The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

Shrunk and Stretched in a New Way:  Mt.9:14 – 17

^9:14  Then the disciples of John came to him, asking, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ ¹⁵ And Jesus said to them, ‘The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they?  But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. ¹⁶ But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. ¹⁷ Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.’

          One of the most charming and succinct descriptions I’ve seen of Christianity takes place in a rabbi’s response to a letter on a website called ‘Ask the Rabbi.’  The original letter read:

Dear Rabbi,

 

With the Pope visiting Israel and all the fanfare, it brings to mind a question I’ve often pondered:  Why did Hashem allow Christianity to become such a major religion?

The rabbi responds:

Dear Karen,

 

Jewish ideas such as “brotherhood of humanity,” “love your neighbor,” and “age of peace” are taken for granted today by much of mankind.  But when Judaism first introduced these ideas to the world, they were revolutionary.  These Jewish concepts have been spread largely by Christianity (and by Islam).  Christianity came to a world in which people were slaughtering to Zeus, Apollo, and a host of other idols, and taught some basic ideas of Judaism, albeit in a distorted form.[1]

          I think the rabbi’s points are in many ways correct.  Yes, Judaism is an historical anomaly to which we are all very indebted, as Thomas Cahill also describes in his popular history book The Gifts of the Jews.  Yes, Christian faith and ethics are certainly built on historic, biblical Judaism.  Yes, Christianity confronted the pagan world with a fresh challenge and invitation that transformed that world.  Yes, Christian faith (and to some degree Muslim faith, although that’s a much longer story) is to a large degree responsible for spreading ideas about a common humanity, loving your neighbor, and the hope for world peace.  If I could sit down with this particular rabbi, I would love to listen to his take on all that.

          I would ask, ‘It sounds as though you appreciate some positive things that Christian faith accomplished.  But it’s my impression that Judaism would not have done these things by itself.  Could Judaism have spread around the world when it was so oriented towards possessing the Promised Land?  Could Judaism have taught the ‘brotherhood of humanity’ when Jews hung hostile signs in the Jerusalem Temple warning Gentiles to keep out of the Jewish section?  Could Judaism have taught an ‘age of peace’ when Jews in the Second Temple period (163 BC – 135 AD) were caught up in militant nationalism?’

          This conversation which I’d love to have illustrates Jesus’ point here about a mismatch.  The transformation of all humanity that he was aiming for could not be carried out from within Judaism as it had become, and perhaps also as it is commonly understood.  Jesus had to bring God’s fresh purposes, which were foretold in the Hebrew Scriptures, into plain view.  He had to lay down a whole new framework.  The Jewish opinion leaders of his day were already sensing that Jesus was doing that.  Jesus gave a fresh ‘law’ of the heart (Mt.5 - 7) and called Jews to give up their land inheritance (‘do not store up treasure on earth’ from Mt.6:19) and called for loving even the Roman invaders (‘love your enemy’ from Mt.5:38).  Jesus was overturning the cleanness protocols of the Mosaic Law as he saw when he touched the unclean leper (Mt.8:1 – 4).  He was praising Gentile faith, as we saw when he praised the centurion (Mt.8:5 – 13) and making excursions into Gentile lands to win spiritual victories, like when he crossed the stormy Sea of Galilee and healed the demoniacs (Mt.8:23 – 34), without ever calling upon them to be circumcised or become Jewish per se.  He was setting forth a vision of the people of God centered not around the Jerusalem Temple, but around himself.  He was bringing about the solution to the internal problem with human nature for which the prophets had hoped (e.g. Jer.31:31 – 34; Ezk.36:26). 

          So, as Matthew 9:14 - 17 illustrates, Jesus was not adhering to the rituals of his day, like fasting according to the Jewish calendar and for Jewish reasons.  He did teach on fasting (Mt.6:16 – 18) and said his disciples would do it later, but for other reasons and with new understandings (Mt.9:15).  The rabbi above seems to ask the same question:  Why did Jesus and/or his followers deform Judaism and spread a distorted form of it?  But in Jesus’ mind, the whole Mosaic framework needed to be replaced with his new Messianic one.  This is why he says that new cloth is not sewn onto an old garment; the shrinking would tear the old garment, which had already shrunk.  Nor is new wine put into an old wineskin; the fermentation process would burst the old wineskin, which had already stretched.  You need a new garment, a new wineskin, i.e. a new spiritual and ethical framework with a new humanity.  Otherwise, the mismatch will create an impossible situation.  Jesus’ pouring out of his Spirit to clothe all believers with a ‘new garment’ and fill all believers with a ‘new wine’ would require a radical shift.  The fundamentals of Judaism – love for God and love for neighbor, God’s creational vision of humanity as male and female, the honoring of the physical creation – would still be the foundation, as the rabbi said.  Jesus, however, gave them a much more radical application.  Or rather he renewed God’s original plans for humanity. 

          Following Jesus always involves an adjustment.  What parts of your life feel shrunk?  What parts of your life feel stretched?  How do you articulate those things?