33 They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.” 34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.” 36 He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’” ~ Luke 5:33-39
The gospel of Jesus Christ, the message of forgiveness through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, is unique. It is incompatible with any and all other religious belief. It stands alone. Grace is God's idea, the God of the Bible, that is. The idea that the Christian gospel can mix with or blend with any other religious system in any way is absolutely wrong.
This is clear in our text for today and it explains why there was such an ongoing conflict between the religious leaders of Judaism and the Lord Jesus. The hostility from the religious leaders was based upon the fact that Jesus came with a gospel that totally replaced the religion of Judaism.
The religious leaders were self-righteous. This erroneous posture caused them to disassociate themselves from all people that they deemed unclean. They didn't soil themselves by going into a Gentile house or hanging around with tax collectors, and prostitutes. The Lord Jesus, on the other hand, associated with them all the time. He was known as "the friend of sinners and tax collectors,” “the friend of drunkards," because those were the kind of people He came to redeem.
In v.33 we read, "They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking."
The religious leaders were questioning the spirituality of the followers of the Lord Jesus. They wrongly equated spirituality with the good that a human can do.
The religious leaders espoused a routine of prayers and fasting which were of their own invention. Only one time in the entire Old Testament does God command fasting. It is found in Leviticus 16:29-31. And, the fasting was a fasting of sorrow over their sin. At some point, the Jews decided that fasting was spiritual, so they invented routine fasts and prayers. These were not commanded by God.
According to v.34, the Lord Jesus said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?" Weddings often lasted seven days. And, fasting was out of place at a wedding. Fasting was linked with sorrowful prayer, and it was to be done on the Day of Atonement, and it was an expression of sorrow over sin. It was out of place.
It would have been completely ridiculous for Jesus' disciples to fast and mourn when the long-awaited Messiah was in their presence. And again He just shows how completely out of touch the religious leaders were with reality.
Then the Lord Jesus adds in v.35, "But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast." For the disciples of the Lord Jesus, in the very near future the joy was going to end because the bridegroom was to be taken from them. This is the first reference we have in Luke's gospel by the Lord Jesus to His death.
We read in v.36-39, "36 He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”
The Lord Jesus came to provide us with a complete break from religion, or man's attempts to earn the favor of God. In order to get His point across, the Lord Jesus uses these illustrations of the patch and the wineskins. Through these illustration found here in v.34-39 He is saying, "The Gospel of Grace is not compatible with what you Jews had made of Judaism. And for those who aren't willing to come out of their false religions to the gospel, there is no hope."
The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the good news that there is hope for even the worst of sinners. This is His guarantee of forgiveness, His guarantee of reconciliation and His guarantee of holiness and wholeness. Let the hungry and the thirsty come. Let anyone who desires the gift of life receive it without a price.
