New Cloth , Old Garment, New Wine Old Bottles

Food for thought. Hope this helps with your study.

From blb.org

Study Guide for Matthew 9 by David Guzik

David Guzik :: Study Guide for Matthew 9

2. (Mat 9:15-17) The principle: things are different now that the Messiah is here.

And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom 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. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

a. Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? It wasn’t right for Jesus’ disciples to imitate the Pharisees in their hypocritical shows. Nor was it right for them to imitate John’s disciples in their ministry of humble preparation, because the disciples lived in the experience that John tried to prepare people for.

b. But the days will come: There would come a day when fasting would be appropriate for Jesus’ followers, but at the present time when Jesus was among them, it was not that day.

i. The old Puritan commentator John Trapp drew three points from this: “1. That fasting is not abolished with the ceremonial law, but still to be used as a duty of the gospel. 2. That times of heaviness are times of humiliation. 3. That our halcyons here are but as marriage-feasts, for continuance; they last not long.”

ii. There is a slight dark note in the words, “the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them.” It was as if Jesus said, “They are going to take Me away; I threaten their system.” It is the first slight hint of His coming rejection.

c. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break: With this illustration of the wineskins, Jesus explained that He did not come to repair or reform the old institutions of Judaism, but to institute a new covenant altogether. The new covenant doesn’t just improve the old; it replaces it and goes beyond it.

d. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved: Jesus’ reference to the wineskins was His announcement that the present institutions of Judaism could not and would not contain His new wine. He would form a new institution – the church – that would bring Jew and Gentile together into a completely new body (Ephesians 2:16).

i. Jesus reminds us that what is old and stagnant often cannot be renewed or reformed. God will often look for new vessels to contain His new work, until those vessels eventually make themselves unusable. This reminds us that the religious establishment of any age is not necessarily pleasing to Jesus. Sometimes it is in direct opposition to, or at least resisting His work.

ii. Jesus came to introduce something new, not to patch up something old. This is what salvation is all about. In doing this, Jesus doesn’t destroy the old (the law), but He fulfills it, just as an acorn is fulfilled when it grows into an oak tree. There is a sense in which the acorn is gone, but its purpose is fulfilled in greatness.

 

It is as Wesley Briggman posted:

"The principle: things are different now that the Messiah is here."


This is an inductive study I did that I hope helps you:

The context for Matthew 9:16-17 is based in Matthew 9:14-17. This is because Matthew 9:9-13 is a segment. It has a situation and what Jesus said about the situation. The same is true of Matthew 9:14-17. Matthew 9:18 starts a section on a miracle.

That gives you some context.

After that, what I did is to define what is "old" when Jesus talks with John's disciples and what is "new."

At first glance:

new = (the disciples lack of fasting because the Bridegroom is among them)
old = (the fasting of the Pharisees, which is normally commendable under the Law and Prophets)

The logical sequence of Matthew 9:16-17 is:

new + old = failure, new + old = failure, new + new = success

However, when reading the sequence my current definitions of "old" and "new" do not work.

Wisdom is required to determine some more basics, which is where the Spirit's understanding is most evident to me:

Why is the new, new? The bridegroom (Christ or Messiah) is among us.

What is really being talked of with the old? The old way of doing things, is how I put it for a long time. However, thanks to Wesley, this can better be defined as "the old principles."

Now putting all of this together nets you:

new (Jesus the Bridegroom) + the old principles = failure (cloth), This last section is repeated for emphasis (wineskins), new (Jesus the Bridegroom) + new (new principles) = success

Put in English instead of math nets you:

"The principle: things are different now that the Messiah is here."


I hope that is useful, I tend to do things slowly and inductively with the Word, until I am very familiar with what is being said on the page or screen.

 

I assume Jesus speaks of the New Covenant replacing the Old. And how believers make a clean break with the Old.

 

Paul says we are a new creation: “So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

We get new bodies when God saves us but for now the down payment: “But it is God who establishes us together with you in Christ and who anointed us,who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.” (2 Corinthians 1:21–22)

 

Saved = forever. Old body = temporal, New body = forever. We have eternal life now and New bodies to put it in at the resurrection.

 

Matthew connects the question of verse 14 to the previous episode (in 9:9-14), where Matthew, the tax collector was invited to follow Jesus, “Follow me”.

In response the Pharisees asked the question, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (9:11)

Jesus responded, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners” (9:12, 13).​

In verse 14 it is John’s disciples ask a related question, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”

Jesus relates himself to the groom in a wedding. In the OT God is the bridegroom of Israel (Isaiah 54:5–6; 62:5; Jeremiah 3:14; Hosea 2:16–20). Here Jesus as a bridegroom foresees a messianic wedding banquet (Matthew 22:2; 25:10–13; Ephesians 5:25–27; Revelation 19:7–9).​

First we see Jesus feasting in a celebration of the kingdom’s openness to repentant sinners.
Then, in the passage you asked about, we see his disciples not fasting in anticipation of the kingdom’s arrival.

Rob

 

Jesus was speaking to the now time of the new Covenant was at hand, and that their Judaism and OC relationship was soon to end...

 

This is one interpretation. But I think Jesus speaks of the New Covenant totally replacing the Old.

 

Sorry, I got distracted by my job and had to cut my thoughts short.
Let me complete my thought.

Jesus’ way of doing things is incompatible with the way of the Pharisees and John’s disciples.

In the Sermon on the Mount, particularly in the anthesis's (Matthew 5:17, 5:21-22, 5:27-28, 5:31-32, 5:33-34, 5:38-39, 5:43-45) Jesus emphasized that his way differs from (completes/fulfills) the old way of doing things. He didn't eliminate the law but fulfilled it, a wholly new way of being - they are a new wineskin so to speak.
You can't think or act in the old way but need to be make new.
Akin to the Apostle John's use of 'born again'.

Rob