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Tradition or Transformation?
Mark
2:18-22
Introduction: One of the things we see in the Gospel of Mark is
that Jesus is guiding the story, first, revealing himself to those who would
believe, and laying a foundation for what He would soon do as the Father’s plan
unfolds. He is also exposing unbelief, as he seemingly provokes the religious
leaders time after time. His actions are shocking… he was eating with sinners
and tax collectors (2:13-17), and soon he will claim (and demonstrate!) that He
is Lord of the Sabbath (2:23 ff). Jesus subtly turns the discussion from
what people were doing (or not doing!), to what He Himself was about to do…
As he said in the previous passage, He “…came not
to call the righteous, but sinners…” to repentance.
As we
look at this exchange in 2:18-22, those three simple (but life changing!) questions
we have come back to in almost every paragraph of Mark can guide us through the
text once again, 1) Who is Jesus? 2) Why did He come? And, 3) What does it mean
to follow Him? These questions will point us to…
The Maine* Idea: Believers have reason to celebrate, they are already
part of something new, and, by grace, have a life changing relationship with
the King!
I. Who is
Jesus (18,19)? He the Bridegroom, God
incarnate, God the Son!
18 Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting.
And people came and said to him, "Why do John's disciples and the
disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" 19 And Jesus said to them,
"Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as
they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
The
Pharisees especially venerated the traditions of the fathers… the man-made
rules that had been added to the practice of Judaism in the centuries from the
return from exile to the time of Christ. In the book of Acts the disciples seem
to have more problems with the Sadducees on theological grounds—they denied the
resurrection, which was at the heart of the preaching of the apostles—Christ
was risen, the first fruits of the resurrection! In the gospels, however, Jesus is repeatedly
confronting the Pharisees, who, for all their outward piety, missed the Spirit
of the Scriptures—and in fact lessened the authority of God’s word by elevating
human traditions alongside of it. The rabbis’ intention was to protect people
from sinning by building a hedge of human regulations around the law. The problem was that by the time of Christ,
the distinction between the absolute truth of the Word of God and the
traditions of the fathers that had developed, was blurred. Jesus did not adhere
to the man-made traditions of Judaism. One of those practices was the twice
weekly fasts practiced by the Pharisees.
On
Tuesday and Friday of every week, the Pharisees would fast from sunrise to
sunset. The practice no doubt had noble beginnings as they sought to humble
themselves and get closer to God. We know however, that by the first century,
there was a lot of hypocrisy in the religious practices of the Pharisees. So
much so, that in the Sermon on the Mount the subject of fasting came up, and Jesus
said,
16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like
the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen
by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your
head and wash your face, 18
that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in
secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Some irony: At
our Tuesday morning prayer men’s prayer time we’ve begun discussing in advance
the passage that I am planning to preach on that week, and as we had a huge
platter of Herb Mullen’s jelly donuts on the table the subject of fasting came
up in this text. Bob pointed us to a passage in Isaiah 58:1-4…
Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a
trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their
sins. 2 Yet they seek me
daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did
righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me
righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. 3 'Why have we fasted, and you see
it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?' [Why isn’t God delighted in their fasting? He replies]
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek
your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. 4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel
and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will
not make your voice to be heard on high.
Our fasting and prayer has to be with a right heart.
Denying the flesh so that we can seek God with a submissive heart is a good
thing, if we come to Him in repentance and faith. Isaiah rebukes the Old
Testament people of God for fasting and seeking their own will rather than
God’s will. “Fasting” is not a means to manipulate God! Once before I
recall Herb saying, “There is a difference between fasting and going on a
hunger strike!” Isaiah goes on to point to a right heart…
6 "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of
wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and
to break every yoke? 7 Is it
not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your
house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your
own flesh? 8 Then shall your
light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your
rear guard. 9 Then you shall
call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.' If
you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and
speaking wickedness, 10 if
you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.
