Christ is the Physician and the Bridegroom, the unfulled cloth, the new wine, and the Shepherd!

Every day as we read the Bible we discover more aspects of Christ – all the positive things in the universe point to Him as the reality. What we see and even what we are – and it is positive – is just a shadow; Christ is the reality. I never thought that the gospel of Matthew can bring to light so many aspects of Christ – the gospel of the kingdom introduces the King-Savior with so many statuses, characteristics, and aspects!

This morning we were enjoying at least these four aspects of Christ – Christ as the Physician and the Bridegroom, Christ as the unfulled cloth, Christ as the new wine, and Christ as the Shepherd! These are not separate and independent aspects of Christ, but they inter-relate and they intertwine. Our Physician is also our Bridegroom, and our Shepherd is the new wine for us to contain as the corporate Christ, the new wineskin. What a wonderful Christ we have!

• Christ is the Physician and the Bridegroom (Matt. 9:9-15). Christ came to heal those who are sick and need a physician – He wants to heal and enliven us so that we can may be reconstituted to become the citizens of the kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 9:9-13). He didn’t come for those who are healthy, and He didn’t come as a judge – Christ came as the Healer to minister as a physician, to heal, recover, enliven, and save the sinners and the tax collectors that they may become the people of His kingdom with Christ as the king! Also, Christ not only healed His followers, He made them “the sons of His bridechamber”, even His bride! Christ is the Physician for the recovery of our life, and He is the Bridegroom for our enjoyment in His presence! We shouldn’t be sorrowful but happy – Christ is our beloved Bridegroom! 
• Christ is the unfulled cloth for making a new garment (see Matt. 9:16; Luke 5:36) – Christ likened Himself to an unfulled cloth, which refers to Him between His incarnation and His crucifixion (He was undealt with, unprocessed). Through His death and resurrection, Christ was made a new garment to cover us as our righteousness – He was processed and consummated to become the new garment! Now the patch of unfulled cloth is for the new garment, and He wants us to put Him on! When we attend the wedding, Christ is both our Bridegroom and our wedding garment – He is both our enjoyment and our qualification to enjoy Him at the wedding!
• The individual Christ is the new wine, and the church as the corporate Christ is the fresh wineskin (see Matt. 9:17) – when Christ came on the earth He came as the new wine, which cannot be put in any forms, religions, or traditions. If you try to put the new wine into old wineskins, it just doesn’t work – Christ cannot be put into religion, forms, or traditions! He is our new wine, the exciting life inwardly – and the only way we can contain Him is by being in the fresh new church life, the corporate Christ, where we all enjoy the new wine! The church life has Christ – the new wine – as its content, and the proper church life is full of this new, living, and exciting Christ!
• Christ is the Shepherd (Matt. 9:36) – when He saw the people of Israel, they were harassed(skinned by cruel shepherds, suffering pain) and cast away(abandoned by wicked shepherds and falling into a distressed condition, homeless and helpless). This is our situation also many times – we may choose “other shepherds” to take care of us, either things, religions, traditions, forms, etc – and the only result is that we get homeless and helpless; nothing can fully take care of us as our Shepherd, Christ. He came to be our Shepherd(see Psalm 23, His all-inclusive tender care in His resurrection) and He ministers to us, shepherds us, and takes care of us so that we may be the citizens of His heavenly kingdom!

The all-inclusive Christ in the gospel of Matthew – He is so much to us!

He didn’t come to us just as a King that we may be His kingdom – He came as the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, the Christ, the heavenly king, the Son of Man, the Baptizer, and the light of life.

And now we see that Christ is the Physician and the Bridegroom, the unfulled cloth, the new wine, and the Shepherd! More and more, every day, we can enjoy Him as such an all-inclusive One! [sharing inspired from the life-study of Matthew (by Brother W. Lee), as quoted in the Morning Revival on The Crucial Elements of the Bible]

Lord Jesus, we love You! You are the Physician, the healing One – healing our sick condition and making us the citizens of Your kingdom. Praise You, Lord, for being the Bridegroom – and making us the bride, Your counterpart. How we rejoice and we love You. We love to enjoy You, our dear Bridegroom! We love to enjoy You as the new wine – the fresh, living, and new life within us. Praise You, Lord, for being our Shepherd: taking an all-inclusive tender care of us in every respect.