NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

CHAPTER NINE

Part II (Con’t)

Verse 15: Jesus answered, “At a wedding the friends of the bridegroom are not sad while he is with them. They should not be fasting. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them. Then they can fast.”

Jesus chooses once again to make His point by using a parable. This one concerned a new groom getting ready for his wedding. During the prenuptial period there would be activities that involved planning and rehearsing. Even today, who would think of declaring a family fast during the wedding week? That’s a time of celebration, feasting and being glad. So keep in mind, Jesus was not speaking here of fasting in the Christian context, but as it was practiced in Jewish tradition.

Jewish scholars tell us that in ancient days fasting was instituted as a sign of mourning,¹ or when danger threatened,² or when the prophet was preparing himself for a divine revelation.³ Individual fasting was common among the early Jews as evident from the provision made⁴ that a vow by a woman “to afflict the soul” may under certain conditions be canceled by the husband.

Also, consider the occasional fasts instituted for the whole community, especially when the nation believed itself to be under divine displeasure,⁵ where it is conjoined with the pouring out of water before the Lord,⁶ or when a great calamity fell on the land,⁷ as when pestilence raged or when drought set in; and also sometimes when an important act was about to be carried out by the officials of the land.⁸ In Isaiah we find a description of a fast-day among the Jews.⁹ In other words, fasting was tied to responding to a crisis or the act of purification. I’m sure the Jews who heard Jesus mention the wedding preparation and planning knew the customs involved.

At this point in Jesus ministry there was neither crisis nor the need to prove purity in order to participate. He was here preparing for the day when He would return for His bride, so the time for fasting was not appropriate. Added to this is the fact that some like the Pharisees had begun to use fasting as a way of increasing their stature in righteousness and holiness. It was an attempt to impress others and God. But with Emmanuel right here on earth, it was not a time them to try and make Him see how much He needed them, but how badly they needed Him.

One ancient Jewish story about such a nuptial ceremony reads like this: “Rabbi Shimon was sitting and studying the Torah on the night when the Bride, (Malchut), unites with her husband, (Zeir Anpin). And all the friends present in the bridal chamber on that night, the eve of the holiday of Shavuot (Pentecost), must stand together with the bridegroom under the wedding canopy, and be with him the whole night, and rejoice with him in the study of the Torah, then Prophets, then Holy Scriptures, and finally the wisdom writings, for these truths are the Bride’s adornment. And the Bride receives these truths, adorns herself with them, and rejoices with them all that night. And on the next day, on the holiday of Shavuot, she alone comes to the wedding canopy together with them. And her friends, who studied the Torah all night long, are called the sons of the wedding canopy. And as she approaches the wedding canopy, the Creator asks about them, blesses and adorns them with the Bride’s adornments. Happy are those who merit this!”¹⁰

What a beautiful picture this parable should have generated in the minds of Jesus’ listeners. This image may have also been in Peter’s thinking,¹¹ as well as John’s.¹² But that’s not all, even Jewish tradition taught what Jesus was saying about such freedoms: “The bride and the groom and all the wedding guests are free from the obligations of prayer and tefillin (“small black boxes”), but are bound to read the Shema’.”¹³

This is repeated from earlier writings: “Rabbi Ba bar Zabeda said, ‘The groomsmen and all who share in the marriage-canopy are exempt from the religious duty of dwelling in a tent’.”¹⁴ Their venerated teachers had this to say: “All the members of the wedding party are absolved of the law only while they are involved in the guidelines of celebrating together with the bride and groom, however, when they leave, they are obligated. Furthermore, there are many authorities who require that the meals served the groom and his attendants be served in a tent”.¹⁵

So it wasn’t that Jesus was teaching them anything new, He was simply reminding them of what they already practiced. I’m sure this may have been the scene when Jesus was invited by His mother to the wedding of a family member in Cana, and a few of the disciples were there with Him.¹⁶ But at the same time, He revealed Himself to be the groom and His followers as the bride. We know this later became a part of Christian doctrine with the bride being the church.

