Is Jesus a Patch for your Life? S31e118 Matt9:14

How transformative might Jesus be in your life? Is He a patch, or is He the whole?

Here, the disciples of John ask the question, but eventually, so does everybody.  Jesus insists: I am not a patch, I am the whole.  It must have rocked the then hearers, I wonder what it might do for you.

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Transcript

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Morning, my brothers and sisters. Is Jesus a patch for your life? Let's look at Matthew chapter nine, verse fourteen. And we went to Micah chapter six, eight. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. And today we're going to ask, Is Jesus just a patch for your life, or is he is he the whole? He starts with a question about fasting. This is from Matthew chapter 9, verse 14. Then the disciples of John came to him saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. And he's going to change metaphors here now, verse 16. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away, and a worse tear is made. And he changes the metaphor again here. Verse 17, 917. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved. Alright, so let's go to the first picture, which is this morning at a wedding. Now it's a kind of a ridiculous picture, because weddings are to be the most joyful of events. They're like very singular time in in history. And Jesus is making the point, hey, the bridegroom, the groom, is here with us. And this day of all days should be a day of Jesus with celebration and not fasting. So the days of Jesus, the people back then, should should have been precious and poignant and joyful. But here's the bad news: the days of having Jesus' presence are not ongoing. So the bridegroom is going to be taken away at the crucifixion and eventually the ascension. So don't forget John 16, one of my favorite surprise passages of all time, John 16, 7. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. So we are not left alone, we're not orphans. But we still miss Jesus. So surprising in the story is the number of groups that are ongoing fasting. So the disciples of John are the people that bring the question to Jesus. Now they're perhaps waiting for a Savior, and then the Pharisees also are a fasting group, and they've missed a Savior. But the disciples are not fasting. Alright, let's go to the garment illustration. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away, and a worse tear is made. So the idea there is it's intolerable to put Jesus as this new new little new patch plastered on the old garment of Judaism or the old way of thinking. So the consequence is to wreck it further. Jesus is not a little past, he's his transformative center. And rather than patching up a traditional piece of righteousness within Judaism, Jesus comes to offer real righteousness. And like it says in Hebrews, the whole book kind of develops the ideas, he's better than angels, he's better than Abraham, better than Moses, he's better sacrificed, and he's a permanent, he's once for all, he's all for all time. And so with Jesus, we get this fresh start, new beginning, exactly what we've been waiting for, but yet we can't like incorporate him into the old way. And do we see this today? Is Jesus a central, not peripheral, not patchy, he's not marginal, he's not an important, not unimportant? So Christianity really comes down to what you believe about Jesus. Alright, so let's go to the next uh analogy, which is the wineskins. Um neither is new wine put into old wineskins, but if it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, so both are preserved. So new fermenting wine would stretch the old inelastic wineskins and cause them to burst. And so can we, again, we can apply the same the same picture he's giving us, which is the reality of the coming of Jesus, and he's not peripheral, he's central and massive. So the old regulations about maybe ceremonial defilement cannot stand before the joy of real forgiveness, real fellowship, real excitement, and new direction with the coming of this whole new kingdom. So Jesus is saying, I am the new way, I am the new wine, this fresh otherworldly transport of Jesus needs a fresh heart to be put into, it needs a new church to be put into. You know, of interest, these the people in this in the story sometimes they fasted twice a week. That was routine uh back then. Now, one day was required in the Jewish calendar, which was uh the day of atonement, but uh many practiced fasting twice a week. Well, now we have uh uh an answer to sin. The the problem of sin is now on on board. Now, of note this is that the question is originally asked by Jesus' disciples. Why follow John? Well, because Jesus wasn't there yet. And John becomes proportionally less significant when Jesus comes on the scene. So, in a sense, the statement to the to the uh disciples of John, this was an evangelical statement to them. Are you gonna have real belief in the real Savior? So it's not a modification of something before. Jesus' offer is joy for sure, but forgiveness in a new way and a new kingdom, and this new kingdom is gonna ask for new citizens. So we have new wine, which is the message of Jesus, has to be put into fresh wineskins, which is him and his church. So this is Jesus splitting the world into B C before Christ and A in an A D, and his message is radical. It's a new kingdom. So it's we're not doing something that's familiar, it's not comfortable, and lots of stuff is at risk. So in conclusion, how's your joy quotient? Is the coming of Jesus worth celebrating? And then how's your fasting quotient? How's your morning quotient or morning quotient? The fasting is still assumed in the story, sin still exists, we're still citizens of a foreign land, we're not quite yet home. To be a Christian is kind of the long for a place we're not yet, which is heaven, and a person we don't quite have yet, which is Jesus. So, how is your wineskin quotient? Has Jesus turned your world upside down and affected your realities of death and sin and wallet and zipper and forgiveness? Jesus is not just a patch, He is everything. Thanks for listening.