Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 9:14

Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?

14 17. A Question about Fasting. Mar 2:18-22; Luk 5:33-39

It is not quite clear whether this further incident took place at Levi’s feast. St Luke leads us to draw that inference.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Then came the disciples of John … – This narrative is found also in Mar 2:18-22; Luk 5:33-39. The reference here is to John the Baptist. It is probable that they had understood that John was the forerunner of the Messiah; and if such was the case, they could not account for the fact that there was such a difference between them and the disciples of Jesus. The Pharisees fasted often – regularly twice a week besides the great national days of fasting, Luk 18:12. See the notes at Mat 6:16-18. This was the established custom of the land, and John did not feel himself authorized to make so great a change as to dispense with it. They were desirous of knowing, therefore, why Jesus had done it.

Besides, it is probable that this question was put to Jesus when John was in prison, and his disciples, involved in deep grief on account of it, observed days of fasting. Fasting was the natural expression of sorrow, and they wondered that the followers of Jesus did not join with them in lamenting the captivity of him who was the forerunner and baptizer of their Lord.

Christ, in reply to them, used three illustrations, all of them going to establish the same thing – that we should observe a fitness and propriety in things. The first is taken from a marriage. The children of the bride-chamber – that is, the bridemen, or men who had the special care of the bridal chamber, and who were therefore his special friends – do not think of fasting while he is with them. With them it is a time of festivity and rejoicing, and mourning would not be appropriate. When he is removed or taken away, then their festivity will be ended, and then will be the proper time for sorrow. So, says he, John, your friend and teacher, is in captivity. With you it is a time of deep grief, and it is appropriate that you should fast. I am with my disciples. It is with them a time of joy. It is not fit that they should use the tokens of grief, and fast now. When I am taken away, it will then be proper that they should fast. For an account of the ceremonies of an Eastern marriage, see the notes at Mat 25:1-13.

Mat 9:16

No man putteth a piece of new cloth … – A second illustration was drawn from a well-known fact, showing also that there was a propriety or fitness of things. None of you, says he, in mending an old garment, would take a piece of entire new cloth.

There would be a waste in it. An old piece, or a piece like the garment, would be better. The word here translated new, in the original means rude, undressed, not fulled by the cloth-dresser. In this state, if applied to an old garment, and if wet, it would contract and draw off a part of the garment to which it was attached, and thus make the rent worse than it was. So, says he, my new doctrines do not match with the old rites of the Pharisees. There is a fitness of things. Their doctrines require much fasting. In my system it would be incongruous; and if my new doctrines were to be attached to their old ones, it would only make the matter worse.

Mat 9:17

Neither do men put new wine … – The third illustration was taken from wine put into bottles.

Bottles, in Eastern nations, were made, and are still made, of skins of beasts. Generally the skin was taken entire from a sheep or a goat, and, properly prepared, was filled with wine or water. Such bottles are still used, because, in crossing deserts of sand, they have no other conveyances but camels, or other beasts of burden. It would be difficult for them to carry glass bottles or kegs on them. They therefore fill two skins, and fasten them together and lay them across the back of a camel, and thus carry wine or water to a great distance. These bottles were, of course, of different sizes, as the skins of kids, goats, or oxen might be used. Bruce describes particularly a bottle which he saw in Arabia, made in this manner of an ox-skin, which would hold 60 gallons, and two of which were a lead for a camel. By long usage, however, bottles of skins became tender and would be easily ruptured. New wine put into them would ferment, and swell and burst them open. New skins or bottles would yield to the fermenting wine, and be strong enough to hold it from bursting. So, says Christ, there is fitness or propriety of things. It is not fit that my doctrine should be attached to or connected with the old and corrupt doctrines of the Pharisees. New things should be put together, and made to match.

This account of Eastern bottles may illustrate the following passages in the Bible: The Gibeonites took wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up, Jos 9:4. My belly is ready to burst, like new bottles, Job 32:19. I am become like a bottle in the smoke, Psa 119:83; i. e., like a bottle of skin hung up in a tent filled with smoke.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 14. Thy disciples fast not?] Probably meaning that they did not fast so frequently as the others did, or for the same purposes, which is very likely, for the Pharisees had many superstitious fasts. They fasted in order to have lucky dreams, to obtain the interpretation of a dream, or to avert the evil import of a dream. They also fasted often, in order to obtain the things they wished for. The tract, Taanith is full of these fasts, and of the wonders performed thus by the Jewish doctors.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Mark hath this same history, almost in the same words, Mar 2:18-22, only he saith that some of the disciples of the Pharisees came with the disciples of John. Luke also hath it varying little, Luk 5:33-38; only he saith, fast often, and make prayers, ( and), the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old. And he addeth at last, Luk 5:39, No man also having drank old wine, straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better: which I shall consider, it plainly belonging to this history. Mark begins his narration of this history with telling us, And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast; which is implied, though not expressed, by the two other evangelists. For the Pharisees, it is plain enough from the Pharisees boast, Luk 18:12, that he fasted twice in the week, John also used his disciples to a severer discipline than Christ did (of which we shall afterward hear more.) It should seem that the Pharisees had a mind to make a division betwixt the followers of John and the followers of Christ, and set on Johns disciples to go and ask an account of this. Hypocrites are always hottest for ritual things, as things most fit to raise a division about. There was no precept of God for any fast, but once in a year, though indeed God left people a liberty to fast oftener, as their circumstances more fitted and called for the duty. The Pharisees had set up themselves a method, and would fain have imposed it on Christs disciples; especially considering Johns disciples complied with the practice of frequent fasts, and seemed to suggest as if Christ set up a new and more jovial religion. (As if religion lay only or principally in rituals, as to which God had set no rule). The papists are at this day the Pharisees true successors in these arts. Christ answereth them in two particulars:

1. He tells them that his disciples were not as yet under such a dispensation as called for fasting.

2. That his disciples were new converts, and to be brought on by degrees to the severer practices of external discipline and godliness. This is the sum of Mat 9:15-17. This he delivers in metaphorical expressions:

Can the children of the bride chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, then shall they fast. Your master John hath compared me to a bridegroom, Joh 3:29. These my disciples are the children of the bride chamber. It is as yet a festival time with them. Fasting is a duty fitted to a day of mourning and affliction. It is not yet a time of mourning for my disciples: yet do not envy them. There will shortly come a time when, as to my bodily presence, I shall be taken from them: then they shall mourn and fast. The second thing he saith he illustrates by two similitudes. First, (saith he), amongst men no discreet person will put in an old garment a new piece of cloth, for they will not agree together; the strength of the new cloth will bear no proportion to the strength of the old, which by wearing is made weak, so as if the garment comes to a stress the rent will be the greater. So as to wine, men do not use to put new wine into old bottles, that through much use are weakened, for fear of breaking the bottles and spilling the wines; but they use to put new wine into new bottles, to proportion the thing containing to the thing contained. My disciples are newly converted. Should I impose upon them the severer exercises of religion, it might discourage them, and be a temptation to them to go back; for, as Luke addeth, No man having drank old wine desireth new; for he saith, The old is better. Custom is a great tyrant, and men are not on the sudden brought off from their former practices, but by degrees. This is a portion of Scripture which much commendeth prudence to ministers, both teaching their people as they are able to bear, and also putting them upon duties with respect to their stature and proficiency in the ways of God; especially in such things as are but our free will offerings to God.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

Then came to him the disciples of John,…. Of John the Baptist, to whom they had addicted themselves, and by whom they abode: though their master was in prison, and the Messiah was known to be come, yet still they were attached to John, and particularly imitated him in the austerities of his life. These, either hearing of the great entertainment made at Matthew’s house for Christ, and his disciples, at which they were offended; or else being moved, and set on by the Pharisees, with whom they were agreed in the business of fasting, came to Christ where he was, and put this question to him,

saying, why do we, and the Pharisees, fast oft, but thy disciples fast not? Not that they wanted to know the reason why they and the Pharisees fasted; that they could account for themselves, but why Christ’s disciples did not: and this is said not so much by way of inquiry, as reproof; and their sense is; that Christ’s disciples ought to fast, as well as they and the Pharisees, and not eat, and drink, and feast in the manner they did. The fastings here referred to are not the public fasts enjoined by the law of Moses, or in any writings of the Old Testament; but private fasts, which were enjoined by John to his disciples, and by the Pharisees to their’s; or which were, according to the traditions of the elders, or of their own appointing, and which were very “often” indeed: for besides their fasting twice a week, on Monday and Thursday,

Lu 18:12 they had a multitude of fasts upon divers occasions, particularly for rain c. If the 17th of Marchesvan, or October, came, and there was no rain, private persons kept three days of fasting, viz. Monday, Thursday, and Monday again: and if the month of Cisleu, or November, came, and there was no rain, then the sanhedrim appointed three fast days, which were on the same days as before, for the congregation; and if still there was no rain came, they added three more; and if yet there were none, they enjoined seven more, in all thirteen, which R. Acha and R. Barachiah kept themselves d. Fasts were kept also on account of many other evils, as pestilence, famine, war, sieges, inundations, or any other calamity; sometimes for trifling things, as for dreams e, that they might have good ones, or know how to interpret them, or avoid any ill omen by them; and it is almost incredible what frequent fastings some of the Rabbins exercised themselves with, on very insignificant occasions. They f say,

“R. Jose , “fasted fourscore fasts” to see R. Chiyah Rubba; at last he saw, and his hands trembled, and his eyes grew dim: –R. Simeon Ben Lakish

, “fasted three hundred fastings” to see R. Chiyah Rubba, and did not see him.”

Elsewhere it is said, that R. Ase fasted “thirty days” to see the same person, and saw him not g. Again h,

“R. Jonathan fasted every eve of the new year, R. Abin fasted every eve of the feast of tabernacles, R. Zeura fasted “three hundred fasts”, and there are that say “nine hundred fasts”.”

This may serve to illustrate and prove the frequency of the Jewish fastings. Luke represents this question as put by the Pharisees, which is here put by the disciples of John: it was doubtless put by both agreeing in this matter; and which shows that John’s disciples were instigated to it by the Pharisees, who sought to sow discord between them, and to bring Christ and his disciples into contempt with them.

c Misn. Taanith, c. 1. sect. 4. 5, 6. & c. 3. sect. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. d T. Hieros. Taanlot, fol. 65. 2. & 66. 4. e T. Bab. Sabbat. fol. 10. 1. Maimon Taaniot, c. 1. sect. 12-14. f T. Hieros. Cilaim, fol. 32. 2. & Cetubot, fol. 35. 1. g Midrash Kohelet, fol. 79. 1. h lb. Nedarim, fol. 40. 4. & Taanioth, fol. 66. 1.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Christ’s Reply to the Disciples of John.

      14 Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?   15 And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.   16 No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.   17 Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.