There is also an ancient story connected to this thought. Two rabbis were going down the road. One of them,¹⁷ was riding on a donkey, and the other,¹⁸ was walking behind him. The walking Rabbi said to the riding Rabbi: “Master, teach me a chapter in the Work of the Chariot.” This was a scroll written before 100 BC, commenting on the visions of Ezekiel involving the chariot composed of four heavenly beings. So they stopped, and the walking Rabbi asked permission to speak first on the subject. So the other Rabbi said, “Speak!” At that moment, the story goes: “Then fire fell from heaven all around them, and ministering angels skipped before them like wedding guests rejoicing before the bride. An angel spoke from the midst of the fire and said, ‘According to your words, you are the Work of the Chariot.’ Immediately all the trees opened their mouths and sang, ‘Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy’¹⁹.”²⁰ If the Jews were willing to believe such a tale, why couldn’t they also accept what Jesus was saying? But our Lord will have more to say.

One of the early church patriarchs of the Syrian Orthodox Church, was known for his homilies, and he had this to say about what Jesus was teaching here. He does so by offering a paraphrase of Jesus’ answer to the question about fasting: “It is with the words of John the Baptizer, your own teacher, whom you esteem so highly, that I answer you. Keep it in mind, and you will have the answer to your question. When John the Baptizer bore witness concerning me, he said, ‘He who has the bride is the groom.’²¹ So, if I am the groom and you don’t make a liar out of your own teacher, you know in advance that it is important for my disciples, while they are the children of the marriage … to be cheerful and joyful and not to become upset or miserable over fasting. In certain respects, fasting is a source of annoyance and can also be grueling, especially for those without a mature disposition.”²²

Some scholars think that since the Church – who is the Bride, is waiting on the Groom to return – who is Christ, that fasting is not a factor believers use in order to be seen by the world as being dedicated to the Lord. Therefore, if one does fast, it must be for a cause, not for contriteness; for sacrifice, not for showmanship. Fasting is not done to force or obligate God to answer a prayer on our terms, but to prepare us more emotionally, mentally, and spiritually for whatever answer we may receive from Him.

But our Lord was not finished because He knew that His listeners were always taking what He had to say about the Law and the Prophets, and criticizing what He said where it did not fit their understanding of how things should be taken and applied. He wanted to point out to them that while God wanted to keep His covenant with Abraham in place, He wanted to revitalize it with new meaning and purpose. So Jesus explains this with another illustration.

Verse 16: “When someone sews a patch over a rip in an old coat, they never use a new piece of cloth that has not already been shrunk. If they do, the patch will shrink and pull away from the coat when it is washed. Then the rip will be even bigger.”

I’m certain that any tailors or seamstresses in the crowd would be nodding their heads in agreement. On the subject of patches, I am neither bragging nor complaining, but I did grow up in an era when it was not unusual to see me and my fellow classmates with patches on our jeans to cover up the holes in the knee area. So you can imagine my shock when I see young people walking around today with their jeans torn in the knees and other areas, and they buy them like that! But the main point here was the significance of trying to patch up old cloth with new cloth.

The new covenant message that Jesus brought from the Father could not be used as a patch on the old covenant to make it more viable for attaining salvation and forgiveness required under the law. As we know from the witness of Paul and John, many were trying to do this in the early stages of Christianity. Jesus said that if it were tried, the new covenant patch would start shrinking with each new washing and end up making the schism already apparent in the old covenant even wider.

Early Church scholar Peter Chrysologus gives us his thoughts on such patching. He writes: “Jesus says that the fabric of the old law was worn away by Judaic zealousness, corrupted by the senses, split apart by factions and worn out by impure actions. The shrunk cloth of the gospel he calls a garment. But make note of the cloth, not simply the tear but the beginning of the weave. First of all, the fabric of Christ’s royal garment was woven out of wool that came from a lamb: ‘The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.’²³ The royal vestment was a woven vestment, which the blood of his passion tinged with purple splendor.”²⁴

In some ways, this seems to be the same reasoning given by those today who are trying to seek salvation, sanctification, and doing God’s will in their lives as believers by injecting Old Testament laws, rituals and ceremonies into New Testament worship and living. We know some of them as Messianic Jews. Many of them are non-Jews who are trying to be Christians by becoming more Jewish in the thinking a practice. Believe it or not, there are Jews who have become believers in Jesus as the Messiah, and they have given up all their practices in the Torah and Jewish traditions to accept the freedom found in Christ. As we can see, this didn’t start yesterday, it was already a problem back in Paul’s day.