It seems a little surprising in our passage in Mark to
see the disciples of John mentioned in the same sentence as the disciples of
the Scribes and Pharisees. John’s disciples probably were following the example
of their teacher – John lived simply, I think we can call his an ascetic lifestyle.
I don’t know if locusts and wild honey are on the “Paleo Diet” but that was John’s bread and butter! John had probably been arrested, and his
disciples were “fasting and praying,” crying out to God for his deliverance.
Fasting is not being disparaged, it is not a bad thing. Jesus fasted in the
wilderness when he was tempted by the devil, and in the sermon on the mount he
tells the people to have a right attitude when they fast. When the disciples
are not able to cast out a demon Jesus says “…this kind comes out only by prayer and fasting.” And here in Mark
2, Jesus points ahead to his being “taken away,” and says “in that day they will fast.” Fasting is a discipline that
has value in the church, as long as we don’t view as a means of manipulating
God, but rather as a means of denying the flesh so that we can seek God without
distraction.
He is
the Bridegroom. Jesus uses the
imagery of a wedding feast to explain why His disciples are not, at this time,
fasting. Weddings in the ancient near east were a time of celebration,
typically a party lasting several days. In a Jewish context, using this allusion
to the Scriptures in such an unexpected way, to describe himself, was shocking.
The prophets used the imagery of a marriage feast to describe the coming
messianic age. We read in Isaiah 25:6-8,
6 On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all
peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of
marrow, of aged wine well refined. 7
And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all
peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death
forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach
of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.
It is a picture of celebration and abundance; feasting,
not fasting! As with the miracles of healing Jesus did, the disciples of Jesus
were getting a glimpse of the age to come, when the curse will be undone and
God’s people will experience the life of blessing for which they were created. Using
the language of a wedding feast was a subtle messianic claim. Those with ears
to hear could discern what Jesus was claiming: this is that, and I am the One
for whom you are waiting! The Kingdom
was coming, and now, while the King Himself was present, was not the time for
fasting!
The Bridegroom: An image reserved for Yahweh in the
Old Testament – He is God! There is
yet another element to this wedding imagery: in the prophets, Yahweh himself is
the Bridegroom. So we read in Isaiah
62:5,
5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall
your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall
your God rejoice over you.
Hosea brought the Word of the Lord as well,
19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you
to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in
faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD… (Hosea
2:19-20).
With this
in mind, Jesus’ applying the image of the bridegroom to himself is even more shocking.
“Yes, God is the bridegroom, but what
are you saying?” Those who had ears
of faith, those who were His sheep, no doubt had their hearts stirred by Jesus’
words! Those who would not believe, like the majority of the religious leaders,
would only feel the anger and resentment welling up in their hearts. And so the
question came, “Why don’t your disciples
fast?” Jesus answers: The promised age was at hand, the bridegroom was
present, this was time to celebrate! Who
is Jesus anyway? Answer: The Bridegroom, the promised Messiah, God incarnate! Believers
have reason to celebrate, they are already part of something new, and, by
grace, have a life changing relationship with the King of Kings! That brings us
to the second question Mark wants us to answer…
II. Why did
He come (20 f.)? To give His life to
ratify a New Covenant.
20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away
from them, and then they will fast in that day.
The
days will come when the bridegroom is taken away (Isa 53:8). There ae probably two levels to what Jesus is
saying here. On the one hand, the day was coming when Jesus would be “taken
away” in death. The same root word appears in the Septuagint translation of the
words of the prophet Isaiah in 53:8,
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land
of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
In the upper room Jesus told his disciples they would
weep while the world rejoices, but that their weeping would be turned to joy
(cf. John 16:19,20). Good Friday would give way to Easter morning! This
reference then to the coming day when “the Bridegroom” would be taken away, is
a subtle allusion to His coming passion and death. Remember why He came, to
give His life a ransom for many, or as Isaiah said to be “…stricken for the transgression of my people…”
It may also
be that Jesus also was looking ahead to His ascension. He would no longer be
physically present to correct and teach and encourage His followers. He would
send the Spirit, but in that day, through fasting and prayer they could
experience the kind of intimate fellowship that they had now, with Jesus
walking with them. The time would come
when the Bridegroom would be taken away.
