Jesus, the Bridegroom (Matthew 9:14-17)

Introduction

When it comes to weddings, can we all agree that at least in our culture, the center of attention is the bride. It is the bride all decked out in white. When she enters, all attention turns to her. In fact, I know on my own wedding day, as my own bride came out, I was so eager to set my eyes on her. So eager I almost was driven to shove someone out of the way who was blocking my eyesight of her. That’s right, someone was blocking my view of my bride, my own father was in the narrow aisle there in the living room on Stormy Lake where we got married. And I was blocked from seeing my own bride for a moment. And it drove me crazy.

However, outside of my own wedding, I am one of the few exceptions who does not turn and look at the bride when she enters in. I do not typically look at the bride, but turn my head to the groom and his face. And though it breaks wedding etiquette, it is a priceless picture to see the groom’s face light up as he sees his own bride.

Beloved, that same look of delight is how our bridegroom Jesus looks at us, a look of delight as he rejoices over us. And that is what I want to talk with us about this morning as we continue our sermon series through the Gospel According to Matthew. We will be in Matthew 9:14-17 this morning, which I invite you to turn there now in your Bibles. Feel free to use the table of contents to find Matthew 9:14-17 if you need. Or if you do not have a Bible, please take that Red Bible in your seats and you can find Matthew 9:14-17 on page #967.

While you are turning there, let me help make sure we are all caught up to speed in how Matthew has been laboring to communicate who Jesus is and what he has come to do. Matthew from the start of his gospel communicated to us that Jesus is the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, that is he is the one to bring fulfillment to God’s promises to both, to be a blessing to the nations and to be the one to sit on the throne forever.

Matthew has also been teaching us that Jesus is one with great authority, and that he ultimately has the authority to forgive sins as he is the one who has come to save his people from their sins. But the long anticipated question comes, how will he save his people from their sins and who are his people? Answers that the Old Testament hints towards of those whom God calls as his own bride. An answer we begin to see clarified and fulfilled in our passage. Therefore, let us then hear the word of the LORD from Matthew 9:14-17 this morning.

Main Idea: The bridegroom has come in Jesus to betroth his bride to him in a new and better righteousness. Therefore let us celebrate with joy. We are going to unfold this in 2 parts. Part 1, The Bridegroom (v.14-15). And part 2, The New Covenant (v.16-17).

1. The Bridegroom Rejoices

Opposition to Jesus is starting to pile up. First the scribes questioned Jesus silently among themselves about Jesus declaring the forgiveness of sins. Then, the Pharisees questioned Jesus’ willingness to eat with tax collectors and sinners. Essentially they were insinuating that Jesus was unclean in his proximity to them. And now a third group arises to oppose Jesus. Verse 14.

John here being that of John the Baptist who we were introduced to back in Matthew 3, the frontrunner to Jesus. He came preparing the way and making the path straight, calling people to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and then baptizing them in the Jordan River as a visible sign of cleansing from their sin in their repentance. But, with John now having been arrested (Matthew 4:12), his disciples cannot go to their teacher about a question they have regarding a difference they notice in them and the disciples of Jesus.

By the way, if you are unfamiliar with this term disciple, it simply means a student, a follower of one’s teachings. In general when we use the word disciple here at Land O’ Lakes Bible Church, we are talking about students of Jesus, those who have professed faith in Jesus and are following his teachings. But, as is the case here, disciple can be a student of various teachers, such as even that of John the Baptist.

And these disciples, having learned from their teacher, John, they are aware that he was a man who fully embodied this life of repentance, even in how he dressed and ate. For remember back to Matthew 3:4 “4 Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.”

And so, these disciples followed in a similar manner and would fast and fast often, even comparing themselves to the practice of the Pharisees here. For the Pharisees were known to fast twice a week, presumably every Monday and Thursday. Fasting being that of the abstaining from food for a set period of time for religious purposes. Fasting sometimes would involve the abstinence of food and water, but that was rare, abstaining from food and not water is the norm throughout the Bible. This means, what our culture likes to deem as fasting is rarely fasting. Fasting according to the Bible is that of abstaining from food or food and water for set periods of time.

