What fits Jesus?

This morning we are starting a new series titled Criticizing Jesus: The Words of Jesus. In this five-week series we will look at the criticisms Jesus faced during his ministry. What does each criticism reveal about Jesus’s character, priorities, authority, and mission?

If you look at the Gospels you can find a number of time that Jesus faced criticism from the Pharisees, from scribes, from Herodians, from Romans, even from members of his own family.

While some of the criticism where harsh and mean. Jesus keep preaching and teaching about the kingdom and obedience to God.

Each time Jesus face this criticism it show us a unique prespective for is life and ministry. First, we see how other viewed him. They were either afraid of his teaching or were angry about what he was teaching.

Second, we are given an opportunity to learn more about Jesus, both from what they were criticizing and how he responded to the criticism.

So if you have our bible go head and turn to Matthew 9:14-17. If you do not have your bible the verse will be on the screen in a few minutes.

Before we look at this passage I have a question for you. So think for a moment.

Have you face criticism in your life?

how did your react? Were you angry? Were you hurt? Did you want to get even with the person?

Sometime we do not take criticism while because we think we know better. We have a certain way we want thing done and no one can tell us differently. Then other time we take the criticism and think on it and try to be better at the task at hand.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus faces criticism from the disciples of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was known for a strict, ascetic lifestyle (Matthew 3:4), so his disciples were also most likely strict in their self-discipline.

Matthew 9:14–17 CSB

14 Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth, because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse. 17 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. No, they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Why do your disciples not fast?

John disciples thought that Jesus and his disciples were lazy and had no self-control.

You see its worth pointing out the John disciples, in this moment alined more with the Pharisees than with the followers of Jesus. They did not like the fact that Jesus disciples were not fasting but they had too.

You see fasting was a very important part of Judaism. Jewish people fast each year on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:27).

During the time of Jesus, it was common practice for observant Jews to fast two days a week: Mondays and Thursdays. The fast would go from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., after which one was allowed to eat food (William Barclay, The Gospel of Mark, The Daily Study Bible [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1975], 58–59). But it appears that on the commonly expected days of religious observant fasting, Jesus and his disciples did not fast.

Fasting to them was more about the show and what the true meaning was. It as part of the culture of the day. Everyone did it. The idea of fast was to draw you closer to God. Not to show hey look at me I’m fasting.

Jesus responds is fantastic. He told them three point to help drive home why his disciples were not fasting. Jesus did not get angry. He did not deny that they were right. His disciples were not fasting.

Matthew 9:15 CSB

15 Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

The wedding guests

In Jewish culture at the time, the wedding was the celebration of a lifetime. The couple would not leave after the ceremony for a honeymoon, but rather, there would be a weeklong festival at their home.

Jesus is the groom. While he was here he was a time of celebration of a lifetime. Just like we a couple gets married and everyone pauses their routine for a couple of hours. People want to celebrate while Jesus is near.

Have you ever envisioned Jesus as the life of the party? Or following Jesus as a life of one of continual joy, akin to a weeklong festival?

Only instead of a week, it is a lifetime of joy. That’s what Jesus offers to those who follow him, and it isn’t obliquely offered. It isn’t hidden under a table for no one to see—it’s right there. The disciples of John and the Pharisees saw it and were confused. And Jesus didn’t hide it in his response; he highlighted it. (It’s important to note, of course, that fasting and mourning and longing for Jesus’s return became a part of his followers’ practice again after his ascension, as Jesus predicted in verse 15.)

The second point

The new patch

Have you ever try to sew a garment? My Grandmother used to sew a lot but it was always done with new fabric. New Fabric will always shrink a little. if your try want Jesus was talking about here. You will tear up your clothes.

Jesus used this point because he came to change things up. He was saying rather then keep doing the same old traditional practices. Let’s do it my way. Jesus was offer real growth and understand of God’s kingdom.

Jesus could have stop right there. That would have been enough to say why the his disciple were not fasting but he give one last point.

The new wineskin

Jesus is say that when we follow him its like a new wine. Most of todays wine come in glass bottles or a box if your into that type. These bottles and pressurize the wine for many years.

But in Jesus time the grape juice as add it where leather bags called wineskins. When they put it in the wineskin, it was still young wine with active yeast and ongoing fermentation, which means gas was being created and expansion was occurring. Must like when you cook with yeast and the your dough raise.

If they were to put this new wine into a rigid leather skin. It would break the bag because of all the force of the gas. The new wineskin are pliable and can expanded with the gases.

Jesus is making an appeal: “What you are seeing is new wine, so have the flexibility to accept these followers of mine and their unorthodox practices.”

In our day and age, when habits so quickly become traditions, and traditions become pillars of faith, it’s worth asking:

Which part of this story do we find ourselves identifying with the most?

Following Jesus is such a new lifestyle that the old models don’t

fit—and this is cause for celebration.

Life with Christ is a life of joy.