A New
covenant (in His blood) was about to be ratified (Jer 31:31-34). The dominant theme seems to be that
Jesus is not “patching up” the religion that had developed around biblical Judaism.
The traditions of the fathers were an offense to God, they pointed to human
effort, works, rather than the Gospel of Grace. Jesus was offering new wine in
new wineskins, a New Covenant in His blood. Jeremiah anticipated this when he
said,
31 "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of
Judah, 32 not like the
covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand
to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though
I was their husband, declares the LORD.
33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them,
and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be
my people. 34 And no longer
shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the
LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,
declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their
sin no more..." (Jer 31:31-34).
A new day was coming, when God’s law would be written
on the hearts of his people, and they would be transformed from the inside out!
Believers have reason to celebrate, they are already part of something new,
and, by grace, because of what He did we have a life changing relationship with
the King!
III. What
does it mean to follow Him (21, 22)?
Discipleship is not an outward commitment to religion, but something new: a
life changing relationship with the King! (By the way, there is a hint here of what will become explicit later, there will be a cost for those who follow Him! Jesus will be taken away, then they will fast!).
21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old
garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a
worse tear is made. 22 And no
one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the
skins- and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for
fresh wineskins."
Jesus
uses two illustrations to make the point that something new was at hand:
Not “religion” – but a new heart! Remember He did not come to call the
righteous, no, He came to call sinners to repentance! There were no simple
tweaks that would get the religion of popular Judaism in the first century back
on track. The new age that God had promised was at hand. Jesus used two images
to convey that idea: a patch on a garment, and new wine and wineskins.
I don’t
think people patch clothes anymore, in fact they buy them with holes in them!
(I don’t get it, I put my own holes in my clothes soon enough!). New, unshrunk
cloth couldn’t be used in an old garment. Jesus’ point: there was no simple
“patch” that could fix the religion of the Jews. Something new was needed. Same thing with the
wineskins. You couldn’t pour new wine into old wineskins. They would burst as
the wine fermented. It was time for something new. The New Covenant that
promised a new heart was needed.
The
context here in Mark is showing the contrast between what Jesus was preaching
and doing and the religion of the Scribes and Pharisees. In the previous context they complained that
He was eating with sinners. Next they’ll complain that He claimed to be Lord of
the Sabbath. The leaders complained about what Jesus and His disciples were
doing. In this passage they complain about what they are not doing. That is the point. It isn’t about what we are doing or
not doing, but what Jesus would do for us… He came to do for us what we could
not do for ourselves: make a way for sinful humans to be reconciled to a Holy
God. That is the way of G.R.A.C.E.! That is the message that will change the
world!
What is God
saying to me in this passage?
Believers have reason to celebrate, they are already part of something new,
and, by grace, have a life changing relationship with the King!
What would
God have me to do in response to this passage? We are not immune from falling into the trap of
“Pharisee-ism.” Look at me Lord, I thank you that I am not like other men… You
get the idea. Of Him you are in Christ
Jesus. If we really believe that Jesus did it all, all to Him I owe, humility
should well up in our hearts, and thanksgiving for His amazing grace. And it
should remind us that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and
that He has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation.
There is
nothing that happens in our life that is mere chance. God has placed us where
we are, in a mission field (Maine) where 98 out of 100 people don’t know Him. Think about that. The events on the Common,
the crowds downtown, the people we see year round at Hannaford or Hammond
Lumber, or the Y. Statistically, only 2 out of 100 know the Lord. And He has
placed you where you are, with the smaller group of people in your oikos, the 8 to 15 people that you
interact with in your close sphere of influence. Some don’t know the Way. Will we embrace the mission to be
a Lighthouse of God’s grace and truth? We need to look around, and be ready to
give a reason for the hope that is in us. It means to invite people to come and hear the truth. Will you? AMEN.
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