      The objections which were made against Christ and his disciples gave occasion to some of the most profitable of his discourses; thus are the interests of truth often served, even by the opposition it meets with from gainsayers, and thus the wisdom of Christ brings good out of evil. This is the third instance of it in this chapter; his discourse of his power to forgive sin, and his readiness to receive sinners, was occasioned by the cavils of the scribes and Pharisees; so here, from a reflection upon the conduct of his family, arose a discourse concerning his tenderness for it. Observe,

      I. The objection which the disciples of John made against Christ’s disciples, for not fasting so often as they did; which they are charged with, as another instance of the looseness of their profession, besides that of eating with publicans and sinners; and it is therefore suggested to them, that they should change that profession for another more strict. It appears by the other evangelists (Mar 2:18; Luk 5:33) that the disciples of the Pharisees joined with them, and we have reason to suspect that they instigated them, making use of John’s disciples as their spokesmen, because they, being more in favour with Christ and his disciples, could do it more plausibly. Note, It is no new thing for bad men to set good men together by the ears; if the people of God differ in their sentiments, designing men will take that occasion to sow discord, and to incense them one against another, and alienate them one from another, and so make an easy prey of them. If the disciples of John and of Jesus clash, we have reason to suspect the Pharisees have been at work underhand, blowing the coals. Now the complaint is, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but thy disciples fast not? It is pity the duties of religion, which ought to be the confirmations of holy love, should be made the occasions of strife and contention; but they often are so, as here; where we may observe,

      1. How they boasted of their own fasting. We and the Pharisees fast often. Fasting has in all ages of the church been consecrated, upon special occasions, to the service of religion; the Pharisees were much in it; many of them kept two fast-days in a week, and yet the generality of them were hypocrites and bad men. Note, False and formal professors often excel others in outward acts of devotion, and even of mortification. The disciples of John fasted often, partly in compliance with their master’s practice, for he came neither eating nor drinking (ch. xi. 18); and people are apt to imitate their leaders, though not always from the same inward principle; partly in compliance with their master’s doctrine of repentance. Note, The severer part of religion is often most minded by those that are yet under the discipline of the Spirit, as a Spirit of bondage, whereas, though these are good in their place, we must pass through them to that life of delight in God and dependence on him, to which these should lead. Now they come to Christ to tell him that they fasted often, at least they thought it often. Note, Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness, Prov. xx. 6. There is a proneness in professors to brag of their own performance in religion, especially if there by any thing extraordinary in them; nay, and not only to boast of them before men, but to plead them before God, and confide in them as a righteousness.

      2. How they blamed Christ’s disciples for not fasting so often as they did. Thy disciples fast not. They could not but know, that Christ had instructed his disciples to keep their fasts private, and to manage themselves so as that they might not appear unto men to fast; and, therefore, it was very uncharitable in them to conclude they did not fast, because they did not proclaim their fasts. Note, We must not judge of people’s religion by that which falls under the eye and observation of the world. But suppose it was so, that Christ’s disciples did not fast so often or so long as they did, why truly, they would therefore have it thought, that they had more religion in them than Christ’s disciples had. Note, It is common for vain professors to make themselves a standard in religion, by which to try and measure persons and things, as if all who differed from them were so far in the wrong; as if all that did less than they, did too little, and all that did more than they, did too much, which is a plain evidence of their want of humility and charity.

      3. How they brought this complaint to Christ. Note, If Christ’s disciples, either by omission or commission, give offence, Christ himself will be sure to hear of it, and be reflected upon for it. O, Jesus, are these thy Christians? Therefore, as we tender the honour of Christ, we are concerned to conduct ourselves well. Observe, The quarrel with Christ was brought to the disciples (v. 11), the quarrel with the disciples was brought to Christ (v. 14), this is the way of sowing discord and killing love, to set people against ministers, ministers against people, and one friend against another.

      II. The apology which Christ made for his disciples in this matter. Christ might have upbraided John’s disciples with the former part of their question, Why do ye fast often? “Nay, you know best why you do it; but the truth is, many abound in external instances of devotion, that scarcely do themselves know why and wherefore.” But he only vindicates the practice of his disciples; whey they had nothing to say for themselves, he had something ready to say for them. Note, As it is wisdom’s honour to be justified of all her children, so it is her children’s happiness to be all justified of wisdom. What we do according to the precept and pattern of Christ, he will be sure to bear us out in, and we may with confidence leave it to him to clear up our integrity.

But thou shalt answer, Lord, for me.

Herbert.

      Two things Christ pleads in defence of their not fasting.

      1. That it was not a season proper for that duty (v. 15): Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? Observe, Christ’s answer is so framed, as that it might sufficiently justify the practice of his own disciples, and yet not condemn the institution of John, or the practice of his disciples. When the Pharisees fomented this dispute, they hoped Christ would cast blame, either on his own disciples, or on John’s, but he did neither. Note, When at any time we are unjustly censured, our care must be only to clear ourselves, not to recriminate, or throw dirt upon others; and such a variety may there be of circumstances, as may justify us in our practice, without condemning those that practise otherwise.

      Now his argument is taken from the common usage of joy and rejoicing during the continuance of marriage solemnities; when all instances of melancholy and sorrow are looked upon as improper and absurd, as it was at Samson’s wedding, Judges xiv. 17. Now, (1.) The disciples of Christ were the children of the bride-chamber, invited to the wedding-feast, and welcome there; the disciples of the Pharisees were not so, but children of the bond-woman (Gal 4:25; Gal 4:31), continuing under a dispensation of darkness and terror. Note, The faithful followers of Christ, who have the Spirit of adoption, have a continual feast, while they who have the spirit of bondage and fear, cannot rejoice for joy, as other people, Hos. ix. 1. (2.) The disciples of Christ had the bridegroom with them, which the disciples of John had not; their master was now cast into prison, and lay there in continual danger of his life, and therefore it was seasonable for them to fast often. Such a day would come upon the disciples of Christ, when the bridegroom should be taken from them, when they should be deprived of his bodily presence, and then should they fast. The thoughts of parting grieved them when he was going, John xvi. 6. Tribulation and affliction befel them when he was gone, and gave them occasion of mourning and praying, that is, of religious fasting. Note, [1.] Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom of his Church, and his disciples are the children of the bride-chamber. Christ speaks of himself to John’s disciples under this similitude, because that John had used it, when he called himself a friend of the bridegroom, John iii. 29. And if they would by this hint call to mind what their master then said, they would answer themselves. [2.] The condition of those who are the children of the bride-chamber is liable to many changes and alterations in this world; they sing of mercy and judgment. [3.] It is merry or melancholy with the children of the bride-chamber, according as they have more or less of the bridegroom’s presence. When he is with them, the candle of God shines upon their head, and all is well; but when he is withdrawn, though but for a small moment, they are troubled, and walk heavily; the presence and nearness of the sun makes day and summer, his absence and distance, night and winter. Christ is all in all to the church’s joy. [4.] Every duty is to be done in its proper season. See Ecc 7:14; Jas 5:13. There is a time to mourn and a time to laugh, to each of which we should accommodate ourselves, and bring forth fruit in due season. In fasts, regard is to be had to the methods of God’s grace towards us; when he mourns to us, we must lament; and also to the dispensations of his providence concerning us; there are times when the Lord God calls to weeping and mourning; regard is likewise to be had to any special work before us, Mat 17:21; Act 13:2.

      2. That they had not strength sufficient for that duty. This is set forth in two similitudes, one of putting new cloth into an old garment, which does but pull the old to pieces (v. 16); the other of putting new wine into old bottles, which does but burst the bottles, v. 17. Christ’s disciples were not able to bear these severe exercises so well as those of John and of the Pharisees, which the learned Dr. Whitby gives this reason for: There were among the Jews not only sects of the Pharisees and Essenes, who led an austere life, but also schools of the prophets, who frequently lived in mountains and deserts, and were many of them Nazarites; they had also private academies to train men up in a strict discipline; and possibly from these many of John’s disciples might come, and many of the Pharisees; whereas Christ’s disciples, being taken immediately from their callings, had not been used to such religious austerities, and were unfit for them, and would by them be rather unfitted for their other work. Note, (1.) Some duties of religion are harder and more difficult than others, like new cloth and new wine, which require most intenseness of mind, and are most displeasing to flesh and blood; such are religious fasting and the duties that attend it. (2.) The best of Christ’s disciples pass through a state of infancy; all the trees in Christ’s garden are not of a growth, nor all his scholars in the same form; there are babes in Christ and grown men. (3.) In the enjoining of religious exercises, the weakness and infirmity of young Christians ought to be considered: as the food provided for them must be such as is proper for their age (1Co 3:2; Heb 5:12), so must the work be that is cut out for them. Christ would not speak to his disciples that which they could not then bear, John xvi. 12. Young beginners in religion must not be put upon the hardest duties at first, lest they be discouraged. Such as was God’s care of his Israel, when he brought them out of Egypt, not to lead them by the way of the Philistines (Exo 13:17; Exo 13:18), and such as was Jacob’s care of his children and cattle, not to overdrive them (Gen. xxxiii. 13), such is Christ’s care of the little ones of his family, and the lambs of his flock: he gently leads them. For want of this care, many times, the bottles break, and the wine is spilled; the profession of many miscarries and comes to nothing, through indiscretion at first. Note, There may be over–doing even in well–doing, a being righteous over-much; and such an over–doing as may prove an undoing through the subtlety of Satan.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

The disciples of John ( ). One is surprised to find disciples of the Baptist in the role of critics of Christ along with the Pharisees. But John was languishing in prison and they perhaps were blaming Jesus for doing nothing about it. At any rate John would not have gone to Levi’s feast on one of the Jewish fast-days. “The strict asceticism of the Baptist (11:18) and of the Pharisaic rabbis (Lu 18:12) was imitated by their disciples” (McNeile).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

JESUS AS BRIDEGROOM EXPLAINED V. 14-17

1) “Then came to him the disciples of John, saying,(tote proserchontai auto hoi mathetai loannou legontes) “Then, at that moment, the disciples of John (the Baptist) approached him inquiring;” These disciples had disregarded John’s testimony, and had not turned to follow Jesus, Joh 1:26-30.

2) “Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft,” (dia ti hemeis kai hoi pharisaioi nesteuomen) “For what reason do we and the Pharisees fast;” These disciples of John had entered a confederacy of their own, had not as yet committed themselves to follow Jesus, Act 18:25; Act 19:3.

3) “But thy disciples fast not?” (hoi de mathetai sou ou nesteuousin) “Yet your disciples do not fast,” follow a custom of periodic foregoing eating and drinking for a season, to give themselves to prayer and meditation, like other religions, or did not make it conspicuously known.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

Mat 9:14

. Then come to him the disciples of John. Luke represents the Pharisees as speaking: Mark appears to connect both. And, indeed, there is no room to doubt that the Pharisees maliciously endeavored, by this stratagem, to draw the disciples of John to their party, and to produce a quarrel between them and the disciples of Christ. A resemblance in prayers and fastings was a plausible pretext for associating at this time: while the different manner in which Christ acted was an occasion of enmity and dislike to men whose temper was unamiable, and who were excessively devoted to themselves.

This example reminds us, that prudence and caution are necessary to prevent wicked and cunning men from sowing divisions among us on any slight grounds. Satan has a wonderful dexterity, no doubt, in laying those snares; and it is an easy matter to distress us about a trifle. (523) But we ought especially to beware lest the unity of faith be destroyed, or the bond of charity broken, on account of outward ceremonies. Almost all labor under the disease of attaching undue importance to the ceremonies and elements of the world, as Paul calls them, (Gal 4:3; Col 2:8😉 and accordingly they do not hesitate, for the most part, to prefer the merest rudiments to the highest perfection. This is followed by another evil arising out of fastidiousness and pride, when every man would willingly compel the whole world to copy his example. If any thing pleases us, we forthwith desire to make it a law, that others may live according to our pleasure.

When we read that the disciples of John were caught by these snares of Satan, let us first learn not to place holiness in outward and indifferent matters, and at the same time to restrain ourselves by moderation and equity, that we may not desire to restrict others to what we approve, but may allow every one to retain his freedom. As to fasting and prayers, it ought to be understood, that John gave his disciples a particular training, and that for this purpose they had stated days for fastings, a settled form, and fixed hours of prayer. Now, I reckon those prayers among outward observances. For, though calling on God holds the first rank in spiritual worship, yet that method of doing it was adapted to the unskilfulness of men, and is justly reckoned among ceremonies and indifferent matters, the observance of which ought not to be too strictly enjoined. Of the reason why John’s discipline was more severe than that of Christ we have already spoken, and a more convenient opportunity for treating of it will again occur.

(523) “ Pour des choses qui ne valent pas le parler;” — “for things that are not worth talking about.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES

Mat. 9:14. The disciples of John.The passage is interesting as showing:

1. That the followers of the Baptist continued during our Lords ministry to form a separate body (as in Mat. 11:2, Mat. 14:12).

