February
14th Jesus
teaches – Fasting
18:
And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast: and they
come and say unto him, Why do the disciples of John and of the
Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not? 19: And Jesus said unto
them, Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom
is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they
cannot fast. 20: But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be
taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. 21: No
man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new
piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is
made worse. 22: And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else
the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the
bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.
Jesus
teaches – Sabbath day
23:
And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the
sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears
of corn. 24: And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on
the sabbath day that which is not lawful? 25: And he said unto them,
Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an
hungred, he, and they that were with him? 26: How he went into the
house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the
shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave
also to them which were with him? 27: And he said unto them, The
sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: 28: Therefore
the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
In
Israel fasting was a common practise in which the worshipper would
deprive the body for the purpose of humbling oneself before the Lord.
Both John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast
often. The Pharisees fasted once every week. But those who were very
serious in the religious observance fasted twice. Both groups noticed
that Christ’s disciples did not practise fasting. So they come to
ask why this is so. Christ explains that at a marriage feast nobody
fasts when they sit down to celebrate the marriage but when the
Bridegroom leaves then they become sad and go off eating. Then
Christ goes on to contrast the religion of the disciples with the
religion of the old covenant. He says his teaching is not a patch
sewn on to Judaism to cover its embarrassing holes! He says the old
priest takes his coat to put it on but finds there is a hold due to
its age. So he takes a piece of unshrunk cloth to cover the hole.
However in the first shower of rain the new cloth shrinks and pulls
the old cloth causing a huge hole. Now Christ says nobody would do
this. It’s crazy. This plan ruins the old garment rather than
mending it. And he also says nobody takes an old wrinkly wine skin
that is empty and brittle and fills it with new wine. Because the new
wine will carry on fermenting and will burst the old wine skin and
render it useless. And the wine will be lost too. Nobody would do
this its crazy! Christ says simply new wine needs to be put into new
skins. And then both the skin and the wine will be saved. Christ will
not put his disciples under John’s or the Pharisees teaching. Their
religion is of a different order altogether. Later the disciples went
through the corn fields and as was the custom they being poor were
allowed to take corn from the corners of the field to eat breakfast.
(It broke their fast) The Pharisees had added lots of extra rules to
the simple observance of the Sabbath law. For example they said a man
must not walk on the grass unless his coat happens to disturb a
single stalk of wheat, growing out of place. They reasoned that this
might knock some ripe grains out of the stalk and thus they would be
reaping on the Sabbath day. And of course they might step on a grain
and in this way be milling it. And a bird might see the grain and eat
it and so they would be guilty of storing on the Sabbath day. These
rules went on and on. The Pharisees had made up to 1500 extra rules
for this single commandment. Christ took no notice of their petty
legalism and allowed the disciples who were poor to eat on the
Sabbath day. Christ cites David who took of the Shewbread which was
reserved for the priests because his men were hungry. Then Christ
encapsulates his teaching on the Sabbath observance he says that the
Law was made to benefit man but not man for the Sabbath. This
contradicted the Pharisees who said that man was created to obey this
law.
- Why did Christ say that it was not required for the disciples and himself to fast?
- How did Christ explain the difference between the religion of the religious leaders and his teachings?
- Was it lawful for the disciples to take grain from the stalk on the Sabbath day?
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