We must be careful because the New Testament speaks of another tradition. In any case, the Pharisees were archconservatives, but they were jealous to conserve their own traditions. Elsewhere in Scripture, we learn that the Pharisees criticized John’s self-denial and at the same time accused Christ of being a winebibber (Luke 7:33–34). So, for John the Baptist and his disciples, fasting was a frequent experience.
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He was given to self-denial and asceticism to focus his mind critically on the things of God, and he taught his disciples to do the same thing. He spent time living in the wilderness on wild honey and locusts. When John the Baptist came, he came in the prophetic image. They were, as I say, archconservatives, but what they were zealous to conserve was not the law of God. Again, the Pharisees were at the forefront of those who taught that fatal error. The second point of legalism is the idea that you can earn your way into heaven legally by doing good works or obeying the law. The Pharisees, who considered themselves the ultimate standard of righteousness, were the fathers of this kind of legalism. They take “you may” and turn it into “you must,” and that is fatal to a healthy Christian life. The legalist legislates where God leaves people free. On another occasion, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for substituting their traditions, the traditions of men, for the law of God. This was just one more element of the Pharisees’ attempts at self-righteousness. Not only that, but in their zeal for righteousness, they began to teach the idea that fasting was such a righteous enterprise that it would bring merit to the person who fasted. They created their own traditions, and their tradition sought to require the Jews to fast twice a week for at least a portion of the day. The Pharisees, who were the archconservatives of Israel, created new laws that God never imposed upon the people. When death came to a loved one, or great defeat to the nation, or a time of repentance was at hand, the people would express their grief and mourning by rending their garments and entering a fast. The second time for additional fasting in the Old Testament was as an expression of mourning. They would withdraw from the normal activities of this mundane life in which we live and devote themselves exclusively to contemplation and meditation on the things of God. The first time fasting occurred in the Old Testament was when people sought a deeper and sharper focus on the things of God. We see two times when fasting occurred most frequently in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, God commanded that the people of Israel fast on one occasion, the Day of Atonement, but otherwise fasting was a matter of voluntary activity and practice. We are told that they came to Jesus asking Him this question: “Why do the disciples of John fast often, likewise the disciples of the Pharisees, but Your disciples eat and drink? We don’t see them fasting.” They were upset about Jesus’ apparent neglect of their tradition of fasting.
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That was not the end of Pharisees’ critical attitude toward Jesus, so they raised a new issue in the passage we’ve seen this morning. The Pharisees were put out because Jesus was now associating with known sinners and publicans. After that evening, Matthew had a feast at his home for Jesus and invited all his friends, the other tax collectors of the day. Last week, we looked at Luke’s description of the call of Matthew the tax collector.
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Let us pray.Īgain, our Lord, we ask that You visit us this hour with the presence of Your Holy Spirit, that He may aid us in our understanding of the things we have just heard. You have just heard the unvarnished word of Almighty God, bearing the fullness of His authority and truth. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new for he says, ‘The old is better.’” But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.
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Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”Īnd He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them then they will fast in those days.” We are in Luke 5:33–39, and I would ask the congregation please to stand for the reading of the Word of God: This morning, we’re going to continue our study of the Gospel According to St.