2. That they obeyed rules which he had given them, more or less after the pattern of those of the Pharisees. They had their own days of fasting (the context makes it probable that the feast in Matthews house was held on one of them), their own forms of prayer (Luk. 11:1). They, it would seem, acting with the Pharisees, and perhaps influenced by them, were perplexed at conduct so unlike that of the master they revered, and came, therefore, with their question. But they were, at least, not hypocrites, and they are answered, therefore, without the sternness which had marked the reply to their companions (Plumptre).

Mat. 9:15. The children (sons, R.V.) of the bridechamber.On the day of marriage the bridegroom went, adorned and anointed, to the house of the bride, attended by his companions (Jdg. 14:11), and led her, attended by her maidens, in festive procession, with music and dancing, at even, by torchlight, into the house of his father. The marriage feast, which was defrayed by the bridegroom, lasted seven days (Lange).

Mat. 9:16. New cloth.Undressed (R.V.). It denotes cloth that has not passed through the process of fullingthat process by which cloth is thickened and made compact, as well as cleansed. When the up-filling patch shrinks it takes along with it a margin of the old and tender robe, and the rent is made worse (Morison). John was not a member of the newly inaugurated kingdom of God (Mat. 11:11). In accordance with this, Jesus declared the forms of righteousness practised by Johns disciples to be antiquated and out of keeping with the new righteousness which He taught as belonging to the kingdom of God (Wendt).

Mat. 9:17. Bottles.Wine-skins (R.V.).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Mat. 9:14-17

The law of fasting.The connection of this passage with the preceding one may be only in the order of thought; the thought of feasting (Mat. 9:10) leading to that of fasting in the Evangelists mind, by the rule of opposites, as it were. Or there may have been a connection between them of a closer description. As some understand Mar. 2:18, the disciples of John and of the Pharisees were keeping a fast at that time (Wordsworth, in loc.). If so, there would be both fasting and feasting side by side, as it were; and nothing would be more natural, therefore, than that those who were fasting should then and there ask the others why they were not. Why is it that Thy disciples never do what is done so often by us? (see end of Mat. 9:14). The Saviours answer seems to take in the case of all the parties concerned:His own disciples; the disciples of the Pharisees; the disciples of John.

I. His own disciples.Their case could be disposed of by the mere consideration of time. There was a time for everything under the sun (Ecc. 3:1); amongst other things for lamentation and grief, and for that abstinence from food which is so usual an accompaniment and token of grief (2Sa. 12:16). For that very reason such abstinence was not suitable for a season of joy; such a season, e.g. as when the friends of a bridegroom come to congratulate him on his happiness. This applied to the then condition of the disciples of Christ. Unlike the disciples of John (so it is supposed by some), who were then separated from their master and head in consequence of his imprisonment by Herod, these disciples were enjoying the full sunshine of the presence of their Head. The very thought of fasting, therefore, in their present circumstances, was wholly out of the question. The time would come, indeed, when their case in this respect would be different; when their Bridegroom also would be taken away. In one sense they would have fasting enough at that time. But for the time then present, and as things were then, the observance of fasting was not to be asked at their hands. Can the children of the bride-chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them?

II. The disciples of the Pharisees.Their case, also, could be disposed of in an equally summary way. The question here was that of purpose and aim. If there were times, as implied before, in which it was not unbecoming to deny the body in a greater or less degree the support it required, with what object and in what spirit should such denial be practised? Our Saviours parable seems to answer this question by showing what ought not to be in this case. In particular, He warns men against the view which the Pharisees held on this subject. Their great idea in enjoining fasting was that of reparation and atonement. The mortification of the body was prescribed by them in order thereby to make up for the sins of the mind. Was there a rent, as it were, in the garment of righteousness through the commission of sin or omission of duty? They looked to fasting to mend it. See how this idea is involved in Isa. 58:3; Luk. 18:12. See, on the other hand, how emphatically it is here rejected by Christ. To put such a piece of new clothrather a piece of such unfulled, and therefore unfinished, and therefore imperfect and unsuitable material as this on the faulty garmentis not to improve the matter but to make it much worse. It is to take away in fact, and not to make up; to make the rent at once larger and more conspicuous; and to add to nothing, in any way, except the original fault. No guilt, in a word, can be atoned for by such a clumsy mockery of atonement! The very idea of it is sin.

III. The case of the disciples of John was the case of men in a transitional state. It was the kind of case, therefore, in which the disciples of Christ would find themselves before long, in passing from the comparative darkness and bondage of the law (cf. Act. 15:10) to the light and liberty of the gospel. The first thing for all persons so situated to remember is this, that no transition of the kind can take place without some amount of dislocation and shock. Also, that this dislocation will affect primarily the question of ordinances and customs. Customs proper enough where the light is partial may not be so proper where the light is complete; or, at any rate, may require to be greatly modified in order to render them so. It is like that, in a word, which is so well known to be true about wine-skins and wine. Old wine-skins do all that is wanted in the case of old wine. It is when men fill them with new wine that they make a mistake, and find that, instead of gaining much, they lose everything by so doing (Mat. 9:17). The same is true of the strictly parallel question of ordinances and doctrines. Some ancient ordinances were only intended for an undeveloped measure of truth. To try to use them, therefore, for a fully developed measure, is to make confusion of all. Let this be remembered, therefore, with regard to the special question at issue. How far can fasting be made to fit the new condition of things? How far, under it, can fasting be employed to do what it doubtless accomplished before? This is the direction in which they must search in order to settle this point. What He had said at first had settled it for the present. What He now says is in order to help them to settle it in the future. Much, in short, as they were seen to do afterwards in the kindred subject referred to in Acts 15.

On the whole, therefore, of this subject, we seem able to say:

That Christ Himself does not positively settle it for us.He does not say, in so many words, either fast or fast not. He does not forbid; neither does He enjoin. The utmost on one side seems to be, It may have to be done. The utmost on the other seems to be, It is quite possible so to do it as to increase your transgression.

2. That we cannot settle it for each other.The considerations it depends on are of too private a nature to admit of interference on the one side, or to warrant it on the other. Whether we are rejoicing, individually, in the sense of Christs presence or lamenting His absence; whether we profit most by bewailing the one (1Sa. 7:2) or by realising the other (Neh. 8:10; Mat. 28:20); whether we are of vigorous or weakly bodily health; whether we are most tempted to evil by fulness or want (Pro. 30:9)who can settle these questions for others? And yet who, without them, can settle that question at all? See therefore Rom. 14:3.

3. That we ought to settle it for ourselves.If a man thinks that the practice is not incumbent on him individually, he ought to know why. If he thinks that it is he ought to know why. Also, how far, at what times, and in what way too, ought these to be clear. Men may be wrong, of course, even so, in the conclusions they come to; but they can hardly, even so, be more wrong than in refusing to give it a thought.

HOMILIES ON THE VERSES

Mat. 9:14-17. Spiritual life more authoritative than custom.The spirit of the Christian religion is the spirit of liberty and progress. The question Why do we, etc., shows the readiness with which men learn to worship a custom, and give to some temporary form all the dignity and authority of an everlasting law. They made the mistake of supposing that what was good and helpful for them, must be binding upon every person in every condition; or in other words, that the religious observances which they had received and used, must be of constant and universal obligation. The same mistake is often made still. Because a custom is of service to us, we have no right to make it a hindrance to others; that which inspires and uplifts us may cramp and restrain them. Men do harm when they try to transform the temporary into the immutable, and the local into the universal; by seeking to gain undue reverence for forms which are of human origin, they lessen mens regard for the invisible, changeless laws of God. The divine life survives all the changes of form and system. The teaching of the New Testament on this point seems to be that when men seek to give to outward forms of religious expression that importance which belongs only to the inner spiritual life, they hinder the free development of soul-life and stay the progress of divine truth.

I. The question propounded by these men rests upon a wrong assumption, viz. that all religious life should manifest itself in precisely the same way.

1. This receives no countenance from the variety of life and beauty in nature.
2. The varied manifestations of intellectual life disprove it.
3. The diversity of character displayed in the Bible contradicts it.

II. This question leaves out of sight an important principle, which is that our spiritual experience must regulate the outer life, and not any mere custom.Jesus says, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, etc.? Or to put it into common speech, Can you expect My disciples to mourn when they are just beginning a new and joyous life? They are realising the power of My teaching, and the inspiration of My presence; if they were to hang down their heads and look sad now, they would belie their experience and play the part of hypocrites. Let them be happy, they are serving God in their own simple way; and bear in mind the time will soon come when they shall fast, because it will be in harmony with their deep feeling. The Shepherd shall be smitten and the sheep scattered abroad. I shall be nailed to the bitter cross, and My followers will wander in sad, dark loneliness; they will feel themselves orphans in the world, desolate and bereaved, then shall they fast.

III. After correcting these false assumptions, our Lord declares the principle that real spiritual life will always find appropriate forms of expression.No man putteth a piece of new cloth, etc. We take this to mean that it is of no use attempting to bind new life down to old forms; whenever this is done there is conflict and confusion. Illustrate by reference to early attempt to chain the Christian religion to the old ceremonial forms of Judaism. I am come that they might have life, etc.W. G. Jordan, B.A.

Mat. 9:16-17. Garments and wineskins.By these illustrations our Lord conveyed a lesson on the charm of naturalness and the law of congruity in religion. Times of transition are critical. The disciples of John the Baptist were anxious to know whether Jesus meant only to reform the old Judaism, or to break away from it and introduce a new faith, with new rules and usages. On the question of fasting, for instance, they agreed with the Pharisees, and were concerned to find that the disciples of Jesus differed. Then the Lord answered them with heavenly metaphors which clothed a grave lesson with a veil of kindly humour. As old cloth and new cloth are one in being cloth, old wine and new are one in being wine; so the religion before Christ and that which He introduced are essentially one in kind, if not in quality. But it would not answer any good purpose to limit the new by the conditions of the old, or to place the Christian faith and life under the rules of the Pharisees, or even of thes disciples of John. So Jesus put it very plainly that He had not come to patch up Pharisaism, or garnish Rabbinism, or to pour His doctrine and all its vital force into the rigid forms of the later Judaism. The effect of a forced junction of the old and the new would be injurious to both. This is shown by throwing the illustration of the old garment patched with undressed cloth into two forms. St. Matthew and St. Mark report the Lord as indicating the damage to the old, whilst St. Luke reports Him as pointing out the injury to the new. In either case, it will be observed, the disruptive force is in the new. So to make Christianity a mere addendum to Rabbinical Judaism would only spoil the former, and would not preserve the latter. The second metaphor is to the same effect. To insist on the disciples of Jesus fasting because the Pharisees and the disciples of John fasted by rule, was to repress their joy at a time when they had a right to rejoice, and this was as unwise as to pour new wine into old wine-skins and shut it up. Thus again the Lord taught that a forced amalgamation of the old and the new dispensations would be disastrous to both. Let the law of congruity be observed.D.Fraser, D.D.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(14) The disciples of John.The passage is interesting as showing (1) that the followers of the Baptist continued during our Lords ministry to form a separate body (as in Mat. 11:2; Mat. 14:12); and (2) that they obeyed rules which he had given them, more or less after the pattern of those of the Pharisees. They had their own days of fasting (the context makes it probable that the feast in Matthews house was held on one of them), their own forms of prayer (Luk. 11:1). They, it would seem, acting with the Pharisees, and perhaps influenced by them, were perplexed at conduct so unlike that of the master they revered, and came therefore with their question. But they were, at least, not hypocrites, and they are answered therefore without the sternness which had marked the reply to their companions.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

14. Disciples of John Their master was in prison, and their sorrowing hearts, influenced by the ascetic views of their master as well as by his calamitous circumstances, can hardly understand how Jesus is feasting with the publicans. They as little understand his benevolence as do the Pharisees; but their false view is from a different standpoint. The sternest Old Testament spirit was in John and his mission. Our Lord here shows them the gladder temper of the Gospel.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Then come to him the disciples of John, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” ’

The disciples of John now approach Jesus, but it would appear possible that they had been in consultation with the Pharisees, who were clearly also commenting on the lack of fasting among Jesus’ disciples. It appeared to them that their lack of fasting demonstrated a lack of sincerity, and they may well have been genuinely puzzled. The disciples of John had of course good reason to fast as an act of mourning, for their great leader languished in prison. That would make it even more reason why they should feel that Jesus’ disciples should be fasting as well at what was a dark time for the godly in Israel. We have good reason to believe that the Pharisees fasted every Monday and Thursday until around 15:00 hours. It would appear possible that John’s disciples may have done something similar. Then there were also voluntary fasts connected with some of the great Feasts which some of them had just been involved in.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Jesus Has Come As The Bridegroom Bringing Something Totally New (9:14-17).

