QT 5 Apr 16, Matt 9:14-17, Authority over religious culture and traditions

Matthew 9:14–17 (ESV) — 14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 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. 16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. 17 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.”

NOTE: This passage continues the theme of Jesus' authority over the culture, and in this case the religious culture. Jesus was under the law during his life and he fulfilled every aspect of the law, but he interpreted the law differently, and therefore came to some different conclusions than had been arrived at in the oral law or traditions. We need to remember that traditions are not law nor is the oral law, the law. These were added onto the law and represented a departure from the true law (although not intentional). A totally different issue is the relevance of the true law to the believer, since the NT writers go to great extent to communicate that we are no longer under the law (referring to the 613 commands of the OT). Jesus was under that law during his life. His death annulled the law. In fact, the book of Hebrews explains the logic of that statement when it says that Jesus is now our high priest. If the law still stood, that would be a direct violation of the law, because the law stated that the High Priest must be a Levite and a descendant of Aaron. Jesus was descended from Judah and therefore, under the law, could not be our high priest if the OT law was still valid. Therefore the writer of Hebrews makes it clear that a new covenant is required that replaces the old covenant.