”
Jesus also knows that he is going to die and that is why he said, “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days” (5:35).
Although Luke does not tell us the reaction of Jesus’ listeners, they must have been utterly astonished at Jesus’ statement. Jesus told them something about himself that was truly stunning, if they knew anything at all of their Scriptures.
By indicating that he was the bridegroom, Jesus was claiming to be God. Throughout the Old Testament God depicts himself as a bridegroom and his people as the bride. For example, we see this in the following passages:
• Isaiah 54:5-6: “For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God.”
• Isaiah 62:4-5: “You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”
God frequently says in the Old Testament, “I am the bridegroom. You are my bride” (cf. also Jeremiah 2:2; Ezekiel 16; Hosea 2:14-23).
Now, Jesus comes along and he says, “That’s me! I am the bridegroom!” Jesus is claiming to be God. And his listeners must have been blown away by what he was saying.
Jesus was saying to the people, “If you want to know who I am, then understand that I am the bridegroom. If you want to get an idea of what it means to be in a relationship with me, then understand that you are like wedding guests, or, literally, ‘sons of the bride chamber.’ ”
Jesus is really teaching us what Christianity is. Christianity is about a relationship with Jesus. It is relationship that is filled with joy and delight.
Christianity is unlike any other religion. Every other religion is filled with performance. But Christianity is about God coming to his people and taking them to be his bride. That is why there is so much joy and delight. Christians respond to the love of God that is expressed to us by Jesus, the bridegroom.
III. The Parable (5:36-39)
And third, notice the parable.
In verse 36, Luke said that Jesus also told them a parable.
According to one commentator, “in verses 36–39, we have the first of the twenty-three parables found in the Gospel of Luke.” In fact, “in terms of percentage, Luke highlights the theme of parables more than any other Gospel.”
Actually, the parable that Jesus told is a series of three parables.
A. A Parable About a Garment (5:36)
First, Jesus told a parable about a garment.
Jesus pointed out that no one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment (5:36a). To do so would be foolish for a couple of reasons. In the first place, tearing a piece of cloth from a new garment obviously would ruin that garment. Nor would the new patch work if sewn in the old garment, since the piece from the new will not match the faded color or the pattern of the old (5:36b). Even worse, after the patched garment is washed, “the patch [from the new, unshrunk garment] pulls away from the [old, patched] garment, and a worse tear results” (Matthew 9:16). The end result is two ruined garments.
Jesus’ point is that the gospel cannot be patched into Judaism (or any other system of salvation by work). His teaching was completely at odds with that of the Pharisees and their scribes.
They viewed themselves as righteous (Luke 16:15); Jesus preached the necessity of repentance (Luke 5:32; cf. Matthew 4:17).
They were proud of their supposedly exalted religious status (Luke 20:46-47); Jesus proclaimed the need for humility (Matthew 5:3).
They focused on external ceremony, ritual, and outward observance of the law; Jesus focused on the heart (Matthew 15:7-9; Luke 11:39-52).
They loved the approval of men; Jesus offered the approval of God (Matt. 23:5-7; John 12:43).
The old garment in Jesus’ parable is not the Old Testament. It is not God’s eternal law, which is holy, righteous, and good (Romans 7:12), and which Jesus came to fulfill, not to replace (Matthew 5:17-19). Rather, it is the ritualistic, legalistic religion based on rabbinic tradition, with its man-made regulations (Matthew 15:3-6) that obscured the Law of God. Jesus did not come to patch that system, but to replace it with the garment of salvation (Isa. 61:10) – the good news of salvation, which is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
No works-righteousness system can be patched into the gospel of God’s grace.
B. A Parable About Wineskins (5:37-38)
Second, Jesus told a parable about wineskins.
Jesus said that it would be just as foolish and futile to put new wine into old wineskins, because the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed (5:37). Wine was typically stored in containers made of animal skins. As the new, fresh wine fermented, gas would be released and the skins would expand. If anyone was foolish enough to put new wine into old, stretched-out wineskins, the new wine would burst the skins, the wine would be spilled out and lost, and the skins would be destroyed. New wine had to be stored in fresh wineskins (5:38), which were still supple enough to expand during the fermentation process.
Like the first parable, this one also highlights the futility and impossibility of mixing the gospel of grace with any system of works-righteousness. Grace is antithetical to and not compatible with any such system (Romans 11:6; Galatians 5:4).
C. A Parable About Wine (5:39)
And third, Jesus told a parable about wine.
Jesus describes the tragedy of those who reject the gospel of grace and cling to their false system of works-righteousness. Jesus likened such people to those who are content with the old wine they have been drinking, and have no desire to taste the new. No one, Jesus said, after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, “The old is good” (5:39).
False religion deadens the spiritual senses. After drinking for a while, the person drinking does not care about the taste of the wine. It is one of the chief ways that the “god of this world [blinds] the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Like drunkards clinging to their familiar drinks, people stubbornly cling to their comfortable religious traditions, and have little or no interest in the new, fresh saving truth of the gospel.
For those unwilling to leave their false religions and embrace the gospel, there is no hope of salvation (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). The church’s goal is not to make unbelievers comfortable in their false religious systems or to help them assimilate Jesus into those systems. The commission the Lord gave to the church is to “go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).
Conclusion
Therefore, having analyzed Jesus as the bridegroom as set forth in Luke 5:33-39, we should respond with joyful commitment to him.
The “runaway bride” case was the case of Jennifer Carol Wilbanks, who ran away from home on April 26, 2005, in order to avoid her wedding with John Mason, her fiancé, on April 30. Her disappearance from Duluth, GA, sparked a nationwide search and intensive media coverage, including some media speculation that Mason had killed her. On April 29, Wilbanks called Mason from Albuquerque, NM, and claimed that she had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a Hispanic male and a white woman.
All of this was a fabricated story. Wilbanks’s repeating of the false claims to investigating police officers resulted in a felony indictment against her of giving false information to the police, a charge that could have resulted in up to five years of imprisonment. On June 2, 2005, she pleaded no contest to this charge. As part of her plea bargain, she was sentenced to two years of probation and 120 hours of community service, and she was also ordered to pay $2,250 in restitution to the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department.
As a side note, on March 15, 2008, Wilbanks’s ex-fiancé, John Mason, married another woman, Shelley Martin, in a quiet ceremony at his parents’ home in Duluth, GA.
The truth is that Jesus is the bridegroom. He has demonstrated his love for his bride by giving his life for her. He delights in his bride and he loves her with an everlasting love.
As a pastor I occasionally officiate wedding ceremonies. I get the best view of the bride as she comes down the aisle. Every bride looks stunning as she comes down the aisle to meet her bridegroom in order to exchange wedding vows.
In the book of Revelation, the apostle John gives us a picture of the heavenly hosts crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready” (Revelation 19:6b-7).
Are you ready to meet Jesus, the bridegroom?