More, could be said here on fasting, but while fasting is the question, it is not the main point here. For the disciples come asking this question on fasting not for fasting sake, but because they know who their teacher was in John the Baptist, and they think with he and Jesus both preaching the same message, “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”, that they both will take up similar disciplines. One commentator puts it like this, “John’s followers expected Jesus to embody in his body this same repentance.” [1]

And it is this root of the question, why is Jesus and his disciples not fasting like us as we pursue the kingdom of heaven? For instead of fasting, Jesus is feasting! And there is a reason for this. Verse 15.

Jesus here talks about a bridegroom and wedding guests. Make no mistake, he is referring to himself as this bridegroom, but more on that in a moment.

First, lets just consider the practical reality of this. Jesus is telling the disciples of John that during a wedding ceremony, one doesn’t fast, in fact it would be inappropriate to do so. For how could one consider it appropriate in the midst of wedding festivities and celebration of this wedding to abstain from food while celebrating?

Just imagine one going into a wedding feast and fasting and not celebrating the couple by the taking in of cake with them or taking part in the feast they have provided? It’s simply not appropriate for the celebrations, especially wedding celebrations in a culture that could last up to a week, as is the case here in Israel in the days of Jesus. It’s simply not the time and place to fast.

1.1. Jesus is the Bridegroom

But what does a wedding celebration and bridegroom have to do with Jesus and his disciples? Well, because Jesus is insinuating he is indeed the bridegroom. Not just any bridegroom, he is the bridegroom that has come in fulfillment to God’s promise.

Earlier in our service, our brother Guy read from Isaiah 62:1-5 as we prepared to pray during our time of congregational prayer. And from that reading from Isaiah 62:1-5, we saw that God tells his people that “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 here comparing himself to a bridegroom who will come and be a husband to his chosen people, and not only a husband, but a husband who rejoices over her makes her a crown of beauty, that is he adorns her.

This is the promise of God back in the Old Testament, a promise to his people in the midst of judgment of coming salvation. A salvation that Jesus is now declaring himself to be the one bringing about. That he is the bridegroom who has come to be given in marriage to his bride, a bride in whom he will rejoice over and adorn. A bride who will be his delight. Again, we saw all of this promise back in Isaiah 62:1-5 of what is promised in this coming of a bridegroom. The very bridegroom that Jesus is declaring himself to be.

But not only is Jesus declaring this, in stating himself to be the bridegroom, he is pointing to John’s echo of this very thought and teaching.

John 3:27–30 ESV

27 John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ 29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John the Baptist understood and affirmed Jesus to be the bridegroom, the one having the bride. Therefore this concept would not be something completely new to John’s disciples.

1.2 The Bridegroom Adorns

But for us, we must grasp this reality further of this bridegroom and his coming to adorn his bride. In Jesus’ coming he is celebrating the coming about of his union to his people, the people he will save from their sins.

But as we already considered, they are people who he will make a crown of beauty and a royal diadem. But they are not so apart from their union with Christ. We learn this from another Old Testament allusion to the coming bridegroom and his marriage to God’s people. This time we turn our attention to the book of Hosea.

For in the book of Hosea, Hosea is instructed to take himself a wife of whoredom, that is an unfaithful wife. And this wife of whoredom is to be a representation of what Israel was to her beloved, the LORD, our God. For Israel was unfaithful to God despite his delivering them from Egypt, his giving them a land of milk and honey. They continued to reject God and go after the false gods of the Baals.

However, despite their unfaithfulness, God makes a promise to Israel that a day will come in which they will call him, “My Husband” That he will betroth them to himself forever in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. He tells them they will know the LORD. All of this can be found in Hosea 1-2 and I would encourage you to write this passage down and read later on this week as you reflect on what it is that Jesus has come to do. For Jesus has come to make lovely that which was unlovely.

