More on Fasting

Matthew 9: Enlarging the Harvest (3)

Pray Psalm 22.23-25.
You who fear the LORD, praise Him!
All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him,
And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel!
For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
Nor has He hidden His face from Him;
But when He cried to Him, He heard.
My praise shall be of You in the great assembly;
I will pay My vows before those who fear Him.

Sing Psalm 22.23-25.
Darwall: Rejoice, the Lord is King
All you who fear the LORD, now praise His holy Name!
You children of His glorious Word, declare His fame!
We stand in awe of our eternal God, and on His mercy call.

For He has not despised the anguish of our King,
Nor from Him hid His eyes, Who knew such suffering.
Let praise arise from all who love and serve the Ruler of the skies!

Read Matthew 9.1-17; meditate on verses 14-17.
Meditate on “old wine” and “new wine.” Which are you?

Prepare.
1. What do we learn about fasting from these verses?

2. What is the “new wine” to which Jesus refers?

Meditate.
This is the second time Jesus has spoken to the matter of fasting (cf. Matt. 6.16-18). In this case, He answered a query from the disciples of John the Baptist. Jesus associated fasting with mourning and longing. His disciples would fast, He explained, when He, “the bridegroom”, was taken away from them. They would fast out of sorrow, but also in anticipation of rejoicing to see Him again one day. Fasting thus is a discipline that helps us to remember our loss, since Jesus was taken away from us by suffering and death, but also by His ascension. It also trains us to look forward to the joy we will know when He finally returns to consummate His marriage with us. Then we will feast and be full on His unfailing and everlasting love.

Jesus used the metaphor of new wine to contrast old and new—the old ways of Jewish law and tradition with the new ways of the Gospel. You can’t take a little Gospel patch and affix it to someone who’s still wedded to old ways—whether the old ways of Jewish traditionalism or the old ways of a life of sin. The Gospel patch won’t mend or save the old ways, and whatever new wine manages to get into the patched-up wineskin will ultimately be lost. For the new wine of the Gospel, you need a totally new wine skin—a new birth and a new creation (Jn. 3.1-16; 2 Cor. 5.17).

New wine—the Gospel—needs a new wineskin, a new life in the Kingdom. Fasting continues, but with a different focus and application, not to save us, but to remember Jesus’ suffering and our salvation, and to help us look forward to and prepare for His glorious return.

Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
Our dear son Kevin, when he was a lad, had more ways to wear away the knees in his trousers than could be imagined. And I, chagrined to say, am not a mender of note. 

Jesus was using this conundrum as an example of what it is like to try to cram the best news ever—the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom—into souls that are not expanded by the Holy Spirit.

Wine, too. If you put expanding new wine into old wineskins, they just blow apart.

Torn and unmended trousers, and obliterated wineskins with the wine blown out, are not a good look.
Thus, trying to cram Good News into a curmudgeonly heart is equally as messy.
It does not work.

But Jesus recommends this as a remedy: 
“Put new wine into new wineskins and you will preserve both” (Matt. 9.17).
Save yourself the mess and bother.

Hand in hand, as we accept the gift of salvation—new life—we also accept the filling of the Holy Spirit to sanctify us throughout the rest of our lives. We expand together. Averting a massive blow up.

Who falls harder than a “Christian” who doesn’t follow God’s Law?
No one.
It is always messy, troublesome, and extremely hard to clean up.

All who have accepted the gift of salvation, bought at a high price by Jesus (1 Cor. 6.20), need to fast from sin and follow Him, without question or equivocation. Without unmended clothes or blown-up wineskins.

“Cleanse me from secret faults,
keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins.
Let them not have dominion over me.
Then I shall be blameless, and 
I shall be innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart 
be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer” (Ps. 19.12-14).

Fasting from sin pleases the Bridegroom—for Whom we wait with eager expectation—
and keeps the space in our Personal Mission Field well mended and tidy—
without ecclesiastical blow-ups or hedonistic hypocrisy.

Be a mender of note and a sommelier of righteousness.

Reflect.
1. What can you do make sure each day that your heart is ready to receive the new wine of the Gospel?

2. Is it your responsibility to convert anyone to faith in Jesus? Explain.

3. Who gives the “new skins” that the new wine requires? What is your role in that?

What He is saying is this: Until a person has been reborn and, having put aside the old person, puts on the new person because of My passion, he cannot observe right fasting and the precepts of temperance. Otherwise, through undue austerity one may lose even the faith one seems to possess. Jerome (347-420), Commentary on Matthew 1.9.17

Pray Psalm 22.26-28.
Praise the Lord for His salvation, and ask Him to help you in making His Good News known to others in your Personal Mission Field.

Sing Psalm 22.26-28.
Darwall, Rejoice, the Lord is King
Then all the poor shall eat and praise with us the LORD.
Forever we His praise repeat and trust His Word.
Praise God above, all you who keep His vows and who His mercies love!

All nations shall repent and hasten to the LORD;
All those to whom His truth is sent shall praise His Word.
The LORD is King! His sovereign rule on high now we His people sing!

T. M. and Susie Moore

If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment to give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).

Other columns of interest: This week: The Read Moore podcast continues readings from our book, The Kingdom Turn. Our Crosfigell teaching letter presses ahead in a series on the state of the Church in Europe at the time of the Celtic Revival. The ReVision column addresses the question, “How to Church?” Check out our other excellent writers. Click here to see all the other columns and writers available to you.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.