Having revealed Himself as the Great Physician, a further incident about fasting leads on to His revelation of Himself as the heavenly Bridegroom. John the Baptist had already given an indication of this when he spoke of himself as the ‘friend of the Bridegroom’ (Joh 3:29). Now Jesus applies the thought of the Bridegroom to Himself, and gives an indication that He is already aware of the future that awaits Him. He will be ‘taken away’.

In the Old Testament it is God Who is the heavenly Bridegroom. In Isaiah we read, “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so will your God rejoice over you” (Isa 62:5, compare Jer 2:2; Hos 2:19-23). He longed for His people to become His bride and thus become faithful to their marriage covenant (compare Isa 50:1; Isa 54:6)

Analysis.

a Then come to him the disciples of John, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” (Mat 9:14).

b And Jesus said to them, “Can the sons of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast” (Mat 9:15).

b “And no man puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for then that which should fill it up takes from the garment, and a worse tear is made” (Mat 9:16).

a “Neither do men put new wine into old wineskins, or else the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins perish. But they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved” (Mat 9:17).

Note that in ‘a’ the question is posed as to why Jesus’ disciples do not fast, and in the parallel the answer is, ‘because they put new wine into fresh wineskins’. In ‘b’ the presence of the Bridegroom will result in His being ‘taken away’ and in the parallel the intermixture of an unshrunk patch on an old garment results in it being torn.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

A question regarding fasting:

v. 14. Then came to Him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but Thy disciples fast not?

v. 15. And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.

Silenced on one point, the Pharisees attack on another, aided, in this case, by some disciples of John the Baptist. They were all of them rigorous in their asceticism, keeping all the prescribed fasts, as well as many of their own choosing, with painful regularity. They resented the absence of this legal tendency in the circle of disciples about Jesus, even while they felt themselves superior to the Galilean fishermen, and asked for an explanation. Jesus enlightens them: Friends of the Bridegroom, that belong to the inner circle, to the intimates, could not possibly think of fasting and mourning, indulging in all manner of sorrowful performances, while the Bridegroom is yet with them. But when the Bridegroom is taken from them, when Jesus shall fulfill His destiny in His passion and death, there will be a great difference. Then, in those days, they will grieve, Joh 16:20 a. In the meantime, their whole life in His companionship was like a continual wedding-feast, with nothing but joy and happiness.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Mat 9:14-17. Then came to him the disciples of John Dr. Campbell translates the 16th and 17th verses thus: Nobody mendeth an old garment with undressed cloth; else the patch itself teareth the garment, and maketh a greater rent. Neither do people put new wine into old leathern bottles; otherwise the bottles burst; and thus both the wine is spilt, and the bottles are rendered useless. But they put, &c. is properly a vessel for holding liquor. Such vessels were commonly then, and in some countries are still, of leather, which were not so easily distended when old, and were consequently more ready to burst by the fermentation of the liquor. As this does not hold in regard to the bottles used by us, I thought it better, says the Doctor, in translating, to add a word denoting the materials of which their vessels were made. Mr. Wesley adds the same word in his translation of the New Testament.

In the law we find only one fast-day enjoined, namely, the tenth of the seventh month, on which the national atonement was made. But the Jews, of their own accord, observed many other days of fasting. See Isa 58:3. In our Lord’s time, days of this kind were more frequent than ever; especially among the Pharisees, who, according to the practice of their sect, fasted probably twice a week. See Luk 18:12. And therefore, as Jesus did not pretend to teach his disciples a more lax kind of discipline than John and the Pharisees, the disciples of John were surprised to find them overlooking so essential a duty. As John the Baptist preached repentance, he not only lived upon coarse diet, but also fasted often, and trained up his disciples thereto. Compare Joh 11:18. Luk 5:33 and the note on ch. Mat 6:16. The expression, Thy disciples fast not, may signify, “Do not fast often,” or, “are not used to fast.” To this our Saviour replies, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn? &c. “Would it not be improper for the guests at a wedding to fast and weep while the marriage solemnity continues? It would be equally improper for my disciples to enter on a course of severe and strict abstinence at the time that I, the spiritual bridegroom, am personally present with them.” The children of the bridechamber is a Hebrew phrase, to denote “The friends of the bridegroom,” who were wont to provide whatever was proper and necessary during the marriage festival. See Joh 3:29. As John had described our Saviour under the name of bridegroom, so he represents himself here under that idea: and some have supposed that there is in this similitude which our Saviour uses, a reference to the book of Canticles, as is not improbable. The proper meaning of the original words , by which new cloth is expressed, is, “cloth which hath not passed through the fuller’s hands,” and which is consequently much harsher than what has been often washed and worn; and therefore, yielding less than that, will tear away the edges to which it is sewed; and thus it is a just representation of persons who have not yet been trained up and instructed. The similitude of new wine put into old leathern bottles is analogous to the former. See the note on Psa 119:83 and those on Luk 5:36-39.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 9:14 . Concerning private fasting . See note on Mat 6:16 . On the fasting of the Baptist , comp. Mat 9:18 . On the fasting of the Pharisees (Luk 18:12 ), to whose authority on the rigid observance of the law the disciples of John adhere, see Lightfoot on this passage. Serar. de Trihaeresio , p. 36.

] frequenter , Vulg., Stallbaum, ad Plat. Phaed . p. 61 C, ad Parmen . p. 126 B; Khner, II. 1, p. 270. A not inappropriate addition by Matthew (Weiss, Holtzmann).

) comparatively, to be understood from the standpoint of the questioners, who hold the freedom of the disciples of Jesus, as contrasted with the frequent fasting of themselves and the Pharisees, to be equivalent to no fasting at all.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

It is wonderful to see how fond men have been in All ages to substitute anything, and everything, in the room of real godliness, and a change of heart. Fasting and alms-giving, and services, however costly, shall be set up, provided they may find pardon to the sins of nature. But all these are not regeneration. It is the old nature still. It is still the old creature, only dressed up in a new form: not transformed in the renewing of the heart. Jesus makes use of two beautiful similitudes to shew the folly of it. The new cloth put into the old garment; and the new wine into old bottles: neither of which can receive into union what is altogether the reverse of themselves. The strength of the new cloth will only tend to rend the old; and the old dried skins of bottles must burst if new fermenting wine is put into them. In like manner, the new robe of Jesus’ righteousness cannot be joined to patch up our filthy rags: neither can the new wine of the Gospel be received into the old unrenewed skin of nature. But when the Holy Ghost hath by regeneration made all things new, and Christ’s righteousness is received as the new robe of salvation; and the blood of Christ as the wine that maketh glad the heart of man; both then are preserved and blessed. Jdg 9:13 ; Psa 104:15 ; Isa 61:10 . See Mar 2:18 , etc.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 37

Prayer

Almighty God, do thou lead us into all the deeper truth, and save us from the narrowness and meanness of the letter. Give unto our hearts that keen vision which sees thee afar off, and knows the way that thou dost take, though it be hidden in much darkness and be not known to the carnal reason. We would be no longer children, tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, but would be men in Christ Jesus, having maturity of understanding, largeness of knowledge, trueness and depth of sympathy, and the insight which is a continual revelation. Our aspirations are high and pure, and they are the creation of the Holy Ghost, and the prayer which thou dost inspire thou dost never forget to answer. We would see thee in the sanctuary, we would hear thy goings in all the providences of life, we would behold thy supreme beauty in the Holy Word help us to realise all these desires in the perfectness of their meaning, then shall our life enjoy a wide liberty, and before our spirits there shall shine an enchanting and contentful destiny.

We bless thee for all thy tender care, thy patience, so great as to be beyond our words to express; thy lovingkindness, thy tender mercy how shall we speak of these without taking from them the very bloom which is their charm? Yet must our hearts refer to them in continual delight, for they are the staff and the joy of our life, our great defence, our sure and eternal protection. Thou hast been mindful of us with infinite care; thou hast still continued unto us all that is precious; thou hast given unto us health and reasoning power, and a sense of responsibility; thou hast kindled within us lights which are not of the earth, and hopes which are not born of time. Thou hast not forgotten the wants of the body, as thou hast not neglected the cry of the soul; but we are what we are this day by the grace of God, and to that grace would we now awaken a loud sweet psalm, thanking thee with glowing hearts for all thy wondrous mercies and thy tender kindness.

Thou dost do with us as seemeth good in thy sight. We cannot alway tell what thou doest: seldom can we find out why thou doest it, but it is our delight to find our rest in thy power, wisdom, love, and in all the purposes of thine almightiness. We rest in God, we stand in God, we have every answer to every difficulty in God. Not our will but thine be done, for thy will is good and thy purpose is full of mercy. Undertake for us in all the way of life, we humbly beseech thee. When the wind is high and cold and the road is long and steep and lonely, when all things seem to be in conspiracy against our rest and hope, in the cloudy, dark day, in the starless, cheerless night, on the broad and sunny road, everywhere, on land and sea, in city and wilderness, do thou be at our right hand then shall we be almost in heaven. Save us from ourselves, protect us from every enemy, destroy the power of every delusion, lift us above the influence of every prejudice, open our souls to receive the whole light of heaven, and give unto our hearts the steadiness and the courage which can abide in the day of adversity and speak for God and truth in the time of darkness and trouble.

We give thee united and hearty thanks for all thy tender mercies: as heads of houses, as fathers and mothers and children and servants, we unite in blessing thee for household gifts, for all domestic protection and comfort; as men whose lot is cast in the world, whose every day sees a battle, and whose every night is broken by sleeplessness, we bless thee that amidst it all we have the shining of thy countenance and the assurance of thy presence and benediction.

Hear us when we pray for those who are not able to be with us and to unite in common prayer. For the sick, for the dying, for the wounded and lonely, for the traveller by sea and land, for all for whom we ought to pray, and after whom our love goes out in searching and sacred desire the Lord’s blessing be multiplied upon them all, brighter than the summer noonday, tenderer than the dews of the morning.

The Lord help us now to study his word: may we turn over its pages with modest fingers and look into the writings with reverent hearts. May our whole spirit be attuned to the purposes of thy gracious revelation. As for our sin, we know where to bring it; we bring it to the great cross of Christ; we behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world by whom we have received the Atonement. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin: bowing before his cross, trusting to his sacrifice, looking to his ministry, each of us would desire to say with all the urgency of his heart, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Amen.

Mat 9:14-19

The Spiritual Law

Jesus Christ was always pestered by little questions. It is very seldom, if ever, that you hear a great inquiry propounded to him. Why eat with publicans and sinners? Why eat with Unwashed hands? Why heal on the Sabbath-day? Why not fast more? These were the small enquiries by which those who were immediately around him and were observing him critically or in partial sympathy belittled every occasion. A man is known by the questions he asks. Whoever asks any great question concerning the Bible? Be assured that he who asks the great question gets the great answer, and be not surprised if, in reply to our little and superficial enquiries, we receive shallow and disappointing replies. What is our question when we open the sacred book?