Friends, do we realize that that which is unlovely is not just Hosea’s wife or Israel? Do we realize that each and everyone of us, throughout the ages is truly that which is unlovely? We are unlovely because we have wallowed in the mud and the muck of sin as a pig rolls in the mud of his pig stye. We are covered with all kinds of sin. The sin of envy, jealousy, strife, anger, quarrels. We are covered in the sin of coveting, gluttony, lies, and deceit. We are covered in the sin of lust and adultery. We are covered in the sin of hatred and murder. From the sin that is often downplayed to that thought most grievous, all of it makes us just as unlovely. This is what we are born into! We are born into sin. And if left to ourselves, we will also die in our sin.

And yet, this unlovely bride is the bride that Jesus has come to call to himself in order to adorn and rejoice over. While in any other wedding, we would turn and look at the Bride and think how lovely she looks dressed in white with little thought given to the bridegroom. This wedding is different! The bridegroom is center, for it is he who cleanses and adorns his bride to make her beautiful and lovely.

This is the anticipation that is currently being celebrated, for this is the end of Jesus’ mission, to take his bride unto himself and make her one with him in righteousness, to make her lovely, and to cherish her.

Church, Christian, this is what Jesus has done for all who have come to him by faith! Apart from our bridegroom we are not lovely and nothing of which to boast! Our worth is not in and of ourselves, it is in what we have become in our union with Jesus who has adorned us!

1.3 The Appointed Time for Mourning

Because of all of this, there indeed is much cause for celebration while this bridegroom is with his guests. However, the celebration would not last forever. The rejoicing continues, but the time is coming when mourning will take place. Look there with me to the second half of verse 15, what I am calling 15b. “15b The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

Jesus here alludes to his coming death on the cross, when he will be taken away from his guests, from his disciples. As opposition mounts, Jesus looks towards his coming sacrifice in which his own blood would be shed to cover the sins of his people, his bride. A sacrifice which we know was acceptable to God in the fact that Jesus rose 3 days after his death and has now ascended into heaven to be seated next to the Father.

Yet, in his death, mourning would come. Mourning that the King has been slaughtered like a lamb. Mourning will come in the great cost of sin, that it cost the only begotten son of God to be slaughtered in order to rescue us. And Jesus knows this will bring mourning and fasting to his people.

We as Christians continue with this today. We fast as we long for the return of our King. For as we grasp that we live between the first and second coming of Jesus, we have recognized how he has come and is already overturning the curse of sin and death as he calls those dead in sin to life in him. As he powerfully works within his people to transform us from what we were to being made new in him, we see this power. Yet, we mourn, we grieve because sin and death are not yet fully overturned, that the reign of Christ has not yet been brought to completion. We long for its coming and the complete rule of Christ to be realized by all. We mourn and fast as we grieve at the sin still at work in us. All of this will bring many in Christ to fast and pray. Fasting is not commanded, but it is presumed to be a part of the lives of those who make up the bride of Christ as they mourn his departure and long for his return.

Therefore, we as Christians would do well to have occasions to fast, fast a meal, fast a day, fast at most 3 days. Fasting to pursue God, but always fasting wisely, for some this means checking with a doctor of what you can handle.

But again, this is in response to our love of Jesus and longing for his return. It is not an act of appeasing God like that of the old ways of religion. A new way has come.

2. The New Covenant

The disciples of John come to Jesus, expecting his disciples to fast just like them in seeking to repent and fix the old religious system of the old covenant. They desire a kingdom of heaven on earth in the here and now. But there is a flaw in this logic that the old system could be fixed. A system perverted by sinful people. A system that was and always had missed the point of God’s promises and commandments.

Therefore to show that Jesus had not come to fix the old, but bring about the new, he uses two parables, that is two stories to paint how the new does not fit into the old.

