Lord’s Day, Vol. 13 No. 51

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Lord’s Day, Vol. 13 No. 51

Christ the Bridegroom

Luke 5:33-39 (KJV) And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink? 34 And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? 35 But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. 36 And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old. 37 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. 38 But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. 39 No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.

Christ identified Himself as the Bridegroom and His church, the bride. Christ described His earthly ministry as a time when, He, the Bridegroom, is with the bride. As in a wedding banquet, there is much joy and feasting. This was the reason our Lord gave when He was asked why His disciples did not fast. The tradition for the Pharisees was to fast on Monday and Thursday of each week. The disciples of John the Baptizer also fast and pray often.   

Fasting is a laying aside of common necessity and pleasure so that more time, concentration of effort, and undivided attention may be given to prayer, worship, and the study of God’s Word. There are divine blessings from fasting. Daniel fasted that he may obtain wisdom to understanding God’s will for His people, “And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes”(Dan 9:3). It is an earnest and sincere humbling of self to let God be pre-eminent in our hearts.

Christ is saying that there is in the believer’s spiritual life a time for prayer and fasting. It shall be so when He is no longer with them (v35), alluding to His crucifixion and ascension to heaven, when He will no longer be with His disciples and persecution comes. While He is with them, there is salvation and healing wrought through His ministry. It is a time for rejoicing! 

In rebuking the Pharisees, He taught the true spirit of fasting in Matthew 6:16-18 (KJV) Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

Christ further explained concerning the kingdom of God that has been inaugurated at His coming. It is likened to a new garment. It is incompatible with the old garment traditions of the Pharisees – No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old (v36). He rebuked their traditions!

It is also likened to putting new wine in new wine bottles. These wine bottles are made from sheep skin or goat skin. The new wine bottles, allow new wine to be fermented with time and it won’t break because it is able to stretch. However, old wine bottles filled with new wine will break because the old bottles are stiff and already well stretched. The new wine, once it ferments, emits gas that will force the bottle to expand. Old bottles will thus break and give way due to the pressure created from the fermentation process. Christ’s kingdom, is likened to new wine that needs new bottles. Putting new wine, Christ’s teachings, in the old bottles of Jewish traditions, will not do. They are incompatible. Just as the born-again believer leaves his old ways to follow Christ, so the Pharisees, must leave their self-righteous traditions to follow the true spirit of God’s laws as Christ delineated in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7; Luke 6:20-49). 

Christ, the Bridegroom, brings forth His church, that is, His bride, through the preaching of the gospel and the teaching of the whole counsel of God. The believer is sanctified in his life time, awaiting glorification, when Christ, the Bridegroom, will return to bring His church to glory (1 Thess. 4:13-18, 1 Cor. 15:1-57).

This is the mystery that the Apostle Paul explained which Christ has inaugurated at His First Coming that will culminate at His Second Coming, the new wine that require new wine bottles –  1 Corinthians 15:51-53 (KJV) Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 

The old in v39 refers to the old paths, leading us back to the LORD who created the heavens and the earth and man the climax of His created in His image, wherein is the good way “and ye shall find rest for your souls” (Jer. 6:16a). Amen.