The persons who put this enquiry were honest men. They were not Pharisees, they were the disciples of John, and their question was, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?” These people represented those persons who have only got so far as the gospel of abstention. Many of us are at that point, the very first and meanest in the Christian life. Our Christianity consists in not doing things. It is a necessary point in our higher culture: no man can work up the line which has upon it the grim rough words, “Thou shalt not.” Yet the purpose of Jesus Christ is to lead us away from the negative gospel and virtue of abstention into the glorious gospel of ample and lifelong liberty.

You find persons whose virtue consists in abstention from vice: it is a kind of minus quantity, it is the mere negation of wrong. They will not eat, they will not drink, they will not pursue this pleasure, nor will they follow after that delight, they will not be seen in such and such company that is their lean and most puny virtue. It is necessary, it is part of the education, but a man ought not always to rest there. Virtue is positive, religion is emphatic, the true spirit is one of liberty. The question, therefore, which we should put to ourselves every day is, how far are we yet in the prison of the letter, and what advancement have we made into the kingdom of liberty? True virtue would, of course, consist in being able to go round the whole circle of legitimate pleasures and yet to keep that circle in its proper place. He has grown up into the fulness of Christ who can sit down with publicans and sinners, who can touch pitch and not be denied, who can take up serpents and play with them, and can drink any deadly thing and it shall not hurt him; but who has attained that height? That is the grand liberty that is yet to be realised. They shall take up serpents, and the serpents shall have no power over the hand that grasps them, and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them, the soul shall be so much better than the body, the mind shall have lofty lordship over that which is physical, and the spiritual shall triumph over the material. That is the line along which our education has to proceed. Do not scourge it unduly, do not hasten it with the impetuosity which is not wise. The most of us are yet virtuous simply because we are not so vicious as we might be.

“Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?” Religion is enjoyment, religion is associated with wedding bells and wedding feasts, and wine drinking, and high delight, and infinite liberty, and cloudless sunshine. He who binds it down to other ideas forces an eagle into a mean cage and bruises its noble wings with iron weapons. He, of course, would be the grand Christian who made every day holy alike, whose Saturday was so holy that his Sunday could not possibly be holier. But we have not yet attained that spiritual excellence, therefore some of us are obliged to set apart one day in the week and to say concerning it, “This day is sacred to religious purposes: we will call it day of rest, day of prayer, day of hope.” When we have completed our Christian education, there will be only one day in the week, and its name will be the Sabbath day, the Lord’s day, every moment a jewel, every breath a waft from heaven, every exercise nobler than prayer, even as noble as praise.

Sometimes this high ideal of religion is unduly forced upon us by thoughtless people, as if it were attainable and realisable here and now by every professing Christian. Let me protest against such undue urgency. We are travellers, and therefore we go one step at a time. We are mounting a ladder, and the rule is, one round at once; when we get to the top the ladder may be burned, for we have mounted to the very sanctuary of infinite liberty; but whilst we are climbing let no man cut one round out of the ladder; every round is part of the trying, solemn, but most salutary discipline of life. When we have attained the fulness of Christ’s purpose, and are all shut up in the wedding chamber, eating and drinking with him from morning till night at the great festal board, then all our money will be sacred; but just now some of us are obliged to put away into God’s basket God’s portion: we are so thievish we should steal it if we did not seal it up on the Saturday: our fingers have got the felonious movement, and they would take that money if we did not seal up and stamp it as God’s. Do not despise, therefore, the man who is yet in the narrow gospel of abstention and whose virtue consists in not being vicious. He has undertaken a great lesson: the pages are very long and the print is very small, and therefore it is not often that we have to turn over. The great question we have to put to ourselves is whether we have got hold of the right book, whether we are animated by the right spirit in its perusal. If so, we shall come to its finis then as great and perfected scholars, we shall lay hold of the great liberty and shall be enfranchised among those who have no need of candle, or sun, or moon, for the light is from God, and it needs no intermediate atmosphere through which to come to us. That is our resting point: it is afar off, we are on the road, faint yet pursuing in that pursuit find your rest and hope.

If the disciples of John put a little question, Jesus gave a great reply. He was not answering them only, he was answering the spirit of all coming time. Herein you have the reason why sometimes a great answer was given to a small inquiry. The individuals who put the question spoke for themselves alone, expressed their momentary fretfulness or surprise, but Jesus Christ in every little question saw the enquiries that would fall upon his cause and kingdom through all time, and therefore he spread out his answer beyond the immediate occasion that elicited it. Hear this marvellous answer, struck from him in a moment. “Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. No man putteth a piece of new cloth into an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break and the wine runneth out and the bottles perish, but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.” Christ’s replies were all extemporaneous: never did he retire to consider any question that was put to him: the answer was plucked out of his eternity, it was always ready. If he could have paused for one moment he would have lost the crown of his deity. In the instancy of his replies was the fulness of his light: you had but to touch him with right fingers and you drew from him the healing virtue.

What then is his own notion of our union with him? The figure is beautiful. We are children of the bride-chamber, and he is the bridegroom, and we are gathered around a wedding table, and the air vibrates and dances under the thrill and shock of the wedding bells. “Fasting?” saith he; “it is a stranger to a scene like this, it is an anti-climax, it is an alien that cannot speak the language of this fair land.” We are not called to gloom and mourning and falling of the head, nor are we summoned to take the bulrush and sackcloth and ashes. My Father’s house is a bride-chamber, the sanctuary is a place where the wedding guests assemble, the temple of the Lord is the place where the life-wine is poured out in rivers for the soul’s ample drinking. Child, young one, spirit of delight and hope, you thought the church was a gloomy place: if there is any gloom in it, blame the human fingers that brought it to the place. The high ideal of the church is joy in its keenest accent, pleasure without alloy, the very ecstasy and rapture of gladness. Christianity tell the world that her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. When Zion is looking round and considering what key-note she shall take, say unto her, “Rejoice, rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.”

Yet the Lord keeps us on the right lines for one swift moment, quicker than the twinkling of an eye. In this passage he directs attention to the highest point of joy, and then he descends to the common average line of life, and says, “But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.” Then they will base their ceremonies on reason, then the ceremonial observances of the church shall not be priestly tricks, for they shall come out of the heart’s wound, out of the life’s bitter grief; they shall not be calendared for punctual observance, according to the movements of the clock, but they shall express an inner, real, secret, profound, unutterable grief. When that black grief seizes thee, thou needest not turn to some man-written diary to know whether it is fast-day or not. Every heart will be its own calendar, every life will keep its own fasts, and no man needs ask the meaning of the dejection which shall then picture itself on the worn face. It shall bear so clearly the autograph of the heart, that no man, wayfaring or foolish, can misread such writing.

There are those who ask questions about fasts and feasts and new moons and special days mechanical scholars, mechanical Christians, technical purists, persons who need to go to ink-written paper to know what they have to do next. Is the bridegroom with you? If you can say “Yes,” then eat and drink, yea eat and drink abundantly, and let your soul delight itself in fatness, whatever the calendar may say. Has the bridegroom gone is his chair vacant is his sunlike face no more the centre of the feast and the security of its delight? I need not exhort you to grief and mourning, the heart will know what to do: follow the intuitions of the heart in these matters, and then your ceremonies will not be tricks of the hand, but expressions of the inner life, your fasting and your feasting shall be accounted sacraments in Heaven.

Nor was the answer parabolically beautiful only, it was philosophically broad and true. No man putteth a piece of new cloth into an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. You are not to be partly one thing and partly another: the left hand is not to be a Jew and the right hand a Christian. That is not Christ’s idea of his own purpose and his own kingdom. We are one thing only. There are those that are least in the kingdom of heaven, and there are those that are greatest; but they are all in the kingdom of heaven; and he that is least in the kingdom of heaven, is greater than he that is greatest outside. You cannot be both Jew and Christian, both believer and unbeliever, both infidel and worshipper. You are the one or you are the other, and if you are trying to unite the two, then you will know by experience and loss that men who put new wine into old bottles lose both the bottles and the wine. What are you? Under whose banner do you come? Whose name do you bear? I ask not whether you are giants in the kingdom, but whether you are little children in the house, just breathing, crying, cooing, laughing, wondering, looking with eyes that are all wonder and but little vision. Let your hearts reply, and according to their answer let the exhortation come, for no other exhortation can touch the reality of the case.

Do not fast by rule, do not go to church because of mere custom, do not read the Bible according to the measurement which you have laid out. If you are still in the state of pupilage which requires such mechanical help, far be it from me to deny you the advantage of such assistance. Some of you will need to say you will read so much scripture today and to-morrow: if any of you have grown away from that mechanical arrangement, as I trust most of us have done, do not visit with severity of criticism your opinions upon those who have not attained your height of excellence. I cannot bind myself to read so many verses in the day, nor can I bind myself to fast on this day month. I must let the day bring its own religion, I must let the day deliver its own letters, I must let the day bring its own angels. I cannot forecast my religious doings and observances: to-morrow the bridegroom may have gone, and I shall not need you to tell me to fast: my head will sink, and in the chamber of the heart there will be a great vacancy and a fatal gloom. To-morrow he may come back, and this hand will thrust itself out to find the rope that rings the loudest bell. God make us all real, for reality is the glory of piety.

I am surprised that I find so good a stopping place in the seventeenth verse, yet the eighteenth verse opens in a way which constrains me to go on. “While he yet spake these things unto them——” Christ was a speaker that was often interrupted. Some of us meaner talkers cannot bear interruption; to be broken in upon is fatal to our lame speech, because we are not speakers, we are reciters or readers of a lesson, or performers of a trick. If we talked right out of the temple and sanctuary of our life, we could bear to have our speech punctuated by divers kinds of interruptions, and especially by those interruptions which called us to beneficent labour. “While he yet spake these things unto them,” whilst there was wonder on the face of those who received the answer, whilst the air was still stirring with the vibrations of his sacred and revealing voice, whilst the question was yet under consideration, “behold there came a certain ruler and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead, but come and lay thy hand upon her and she shall live.” We began with a little question, we come into a tragic prayer. Such, indeed, is the sharp transition of life. Now the great Teacher has to answer the technical enquiry, and now to recall the dead, and now to redeem the world.

The ruler’s little child was twelve years old, and she was dead, yet he said, “Come and lay thy hand upon her and she shall live.” ” Thy hand” are not all hands alike? Is there a science of palmistry are there those who read the man in the hand are not all grips of the same intensity? Why say, “Thy hand” could no other hand be found? We are sometimes shut up to the help of one man, even in our lower life. “O for our own doctor: his very voice would do the patient good. O for our own physician: he knows just what to give when the sufferer is in this crisis of agony. O for our old mother: there was healing, there was comfort in her gentle hand. O for the old father if he had been here he would have found the key to open this gate. O for the old pastor that first showed us the light and brought us to prayer he would know what to say to us just now.” We have, therefore, analogy to help us in this matter. In the great crises of life there is often only one hand that can help us. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. In thy hand is both honour and might.

The good hand of my God be upon me. Out of whose hand do you take your daily food? Thou openest thine hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing. Lay thine hand upon us even when we are dead, and we shall live again. Dear hand, wounded hand, mighty hand, hand of the Loving One, lay it upon us, before us, behind us, round about us keep us in thine hand and let our names be written on its palm.

See the life of our Lord the bridegroom making all the children of the bride-chamber happy, intoxicating them with the sacred wine of his own joy, answering a little technical question and hastening to recall the dead to life: for we read, “And Jesus arose and followed him, and so did his disciples.” When did he ever refuse the request of a broken heart? When did he ever say “No” to the contrite spirit? When did he ever pierce the up-turned eyes of contrition with sharp darts of rebuke? He arose and followed him like a servant. He made himself of no reputation, he took upon him the form of a slave and became obedient, obedient unto death, obedient unto the death of the cross. Not obedience in any of its reluctant forms or manifestations, but the utter, complete obedience that left nothing undone.

