And they said unto Him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers?
Christian mutual tolerance
The whole passage illustrates the breadth and tolerance of our Lord’s teaching. He is claiming for His disciples that their spiritual life be left to unfold itself naturally, that they be not fettered by forms, that they be not judged by religious traditions and old habits, that they be free to show themselves glad when they have cause of gladness, and that their expressions of sorrow and their self-discipline follow their feeling of sorrow and their need of discipline. He adds also a plea for the sincere among the Pharisees and John’s disciples; He tells His own followers that they must be tolerant of these. No man accustomed to old wine will readily relish new. These parables have a perpetual application. They affirm the propriety of all forms of religious life that are the true outcome of spiritual experience, and they plead for consideration of one another in the differences which perpetually arise between Christians of varying experience and habitude.
I. CHRIST’S VINDICATION OF FREEDOM TO ALL HIS DISCIPLES.
II. CHRIST’S PLEA FOR CONSIDERATION OF ONE ANOTHER. (A. Mackennal, D. D.)
Wisdom justified of her children
The outward religious life of Christ differed from that of John. One was social, the other ascetic. To the astonish ment created by this difference among worldly people and Pharisees, Jesus voucheared no reply but “wisdom is justified of her children.” Once, however, He did condescend to explain the difference between His life and the life of John. And the reply goes deep into the grounds of a religious life.
I. THE REASONS FOR THE ASTONISHMENT WHICH CAUSED THE QUESTION,
1. The Divine life was social, whereas the popular conceptions of religious life are drawn naturally from those evidences which are most visible, fasting and prayers.
2. There is a tendency in disciples to copy and idolize the peculiarities of a master. Matthew tells us that it was John’s disciples who put the question of the text.
3. The indifference of Christ to ascetic forms astonished, because there is a real influence in asceticism. The principle of Christianity is from within outwards. The ascetic principle reverses this.
II. THE REASONS FOR WHICH JESUS DID NOT IMPOSE THE ASCETIC LIFE ON HIS DISCIPLES.
1. Because it is unnatural “Can the children of the bridechamber mourn?” &c.
2. Because of the results. The result of the forcing system is twofold:
(1) The destruction of religion. The weak old wine-skins, the weak old cloth, are rent.
(2) Hypocrisy. The piece agreeth not. No harmony between the form and the life. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
Privileges as well as duties to be attended to
When Dr. John Mason Good, the distinguished and excellent author of the “Book of Nature,” was on his death-bed he said, “I have taken what unfortunately the generality of Christians too much take. I have taken the middle walk of Christianity. I have endeavoured to live up to its duties and doctrines, but I have lived below its privileges.” Is not this, alas l but too true of the great body of those of us who call ourselves Christians, and who may indeed be so? Are we not living below the spirituality, and of course without the enjoyment, which God designs for His children, and so without the example and usefulness that should mark the life of every Christian? Far better, with Whitefield, to pray that he might be “an extraordinary Christian,” and to endeavour, by God’s grace, so to live as to be an example to all of a true and living Christianity.