NOTES for Mat 9:14-17

John’s disciples apparently did not realize that their question placed them on the same footing as the Pharisees. Even they found many of their teacher’s words and actions difficult to understand. And although John’s call to repentance surpassed every teaching of the Pharisees, what mattered to his disciples was not so much being changed through repentance as fasting in exactly the same way as the Pharisees — that is, observing traditional rules.

Christ’s answer is encouraging, yet also troubling. He justifies the disciples’ right not to observe the letter of certain rules by the fact that He Himself is there with them. In essence, He is trying to make it clear that rites have meaning as a means of communion with God and must not become an end in themselves when He is near. Yet Christ also warns here that times will inevitably come when He will no longer be with the disciples, and then their outward piety will once again become a means of communion with God.

The parables Christ then tells about a patch on an old garment and new wine poured into old wineskins are widely known and have become proverbial. But it is no accident that they were spoken in answer to John’s disciples, who had no clear idea that what Jesus brought was not merely one remarkable preacher’s interpretation of ancient commandments, but the New Life itself, come down from above.