What is there in your house to-day is death there? Ask Jesus to go home with you, and you will have light at eventide. Is there a great grief at home today? Take Jesus with you and he will sanctify the bitter grief. Is the house very empty today, and cold, and lonely, and are you afraid to hear your own footfall within the unsympathetic walls? Take the guest with you he can break the bread, and make a feast of it in the breaking, and he will fill up every vacancy and make you glad, if not with immediate restoration, with a great hope that shall be more precious than any satisfaction that is possible within the bounds of time and space. With Christ in the house we have companionship, sufficiency, rest, thankfulness, hope and there is nothing else in heaven.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

14 Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?

Ver. 14. Then came to him the disciples of John ] These sided with the Pharisees against our Saviour out of emulation and self-love, the bane and break neck of all true love; yea, they were first in the quarrel. A doleful thing, when brethren shall set against brethren, Hebrews vex one another, Exo 2:13 ; and Christians, as if they wanted enemies, fly in the faces of one another. St Basil was held a heretic, even of them that held the same things as he did, and whom he honoured as brethren; all the fault was that he outshone them, and they envied him the praise he had for opposing Arianism, which was such, as that Philostorgius the Arian wrote that all the other orthodox divines were but babies to Basil. How hot was the contention between Luther and Carolostadius, merely out of a self-seeking humour and desire of pre-eminence. How extremely violent are the Lutherans against the Calvinists. In the year 1567 they joined themselves at Antwerp with the Papists against the Calvinists. And Luther somewhere professeth that he will rather yield to transubstantiation than remit anything of consubstantiation. a

Why do ye and the Pharisees fast often ] The Pharisees were parlous fasters, when they devoured widows’ houses, and swallowed ill-gotten goods as gnats down their wide gullets, which therefore Christ calls , the inwards. Their fasts were mere mock fasts. So were those of John, Archbishop of Constantinople, surnamed the Faster, who yet was the first that affected the title of universal bishop, so much cried down by Gregory the Great. These Pharisees had sided with and set on John’s disciples in their master’s absence; like the renegade Jesuits, to keep up that bitter contention that is between the Calvinists and Lutherans, have a practice of running over to the Lutheran Church, pretending to be converts, and to build with them.

a The conversion in the Eucharist of the whole substance of the bread into the body and of the wine into the blood of Christ, only the appearances (and other ‘accidents’) of bread and wine remaining: according to the doctrine of the Roman Church. Distinguished from consubstantiation, in which the elements of the bread and wine are held to coexist with the body and blood of Christ. D

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

14. ] According to the detailed narrative of St. Mark ( Mar 2:18 ) it was the disciples of John and of the Pharisees who asked this question. St. Luke continues the discourse as that of the former Pharisees and Scribes. This is one of those instances where the three accounts imply and confirm one another, and the hints incidentally dropped by one Evangelist form the prominent assertions of the other.

The fasting often of the disciples of John must not be understood as done in mourning for their master’s imprisonment, but as belonging to the asceticism which John, as a preacher of repentance, inculcated. On the fasts of the Pharisees, see Light-foot in loc.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 9:14-17 . The fast-question (Mar 2:18-22 ; Luk 5:33-39 ). . Our evangelist makes a temporal connection out of what in Mark is merely topical, another of the group of incidents showing Jesus in conflict with current opinion and practice. Where it happened cannot be determined, but it is brought in appositely after the feast of the publicans, serving with it to illustrate the free unconventional life of the Jesus-circle. . . The interrogants here are John’s disciples; in Mark, unknown persons about John’s disciples with the Pharisees; in Luke, who treats this incident as a continuation of the last, the fault-finders are the same as before ( ). Mark probably gives the true state of the case. Some persons unknown, at some time or other, when other religious people were fasting, and the Jesus-circle were observed not to be fasting, came and remarked on the dissidence. : the interrogants wanted to know the reason. But the important thing for us is the fact , that Jesus and His disciples did not conform to the common custom of religious people, including the disciples of the Baptist. It is the first instance of an extensive breach with existing religious usage. : the broad patent fact; if they did any fasting it was not apparent.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 9:14-17

14Then the disciples of John came to Him, asking, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” 15And Jesus said to them, “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. 17Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Mat 9:14 “then the disciples of John came to Him” It is uncertain whether they were (1) truly interested, (2) truly confused, or (3) trying to trick Him. They, like the Pharisees, were uninvited guests, but were apparently present at the feast. There were many disciples of John the Baptist, as can be seen from Act 19:1 ff.

“Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast” In the Old Testament there was only one official fast day called Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement, cf. Leviticus 16) held each year. However, the rabbis had made the second and fifth days of the week fast days also (cf. Luk 18:12), supposedly basing them on the day that Moses went up on Mt. Sinai and on the day that he came back down. Fasting had become a way to prove one’s religious commitment. Jesus does not condemn the practice, but neither does He affirm it as required. See SPECIAL TOPIC: FASTING at Mat 6:16.

There is a Greek manuscript problem in this verse connected with the term ” often,” found in NKJV and NRSV, apparently from the parallel in Luk 5:33. The Markan parallel Mat 2:18 just has “fast.” The UBS4 Committee put the other term “much” in brackets because they were uncertain whether it was original with Matthew or added later by a copyist from Luke.

Mat 9:15 The grammar of this question expects a ” no” answer.

“But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast” Jesus assumed that His disciples would fast after He was crucified. This is the first time that the crucifixion was implied. The verb apairo (” taken away”), used in this phrase, has violent connotations (cf. Mar 2:20; Luk 5:35). Jesus’ analogy of “the bridegroom,” had Messianic connotations. See Special Topic: Fasting at Mat 6:16.

Mat 9:16-17 There has been much discussion about how to apply this truth. It seems to emphasize the need to be flexible in one’s faith. However, one must be careful as to the nature and extent of this flexibility. It is in reality a condemnation of rabbinical Judaism’s literalistic interpretation of the Oral Tradition. Jesus’ message was radically new and different from the Jewish sects of His day! God help us, sometimes we are more committed to our traditions and legalisms than we are to a dynamic, obedient, daily relationship with God (cf. Isa 6:9-10; Isa 29:13). This parable is paralleled in Mar 2:19-20 and Luk 5:33-39. Something new has come (i.e., the gospel) and it has changed everything!

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

came = come.

fast oft. Compare Luk 18:12.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

14.] According to the detailed narrative of St. Mark (Mar 2:18) it was the disciples of John and of the Pharisees who asked this question. St. Luke continues the discourse as that of the former Pharisees and Scribes. This is one of those instances where the three accounts imply and confirm one another, and the hints incidentally dropped by one Evangelist form the prominent assertions of the other.

The fasting often of the disciples of John must not be understood as done in mourning for their masters imprisonment, but as belonging to the asceticism which John, as a preacher of repentance, inculcated. On the fasts of the Pharisees, see Light-foot in loc.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 9:14. , then) At the time of the Feast.[413]- , come to Him) of set purpose.- , the disciples of John) They were half-way between the Pharisees and the disciples of Jesus, and appear on this occasion to have been instigated by the Pharisees.[414]-Cf. Luk 5:33.- , Thy disciples) They proceed modestly, and do not enquire concerning John or Jesus Himself.

[413] It was also the day of the public fasts, as it appears, which were celebrated not by the enactment of divine Law, but according to the private will of certain individuals.-Harm., p. 283.

[414] For Matthew in this passage mentions the disciples of John; Mark (ch. Mar 2:18) mentions the same persons in company with the Pharisees; Luke mentions the Scribes and Pharisees.-Harm. 1. c.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Mat 9:14-15

Jesus and the Disciples of John

Mat 9:14-15

14, 15 Then come to him the disciples of John.-The question of fasting is now brought to the attention of Jesus; it is recorded by Mark (Mar 2:18-22) and by Luke (Luk 5:33-38) with only slight variations from Matthew’s record. The disciples of John were the disciples of John the Baptist; Mark adds “and the Pharisees”; so the Pharisees joined the disciples of John in asking the question, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?” It seems that John’s disciples were honest in making the inquiry, and the Pharisees may have been honest, but they are so hypocritical that we never know when they make an honest inquiry. Luke in recording this adds “prayers” to the practice of fasting. The Pharisees fasted regularly every Monday and Thursday, and on many special occasions, as in times of pestilence, famine, war, and droughts. John had taught his disciples to fast and the Pharisees were taught to fast, but “thy disciples fast not” was the accusation that they brought against Jesus. At least, the disciples of Jesus did not fast according to the tradition of the Pharisees. John’s disciples did not ask Jesus why they fasted or why the Pharisees fasted; they were satisfied that their practice was correct, but they wanted to know why Jesus did not teach his disciples to fast. The feast at Matthew’s house which was on a fast day (see Mar 2:18) naturally would bring this question up. It is very likely that the Pharisees prompted the disciples of John to ask this question.

Jesus said unto them, Can the sons of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them?-The friends, or companions, of the bridegroom were called “sons of the bridechamber” because they had access to it during the bridal feast. (Jdg 14:10-11.) The festivities at a marriage were commonly prolonged for a week; the guests invited to a wedding go for joy and to have a good time generally; they go to feast and not to fast. If the bridegroom should be suddenly taken away from them by accident, sickness or death, there would be occasion for fasting; but so long as the bridegroom was present his friends enjoyed the feast with him. Jesus seems to have alluded to the hour when he himself would be taken from his disciples, but so long as Jesus was present with his disciples there was no occasion for mourning.

[There was no occasion for the disciples to fast and sorrow while he was with them to comfort them. But the time would come when he would leave them, then they would fast and mourn. Fasting is usually connected with mourning. The disciples after his departure would have frequent occasion for mourning and sorrow.]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Chapter 19

What A Wonderful Savior!

Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. And when Jesus came into the rulers house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.

(Mat 9:14-26)

As I read this passage of Holy Scripture, my hearts response to this display of our Saviors wisdom, goodness, and power is, What a wonderful Savior! I am certain that Matthew was inspired by God the Holy Spirit to record these events as he did, without any interpretive comment, so that we might see in these things something of the grandeur, greatness, and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The man of whom Matthew speaks, the man who said and did the things described in this passage is God; and this great God-man is our Savior. His name is called Wonderful, because everything about him is wonderful.

Wonderful in Grace

He is a wonderful Savior, indeed, who is longsuffering, patient, gentle, kind and gracious to such sinful disciples as all his disciples are in this world.

It is a painful and shameful fact, but it is a fact that all the Lords people in this world are sinners still. And being sinners we often behave as such. Nothing more betrays the evil that remains in us than the strife and division that exists among true believers. All too often, throughout the history of Gods church, those who truly are brethren have behaved as though they were enemies!

Paul and Barnabas were both faithful servants of God; but they had such a strong division over John Mark that they never worked together again. The conflict was needless; but the division was permanent (Act 15:36-41). How sad! How painful! How shameful! Yet, that is what happened then; and that is what still happens far too often today. Brethren here are sometimes incapable of living and working together peaceably. That is a fact that reveals much about our fallen nature and depraved hearts, horribly dishonoring to our God, but a fact nonetheless. Blessed God, our Savior, hasten the day when every breach in Zion shall be healed. Until he does, let us strive to avoid strife among Gods saints.

Here in Mat 9:14, the disciples of John the Baptist, who were also the disciples of the Lord Jesus, came to the Lord Jesus with a word of reproof because they presumed that he and his disciples did not fast. Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?(Mat 9:14).