2.1. The Patch

First, the illustration of a new patch. Verse 16. Jesus turns to the illustration of torn clothing and the need to fix it. It says no one here puts a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old garment. Literally, no one, no one is crazy enough to try and put this new unshrunk cloth on an old garment. For the moment one tries to do this will prove a complete waste. For once soiled and wet, that new unshrunken garment will shrink and because it is newer and stronger, it will then stretch and pull and tear the old garment and make an even worse tear in the garment. The new unshrunken cloth and the old garment do not go together.

That is the first picture Jesus paints for us, but the second is similar.

2.2. The Wine

Verse 17. New wine is that which is still in the process of being fermented. Therefore, it needs put into something that will expand as it ferments, as it foams and grows without oxygen. This cannot happen in an old wineskin. That old wineskin has already been stretched and cannot stretch anymore. And therefore that old wineskin is useless for new wine. For it will burst, breaking not only the wineskin, but spilling the new wine. Therefore to put new wine in an old wineskin is truly useless.

Therefore, when new wine is being prepared, it is not put into old wineskins that will burst, but new wineskins that will stretch as the new wine ferments, allowing both to expand and both to be preserved.

2.3. The New Covenant

And so it is with Jesus’ coming to call a bride to himself in the new covenant. Jesus has not come to fix the old religion, he has not come to preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand to simply restore the old traditions of Israel, to set them free from Roman rule. No, Jesus has come to bring about a new covenant which will bring about a new heart to his people, his bride. A covenant that will not repair the old, but replace it.

That is, while Jesus comes to fulfill all the law and the prophets, he comes not to fix the Jewish system, the old covenant. He comes to fulfill God’s promise of a new covenant that does not work from the outside in, but the inside out.

A covenant that brings a new heart to those who are the bridegrooms people, his bride. For under the old covenant, the people respond to God in attempts to be more pleasing to God. But in the new covenant, God’s people are to respond out of overflowing of God’s love to us in Jesus, our beloved Bridegroom. The one who has taken on our filth on the cross and has made us lovely in appearance!

Therefore, when we serve, when we carry out the commands of Jesus, it is not to earn his favor, but we do them as an act of love in that he has already loved us. Friends, this is the gospel, the good news of Jesus. And this is why the new doesn’t fit and fix the new. It is far far better. Yet, if the two were paired, both would be destroyed.

But what about us gathered here this morning? Do we live under the new covenant with new hearts that are responding to God out of the overflow of God’s love shown to us in Jesus? Or are we trying to fit Jesus into the old system and trying to still earn God’s favor by our actions?

If you are one here this morning who has truly trusted in Jesus for your salvation, beloved, take heart that because you have come to Jesus by faith and faith alone, you are united to him. And in that being united to him, you could not be more loved and delighted in than you already are! And because of that, the bridegroom, Jesus, will continue to adorn you. He will adorn you in the giving more and more of himself to you to transform you and make you like him in that messy process of sanctification, the becoming more like Christ! Let us rest in this, brothers and sisters in Christ! And let your religious then be not out of duty but the overflow of God's love that has been lavished upon you!

But friend, you have yet to believe. The love of Christ has already been poured out for you on the cross. That gift of love is being presented here now to you. But you must come and embrace that love through belief. Belief that Jesus died to take away the sins of the world, including your own. That he will cleanse you and adorn you despite the filth of your own sin. The wedding invitation is being given, but will you come and join in? Will you put on the garments of the wedding ceremony, the garment of faith?

Conclusion

As we close, let us consider these words from final verse of the hymn, The Sands of Time are Sinking,

The bride eyes not her garments but her dear Bride-groom’s face;

I will not gaze at glory but on my King of grace:

Not at the crown He giveth, but on His pierced hand;

The Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel’s land.

Friends, let us look to the face of Jesus and see the outpouring of God’s love for us in him. And how he has come to adorn us in our marriage union to him, a union that only requires us to believe in the Lamb and King of glory.

Let’s pray.

Endnotes:

[1] Douglas Sean O’Donnell. Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth; Preaching the Word Series. (Crossway, Wheaton, IL, 2013). 250.