What I believe that Matthew had in mind was actually four points, and the first was this to begin with.

1'' I note that each of the four cameos contains a sharp contrast.

-- The first is a contrast between fasting and feasting, between the fasting of John`s disciples and the feasting of the wedding celebration.

-- Secondly there is a contrast between the old and the new garment, between the new patch and the old garment, between the new wine and the old wine skins.

-- And thirdly there`s a contrast between the woman`s despair over the inability for the doctors to cure her, and her simple, uncluttered faith in Jesus.

-- Fourthly there`s a contrast between the hullabaloo of the professional mourners and Jesus` quiet, confident overcoming of death. So there are four contrasts which are very clearly there it seems to me.

2'' Secondly I note not only that these contrasts are sharp but that all four are contrasts between the old order of Judaism, with its obsolete traditions, and the new order of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His kingdom.

Just as in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, so it is here that Jesus was not rejecting the Law of Moses. He tells us on the Sermon on the Mount that he comes to fulfill the law, not abolish it. So he was not rejecting the law. He was rejecting its perversion in the oral tradition of all its rules and regulations.

What Jesus is doing here is drawing attention to the discontinuity that there was and still is between the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees and the teaching of on the other hand of Jesus Himself.

3'' Which makes me notice a third point. Namely, it`s Jesus who is at the center. It`s Jesus who makes all things new. It`s Jesus who is magnified in all four cameos. He is the bridegroom whose presence makes mourning inappropriate. Although ''as I have already mentioned'' He assumed that there is a place for fasting in the Christian life. But it is He who has inaugurated the new order which makes the old obsolete. It`s still Jesus who discerns even the tentative touch of faith, and immediately responds to it. It is He who gives new life to the dead, life now and resurrection on the last day. In all four cameos, it`s Jesus who is the center and is glorified.

4'' Which brings me to a fourth point. There is a detail in this narrative which many readers miss. I wonder if you noticed it. It comes at the very beginning of the section in verse 14. Namely, that is was the disciples of John ''the Baptist'' who came to Jesus with a question about fasting. Disciples of John - by this time there were no disciples of John, or at least there ought naught to be. For John`s ministry was over now. John had faded into the background. His role had been to prepare the way of the Messiah. But when the Messiah arrived, he pointed people away from himself to Jesus. He encouraged his disciples to become disciples of Jesus. So who were the disciples of John? Well in a word I want to say they were people who missed the boat. They had failed to recognize Jesus. They had failed to follow Jesus. They were still the followers of John.

No wonder they were asking questions. Their faith was all askew. Instead of going forward with Jesus into the Kingdom of God, they were stuck in the past. As if Jesus had never come, and as if the old order was still in place. Well friends, there may be no literal disciples of John in the world today, but there certainly are plenty of people who are making the same mistake as John`s disciples made.

They know about Jesus, but they had never done what John had told them to do. They have never come to Jesus themselves; never go down to follow Him. They never received what Jesus offers, a new life, a real life. Or if you prefer, they have never known the joy of salvation, the joy of the bridegroom`s presence with them, the joy of the new order, the joy of inner healing, and the joy of resurrection life.

Oh friends I pray, that we may not miss, as John`s disciples missed, the real life which Jesus is still offering.