While there is much in their behavior that is reprehensible, it must be acknowledged that these disciples of John did behave with integrity. They did not murmur and gossip like the scribes and Pharisees. They had a problem that greatly concerned them; but rather than sitting around in a stew, talking about it, they came directly to the Master with it. One of their number must have said, Wait a minute brethren. If weve got a problem with what appears to be a matter of grave error, there must be some explanation for it. Lets go talk to the Master. Much evil could be avoided if men and women would behave like this!

Yet, there is much in the conduct of these men that is reprehensible. Like the Pharisees, they proclaimed their own goodness (Pro 20:6). They judged their brethren by the yardstick of their own rules. Fasting was one of the customs of the Pharisees, a custom they had accepted as a required display of godliness. Because they did not see the disciples fasting, they presumed that they did not fast. And they appear to have cast a slur upon the Lord Jesus because of the presumed bad conduct of his disciples.

However, neither Matthew, Mark, nor Luke indicate that the Lord Jesus was angry or upset with these men. That fact is as instructive as it is comforting. For he knoweth our frame: He remembereth that we are dust (Psa 103:14). Our God and Savior is he of whom it is written, He delighteth in mercy (Mic 7:18). Let us imitate him (Eph 4:32 to Eph 5:2).

We should never presume anything evil concerning Gods saints. We should never presume that we know what goes on in the heart of another. We should never presume that we know what another persons private life is like. Gods people are his people, not ours. His servants are his servants, not ours. They stand or fall before him. We must not set ourselves up as judges over them (Rom 14:4; Rom 14:14).

How thankful we ought to be that our Saviors grace is immutable, indestructible, and effectual. He who gives no indication of anger toward Johns disciples for their evil presumption is our great God, who will never charge his own with sin (Rom 4:8). Having pardoned us of all our transgressions through the blood of Christ, our God beholds no evil in his people (Jer 50:20). Rather, he beholds us in Christ as perfect, complete, and holy. If he beholds all his people this way, how much more we ought to do so! In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves (Php 2:3).

Wonderful in Identification

In Mat 9:15 the Lord Jesus graciously and tenderly identifies himself with his disciples. And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.

Rather than getting into a dispute with these men about a matter of insignificance, our Lord seized the opportunity to identify himself with us in one of the most tender, intimate, and suggestive ways imaginable. He calls himself the Bridegroom. Johns disciples could not have missed the significance of this (Joh 3:29). It was true that his disciples were not known to fast. Here the Lord Jesus comes to their defense and explains why that was the case.

In Bible times marriages were arranged; and the marriage of the Lord Jesus Christ was arranged. The marriage was arranged and the bride was chosen by God the Father in eternal election. The bride chosen is the church of God (Eph 5:25-27). The children of the bridechamber, the Friends of the Bridegroom, are Gods servants, all true gospel preachers. In those days of old the center of attention in a wedding was not the bride but the bridegroom; and our Lord Jesus is our Bridegroom! Let him have all the attention and adulation!

What the bridegroom is to the bride, the Lord Jesus Christ is to every sinner who trusts him. He loves us with deep, everlasting, unchangeable love. He has taken us into an indissolvable union with himself (Eph 4:30). By his death as our Substitute, he paid all our debts with his blood. He supplies all our needs. He sympathizes with us in all our troubles. He bears all our affronts, sins, and horrible thoughts and acts of unfaithfulness to him. With this Bridegroom there is no putting away! And all the glory that he has received from his Father he has given to his bride, the church, the Lambs wife (Joh 17:5; Joh 17:22; Rev 19:7). Spurgeons explanation of Mat 9:15 is excellent

He is the Bridegroom who came to woo and win his bride, those who followed him were the guests, the Bridegrooms best men and attendants, it was for them to rejoice while the Bridegroom headed their company, for sorrow is not suitable for wedding-feasts. Our Lord is that Bridegroom of whom Solomon sang in the Song of Songs, and we who enjoy his fellowship are one with him in his joy. Why should we fast while he is near? Can we allow little things to kill our great joy? Can we, in consistency with reason, and in harmony with respect for our Lord, mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with us?

But Jesus was to go. He says himself, The Bridegroom shall be taken from them. Here first he speaks about his death. Did his disciples note the warning word? When their Beloved was gone, they would have fasting enough. How true was this! Sorrows crowded in upon them when he was gone. It is the same with us. Our Lord is our joy: his presence makes our banquet, his absence is our fast, black and bitter. All Ritualistic fasting is the husk: the reality of fasting is known only to the child of the bridechamber when his Lord is no more with him. This is fasting indeed, as some of us know full well.

There is no wedding without a Bridegroom, no delight without Jesus. In his presence is fullness of joy, in his absence is depth of misery. Let but the heart rest in his love and it desireth nothing more. Take away a sense of his love from the soul, and it is dark, empty, and nigh unto death.

Wonderful in Teaching

In Mat 9:16-17 our Lord Jesus shows himself to be a tender Master and teaches us how to deal with young disciples. No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.

In the family of God there are little children, young men, and fathers (1Jn 2:12-14). Little children are not to be dealt with as young men, or fathers, but as little children. Sometimes those who should be fathers are still just little children, and must be dealt with as such (Heb 5:12-14). Just as a seamstress would never put a new piece of cloth into and old pair of trousers to patch them, so we must not expect from babes the maturity of fathers and must not put them in the place of fathers. If we do, we are sure to regret it. Just as a winemaker would never put new wine in an old bottle, lest it burst, so we must not impose upon young converts the rigid discipline we ought to impose upon ourselves, lest we do them great harm. We must not impose upon men what they are not able to bear. We must never neglect the doctrines of the gospel. We must not fail to teach the ordinances of the gospel. We must take care to train young believers in the way of Christ. But we must be patient with the Lords little children. They are usually more harsh and hasty in their judgments than they will be in time, more strict and unbending in their thoughts of others than they will be when they have more experience in grace, more highly opinionated than they will be when they know more, more susceptible to error than they will be when they have been made to know their own weakness, and more rash and erratic in their behavior than they will be when they have been through heavy trials (2Ti 2:24-25).

These parabolic statements given by our Savior also demonstrate the folly of man in substituting anything and everything for a real work of grace and true godliness. Throughout history, in every part of the world, it is ever the trait of fallen man to attempt to gain favor with God by doing something. In his proud self-righteousness man will readily fast, give alms, attend church, perform disciplined religious duties, reform his life, and make great sacrifices in the hope of attaining salvation by his own works. He sews the new cloth of religion into the old garment of nature, and puts the new wine of religion into the old bottle of nature. But, seeking righteousness by their own works, they will not submit to and trust Christ for the whole of their acceptance with God. That makes their religion both foolish and harmful. The old creature is only dressed up in a new form; but no transformation has taken place, there has been no regeneration, no work of grace in the soul. Robert Hawker wrote

Jesus makes use of two beautiful similitudes to shew the folly of it. The new cloth put into the old garment; and the new wine into old bottles neither of which can receive into union what is altogether the reverse of themselves. The strength of the new cloth will only tend to rend the old; and the old dried skins of bottles must burst if new fermenting wine is put into them. In like manner, the new robe of Jesus righteousness cannot be joined to patch up our filthy rags, neither can the new wine of the Gospel be received into the old, unrenewed skin of nature. But when the Holy Ghost hath by regeneration made all things new, and Christs righteousness is received as the new robe of salvation; and the blood of Christ as the wine that maketh glad the heart of man; both then are preserved and blessed.

Wonderful in Salvation

In Mat 9:18-26 our blessed Redeemer show himself wonderful in the salvation he performs by two great miracles of grace.

While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. And when Jesus came into the rulers house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.

Matthew shows us two examples of the Lord honoring faith. He blends these two great miracles together by the direction of God the Holy Spirit, because the one runs into the other, and both serve mutually to illustrate the glory of Christ and the omnipotence of his saving grace. Try to picture the scene drawn for us by the pen of the inspired writer.

First we see a man whose daughter is dead, asking the Lord Jesus to come, lay his hand on his dead child, and restore her life. To this great request, which exemplified great faith, the Lord Jesus readily complied and started to go with the man. Can you imagine the hope and joyful anticipation that must have flooded that fathers heart as the Son of God was going to raise his darling child to life? But as he was going, a woman with an issue of blood interrupted the procession, touching the Lord Jesus with a hand of faith. When she touched him, the procession came to a halt. The Lord Jesus paused to cure that poor woman, honoring and commending her faith.

Mark adds a little color that Matthew omits. He tells us that, while the Lord Jesus was speaking to this woman, there came certain from the ruler of the synagogues house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead, why troublest thou the master? Luke tells us the same thing (Mar 5:35; Luk 8:49). What a trial that must have been to the mans faith! He must have thought to himself, Now it is too late. My daughter is dead. Had he such fears, they were ill-founded. He who had begun his good work would finish it. He had started to the rulers house to heal his daughter who was dying. And he would go on to the place to raise his daughter from the dead. Our increasing need is not a hindrance to Christs power and grace, but only a better background upon which he will display his grace and power.

In the healing of this woman we are given a tremendous, instructive picture. Mark and Luke, in their more detailed accounts of this event, inform us that she had been in this sorrowful condition of weakness and uncleanness for twelve long years, and that she had spent all her living on physicians of no value, hoping to obtain a cure. Yet, she was no better, but only grew worse. How anxious sinners are to make any sacrifice, try any religious medicine, and submit to the tortures of religious rehabilitation at the hands of quake religious physicians! All the while their condition just gets worse. Until the sin sick soul comes to Christ, there is no hope. All the attempted cures of religious experience and religious works are vanity. But as soon as the sinner in desperate need comes to the Savior in faith, his malady is gone!

Truly this daughter of Abraham was a woman of remarkable faith. Her faith honored the Lord Jesus; and the Lord Jesus honored her faith. He said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. Obviously, it was Christ who made her whole, not her faith. Yet, it was her faith in Christ that fetched his healing power to her body and to her soul. So, while we admire her faith, let us admire and honor him who gave her faith. As Spurgeon put it, Thus he put the crown upon the head of her faith, because her faith had already set the crown on his head. Though she did not know it at the time, the Lord Jesus had given her this lively faith, just as he gave her the blessing of grace she needed. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

Immediately, the Lord Jesus went on to the ruler of the synagogues house. His darling daughter was now dead. By all human reason, all hope was gone. But that was not the case. He who is the Resurrection and the Life had come to give life to a dead child; and she must live again. With the ease of omnipotence, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. By his omnipotent grace the dead are raised up (Mat 11:5) still. With the ease of omnipotent, irresistible grace, he still raises up those who are dead in trespasses and in sins. With that same ease of omnipotent grace, he is able to raise up and revive our languishing souls; and he will (Hos 6:1-3).

Faith honors God and God honors faith. The Lord Jesus honored the rulers strong faith by doing what he desired. And he honored the womans, perhaps, weaker faith, doing for her what she desired. It is not the measure of our faith, but the Object of our faith that saves us.

Without question, the Man who performed these wonders of mercy is the omnipotent God. All power is his (Mat 28:18-20; Joh 17:2). He who is God our Savior has power over all flesh (Joh 17:2), all events (Rom 8:28), and Satan too (Rev 20:1-3). He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death (Psa 68:20). Let his fame go abroad into all the earth!

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

The Joy of the Kingdom

Mat 9:14. Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?

The disciples of John, like their leader, were ascetics; and therefore, like the Pharisees, abounded in fasts. They were scandalized because the disciples of Jesus were seen at feasts, and were not known to fast. They did not murmur in secret like the scribes, but had the matter out face to face. They came to him. Like honest friends, who felt hurt, they came to headquarters, and asked the Lord himself. This open expression prevented after-dissension, and it was therefore wise. When good men differ, it is well to refer the matter to the Lord himself. To agree to differ may be all very well, but to have the difference removed by explanation is better far.

Mat 9:15. And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.

