Matthew 9:14-17
14 Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”15 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.
1 6“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17 Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Fasting was part of the observance of the law. The Pharisees did it; proper Jews fasted; John’s disciples fasted. Jesus and his disciples did not. When asked about that, Jesus said that his time with his disciples was to be celebratory and not mournful.
But what’s the significance of the “new wine in new wineskins” paragraph that comes next? Does it relate? I think it does. I think The Law is the old garment and the old wineskin. The new creature of Jesus’ kingdom is the new fabric and the new wine. Jesus asks, “why are you trying to mash together the old and the new?”