Matthew 9:14 Commentary and Bible Study

Matthew now records that the disciples of John came with a question about fasting; Luke says that it was the disciples of the Pharisees who were asking, and Mark says both came together. Both groups of disciples therefore appear to come with the same query, although they certainly do not ask in the same different spirit. We can assume that the disciples of John ask in a genuine spirit of enquiry, but the disciples of the Pharisees ask in order to criticise Christ and his disciples, just as they had done with their previous question. Calvin points to the divisiveness of the Pharisees, and that they were endeavouring to produce a quarrel between the disciples of John and the disciples of Christ. All three Gospels link the questions regarding eating with sinners and with the question about fasting. Luke makes this a follow-on question by the scribes and Pharisees – referring to the askers of this second question as ‘they’ – after Christ had just answered them about why he ate with tax collectors and sinners.The concern is that Christ’s disciples are failing to fast and to practice self-denial. This complaint, as far as the scribes and Pharisees are concerned, is born of self-righteousness. To them it is evidence that Christ and his disciples are lacking their righteousness, and should be condemned for this. The warning about not understanding Hosea 6:6 has fallen on deaf ears; they have not thought seriously about it. The disciples are accused of being too joyful, and of not cutting back enough on the pleasures of this world. The Pharisees had come to see mourning and fasting as an essential part of true religion, but it was done as a work to earn God’s favour, and it was done to seek the praise of men. They could not therefore believe that Jesus could really be the great teacher that he claimed to be, if he left out this essential element of righteousness. Those who find fault with the Lord will have the error in their hearts exposed, and be put them to open shame.No doubt the Pharisees felt they had a particularly strong case because they had this practice of fasting in common with John’s disciples, whom they knew Christ approved. It was a strange alliance between the two groups that brought them together with this common question. For the sake of John’s disciples the Lord deals with this objection as genuine on this occasion, although at other times he showed that there were serious flaws in the fasting of the Pharisees (Matthew 6:17; 5:20). We can therefore look at the Lord’s answer as instruction to the disciples of John about the inappropriateness of continuing with the Old Testament forms taught by John now that the kingdom of heaven had come. John had pointed to the Lamb of God but some had failed to come to him. Although this question is about fasting in particular, it gives the Lord opportunity to teach more broadly about the relation between the Old Testament and the New. We can also look at it as a clear rebuke to the Pharisees in putting their trust in their good works and religious observances instead of in the grace of God. The latter gives us a gospel application of the passage.