Here our Lord answered the second part of their enquiry; the first part they must answer on their own account. They knew, or ought to have known, why they and the Pharisees fasted. Why his disciples did not fast he proceeds to explain. He is “the Bridegroom”, who came to woo and win his bride; those who followed him were the guests, the Bridegroom’s best men and attendants; it was for them to rejoice while the Bridegroom headed their company; for sorrow is not suitable for wedding-feasts. Our Lord is that Bridegroom of whom Solomon sang in the Song of songs, and we who enjoy his fellowship are one with him in his joy. Why should we fast while he is near? Can we allow little things to kill our great joy? Can we, in consistency with reason, and in harmony with respect for our Lord, mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with us?

But Jesus was to go. He says himself, “The Bridegroom shall be taken from them.” Here first he speaks about his death. Did his disciples note the warning word? When their Beloved was gone, they would have fasting enough. How true was this! Sorrows crowded in upon them when he was gone. It is the same with us. Our Lord is our joy: his presence makes our banquet; his absence is our fast, black and bitter. All Ritualistic fasting is the husk: the reality of fasting is known only to the child of the bridechamber when his Lord is no more with him. This is fasting indeed, as some of us know full well.

There is no wedding without a Bridegroom, no delight without Jesus. In his presence is fulness of joy; in his absence is depth of misery. Let but the heart rest in his love and it desireth nothing more. Take away a sense of his love from the soul, and it is dark, empty, and nigh unto death.

Mat 9:16. No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.

Jesus came not to repair Israel’s worn vesture, but to bring new robes. Even if a mere mending had been aimed at, it could not have been effected through his disciples copying old ways. New cloth which has been unshrunk is not fit to be used as a patch to mend an old garment, fully shrunk by many washings. His disciples must act consistently, and not join untimely fasting to their enjoyment of his company. They were not the kind of persons to repair the old religion of Judaism, which had become worn out. They were new men, unshrunk by the spirit of tradition; and to try to enclose them within the vesture of legal Ritualistic religion would not tend to unity, but the reverse. Genuine believers had better not attempt fellowship with ceremonialists; they will soon find themselves out of place. Jesus did not come to patch up our old outward religiousnesses, but to make a new robe of righteousness for us. All attempts to add the gospel to legalism will only make the rent worse. It may be added that rash attempts to unite the various churches by comprehending all their errors within the pale of supposed truth, will only increase the present lamentable divisions, and postpone real unity to a distant day.

Mat 9:17. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.

His teaching and spirit could not be associated with the Pharisaic order of things. Judaism in its degenerate condition was an old skin bottle which had seen its day, and our Lord would not pour the new wine of the kingdom of heaven into it. John’s disciples were trying to emulate the Pharisees, and make common cause with them to save the old church. Jesus would have nothing to do with this project: he would have a new church for his new doctrine and for his new spirit. There was to be no amalgamation: Christianity was not to be an outgrowth of Rabbinism. There was to be a severance between Jesus, and the scribes and their school of thought; for he who had come was resolved to make all things new. There is rare teaching here, and guidance for the present crisis. Compromises are often proposed, and we have good people, like John’s disciples, who would have us conform to what they think good in things established; but we had better act consistently, and begin de novo. The old cloth will always be tearing, and tearing all the worse because of our new pieces; therefore let us leave the old garment to those who prefer antiquity to truth.

The mixing of wedding feasts and funeral fasts, the patching of old cloth with pieces unfulled and unshrunk, and the putting of new wine into old bottles, are all pictures of those mixtures and compromises, which cannot, in the nature of things, serve any good and lasting purpose. If we follow the rejoicing Bridegroom, let us not try to keep in with the fasting Pharisees, or the sacramentarian legalists of the day. Let the Scientific Doubters also go; for faith is not of their mind: she knows, and can never be Agnostic. Let us have done with the doubts which make us fast, and let us hold high festival while the Bridegroom is still with us by his Spirit.

“We would follow nought beside

Jesus, Jesus crucified.”

Fuente: Spurgeon’s The Gospel of the Kingdom

the disciples: Mat 11:2, Joh 3:25, Joh 4:1

Why: Mat 6:16, Mat 11:18, Mat 11:19, Pro 20:6, Mar 2:18-22, Luk 5:33-39, Luk 18:9-12

Reciprocal: Psa 35:13 – humbled Ecc 7:16 – Be not Luk 18:12 – fast Act 13:2 – fasted Rom 14:3 – judge

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

9:14

Fasting was never commanded as a regular practice but was voluntarily done in times of grief or anxiety. At the time of this conversation John the Baptist had been slain, which is recorded later in this book, and his disciples were fasting in honor of his memory. Not that they were doing so just at the time they came to Jesus, but had been doing so oft or at intervals since his death.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?

[We and the Pharisees fast oft.] Monsters, rather than stories, are related of the Pharisees’ fasts: —

I. It is known to all, from Luk 18:12; that they were wont to fast twice every week. The rise of which custom you may fetch from this tradition: “Ezra decreed ten decrees. He appointed the public reading of the law the second and fifth days of the week: and again on the sabbath at the Mincha [or evening service]. He instituted the session of the judges in cities on the second and fifth days of the week,” etc. Of this matter discourse is had elsewhere: “If you ask the reason why the decree was made concerning the second and fifth days, etc., we must answer, saith the Gloss, from that which is said in Midras concerning Moses; namely, that he went up into the mount to receive the second tables on the fifth day of the week, and came down, God being now appeased, the second day. When, therefore, that ascent and descent was a time of grace, they so determined of the second and fifth days. And therefore they were wont to fast also on the second and fifth days.”

II. It was not seldom that they enjoined themselves fasts, for this end, to have lucky dreams; or to attain the interpretation of some dream; or to turn away the ill import of a dream. Hence was that expression very usual, A fast for a dream; and it was a common proverb, A fast is as fit for a dream, as fire is for flax. For this cause it was allowed to fast on the sabbath, which otherwise was forbidden. See the Babylonian Talmud, in the tract Schabbath; where also we meet with the story of R. Joshua Bar Rabh Idai, who on the sabbath was splendidly received by R. Ishai, but would not eat because he was under a fast for a dream.

III. They fasted often to obtain their desires: “R. Josi fasted eighty fasts, and R. Simeon Ben Lachish three hundred for this end, that they might see R. Chaijah Rubbah.” And often to avert threatening evils; of which fasts the tract Taanith does largely treat. Let one example be enough instead of many; and that is, of R. Zadok, who for forty years, that is, from the time when the gates of the Temple opened of their own accord (a sign of the destruction coming), did so mortify himself with fastings, that he was commonly called Chalsha; that is, The weak. And when the city was now destroyed, and he saw it was in vain to fast any longer, he used the physicians of Titus to restore his health, which, through too much abstinence, had been wasted.

Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels

Mat 9:14. The disciples of John. Luke puts the question in the mouth of the Pharisees, but by this time all the spiritual disciples of John must have become followers of Christ; the rest would lean toward Pharisaism.

Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft? Some authorities omit oft, but it is better to retain it. The Pharisees, it is supposed, fasted twice in the week (Luk 18:12); the remnant of Johns disciples would be led to a similar practice, by his austere life.But thy disciples fast not? The complaint also implies: if you are a teacher from God, why does your teaching result in leading your followers away from old-established forms and customs, confirmed by the example of our own teacher, John. A demand for a compromise between the old and the new, as Mat 9:16 shows. External legalism here assumed to teach Christ; and Johns disciples borrowed aid from the Pharisees whom John denounced.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

The Pharisees themselves had a contention with our Saviour in the foregoing verses; here they set on the disciples of John, to contend with him about fasting, alleging that the disciples of John fasted often, Christ’s disciples not at all.

Our Saviour owns it, that his disciples did not fast at present, for two reasons.

1. Because it was unsuitable to them. 2. Because it was intolerable for them.

It was unsuitable to them, because of Christ’s bodily presence to them; this made it a time of joy and feasting, not of mourning and fasting: whilst Christ the Bridegroom is with them, they must feast and rejoice; when removed from them, there will be cause enough to fast and mourn.

Christ is the bridegroom and his church the bride, which he has espoused and married to himself; and whilst his spouse did enjoy his bodily presence with her, it was a day of joy and rejoicing to her, and mourning and fasting was improper for her.

Again, this discipline of fasting was at present intolerable for the disciples; for they were raw, green, and tender, and could no more bear the severities of religion at present, than an old garment could bear a piece of new stiff cloth to be set into it, which will make the rent worse, if the garment comes to a stretch; nor no more than old bottles can keep new wine. Thus, says Christ, my disciples are young and green, tender and weak, newly converted, they cannot bear the severer exercises of religion presently; but when I am ascended into heaven, I will send down my Holy Spirit, which shall enable them to do all the duties which the gospel enjoins.

Hence we may gather, That young converts, till grown up to some consistency in grace, must not be put upon the severer exercises of religion; but handled with that tenderness and gentleness which becomes the mild and merciful dispensation of the gospel. Our Saviour here commends prudence to his ministers; that they put not their people upon duties beyond their strength, but consult their progress in Christianity, and the proficiency they have made in religion, and treat them accordingly.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 9:14-15. Then While he was at table, came to him the disciples of John, with those of the Pharisees, Mar 2:18; saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often Have frequently our days of solemn devotion, in which we fast, and offer up to God many prayers and supplications? but thy disciples fast not Not at all, or very seldom, but on the contrary eat and drink freely. In the law, we find only one fast-day enjoined, namely, the tenth of the seventh month, on which the national atonement was made. But the Jews, of their own accord, observed many other days of fasting; (see Isa 58:3;) and in our Lords time, days of this kind were more frequent than ever, especially among the Pharisees, who, it seems, generally fasted twice a week; Luk 18:12; and therefore as Jesus did not pretend to teach his disciples a more lax kind of doctrine than that of John and the Pharisees, the disciples of the latter were surprised to find them overlooking so essential a duty. Jesus said, Can the children of the bridechamber The companions of the bridegroom, mourn Mourning and fasting usually go together, as long as the bridegroom is with them? As if he had said, While I am with them, it is a festival time, a season of rejoicing, not mourning: or, as others paraphrase the words, As it would be improper for the guests at a wedding to fast and weep while the marriage solemnity continues; so it would be equally improper for my disciples to fast and mourn at the time when I am personally present with them to give them joy. But the days will come And are at no great distance, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, then shall they fast After I am gone, all my disciples likewise shall be in fastings often Christ did not mean, as the Montanists affirm, that the Pharisaical fasts should be introduced into his Church when he was gone, but that his disciples should fast and mourn on account of the various calamities befalling them after his departure, and that they should repeat these fasts as often as the circumstances of distress and danger in which they were placed required it. Macknight.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Mat 9:14-17. Fasting. The Old and the New (Mar 2:18-22*, Luk 5:33-39).Mt. makes the disciples of John (who were more numerous and important for two or three centuries than is usually recognized; cf. p. 797) put the question. Sons of the bride-chamber means, by a common Heb idiom, wedding-guests; Joh 3:29 has its root here. The old garment is the system deduced from the Law rather than the Law itself; there is no contradiction of Mat 5:17. Lk. takes the patch from a new garmenta double disaster. Note the necessity of new forms (Mat 9:17) unless the new spirit is to be lost; yet Jesus leaves it to His Church to provide them. On fasting cf. Mat 6:16-18.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

9:14 {3} Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?

(3) That is, wicked rivalry in matters of small importance.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The question of fasting 9:14-17 (cf. Mar 2:18-22; Luk 5:33-39)

The Pharisees criticized Jesus’ conduct in the previous pericope. Now John’s disciples criticized the conduct of Jesus’ disciples and, by implication, Jesus.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The people who questioned Jesus here were disciples of John the Baptist who had not left John to follow Jesus. They, as well as the Pharisees, observed the regular fasts that the Mosaic Law did not require. During the Exile and subsequently the Jews had made several of these fasts customary (cf. Zechariah 7). The Pharisees even fasted twice a week.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)