Matthew 9:14-26

Matthew 9:14-26

The distance between Jesus and all others grows larger and larger. He is not part of the main line of Judaism and now a distinction between John the Baptist’s followers and Jesus becomes clear. It is interesting that a movement that formed around John is not like John who was fully committed to Jesus. They were more committed to their message than the one they were called to talk about. Perhaps they wanted to restore Israel rather than follow the Lord.

Jesus does not reject fasting, but He rejected that fasting had merits in it. Jesus clearly fasted at times, but not as a part of works of righteousness. Rituals and rules cannot contain the Gospel. The Good News is so expansive that it cannot be understood wholly in rituals. There are occasions in which, because of the Gospel, we may engage in specific actions, but that is the gospel coming out, not the message of the Gospel itself. Fasting for specific reasons was the practice of the early church. Fasting because everyone else is or it is on a calendar is not enough. A ritual may express the content of our heart, but it must never be mistaken for it.

It is no accident that Jesus used the parable of the wineskins and then used two miracles to demonstrate this truth. To be touched by a woman with an issue of blood and to enter the house with a dead person made one unclean. This is an expression of the old wineskin-the Law. Jesus burst the law by healing and raising the dead. This is the new wineskin with the new wine. There is no way that the ritual of the Law could account for what Jesus did. This was a dramatic demonstration of what the gospel of grace is all about.

"Lord, thank You for rituals that remind me of the Good News, but help to realize that the Gospel is too great and too wonderful to be contained in any form or ritual. AMEN"