“One puts new wine into fresh wineskins.” (Mark 2:22c [NASB])
In Mark 1-2, Mark pointedly recalled for his readers
instances of Jesus’ authority and power from the start of His earthly ministry.
In chapter one, Mark told of Jesus’ baptism (vs. 9-11) after which a voice from
heaven said, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” Being the Son
of God meant Jesus had the power and authority of God. Many people did not
understand what was said or recognize God’s voice and so, the voice from heaven
sounded like thunder to them. After His
baptism, Jesus immediately walked into the wilderness for forty days and faced
temptations by Satan, against which He prevailed. After John’s arrest and
before Jesus called disciples, He declared His purpose and ministry on earth.
He said in 1:15, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;
repent and believe in the gospel.” Mark continued to tell of Jesus’ ministry
and how He spoke with authority and power. He gave examples of Jesus’ power and
authority. Consider these excerpts from Mark 1:
·
Mark 1:16-20 Jesus met and called Andrew,
Simeon, James, and John to follow Him.
·
Mark 1:20-22 Jesus taught with authority, not as
the scribes taught, in the Capernaum synagogue on the Sabbath.
·
Mark 1:23-28 Jesus met a man with an unclean
spirit in the synagogue. This spirit recognized Jesus and said, “I know who you
are-the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and commanded it to come out of the
man. With agony the unclean spirit left the man.
·
Mark 1:29-31 Jesus went with Simeon to his house,
found Simon’s mother-in-law sick, and healed her.
·
Mark 1:32-34 Many people of the city-town of
Capernaum brought the sick and demon-possessed to Jesus and He healed them.
·
Mark 1:39 Jesus went throughout Galilee
preaching and healing.
·
Mark 1:40-45 Jesus healed a leper.
In chapter one, Jesus taught with authority and showed His
authority and power by healing the sick, calling men to follow Him, declaring
His purpose on earth, and casting out demons. Notice in this chapter, He did
not face resistance from anyone for what He did. With the start of chapter two,
Jesus encountered resistance from the Jewish religious leaders.
People continued to follow Jesus in Mark 2, but none yet
believed in Him as the Messiah. The resistance He encountered came from the
religious leaders of Israel. The leaders felt Jesus usurped their power so,
they challenged Him. Beginning with this chapter, Jesus did more than teach
with authority, heal, and cleanse. Consider what Mark wrote in Mark 2:1-17.
·
Mark 2:1-12 Jesus noticed four men lowering a
paralyzed man through the roof of a home that contained a crowd so large they
could not enter by the door. He forgave the man of his sins. The religious
leaders questioned in their hearts how this man, a carpenter from Galilee
thought He was God. According to the Law and themselves, this was blasphemy. Jesus
challenged them by asking if saying your sins are forgiven is harder or saying get
up, take up your mat, and walk. To prove Jesus is the Son of Man, just as Daniel
7 prophesied, He told the man to get up, take up your mat, and walk. By doing
this, and the man’s ability to walk, Jesus proved He has the power and
authority to heal and forgive sins.
·
Mark 2:13-17 Jesus saw Levi the tax collector
and called him to follow Him. Levi invited Jesus and His disciples to eat at
his house with his friends. The scribes and the Pharisees challenged His
disciples. They asked, “Why is He eating with tax collectors and sinners?” (vs
16) Jesus replied, only the sick need a doctor, not the healthy.
In both passages in Mark 2, Jesus met resistance by the
religious leaders. First, they questioned His authority in their hearts. Jesus
said He knew what they thought and proved His authority to forgive and power to
heal. In verses thirteen through seventeen, Jesus called a conspicuous sinner
to be His follower then ate with that unclean person and His friends. The
religious leaders would never consider associating with obvious sinners. They
wanted to be the standard for holiness and have followers themselves. Jesus
proved even sinners are worth His time and attention and can become holy, be
healed. Jesus did not stop ministering. He taught the gospel, His purpose on
earth, and healed, forgave, and cast out demons because of His love for people
and to give examples of His power and authority.
To the Jewish religious leaders, Jesus was a blasphemer
because He acted as if He was God by forgiving sins and declaring He is the Son
of Man. These leaders knew Jesus came from Galilee and was a carpenter’s son.
They understood from their reading of the manuscripts, from the oral tradition,
and from their training, the Messiah would arise from the tribe of David, be a
warrior king, and would re-establish David’s kingdom. This Jesus was not any of
these in the religious leaders’ estimation. He must be a blasphemer they
decided. According to God’s Law, blasphemer’s punishment was death by stoning.
The religious leaders may have at first chose to side against Jesus because He appeared
to be a blasphemer. As Jesus’ ministry continued and people decided to follow Him
instead of the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders, they became jealous and
afraid they would lose their standing among and power over the Israelites. For
these reasons, they sought to get rid of Jesus. With these twin emotions
flowing through the hearts and minds of the religious leaders, they need not
have worried. No one yet believed Jesus was the Messiah. They had not placed
their faith in Him as the Messiah.
In Mark 2:18-22, Jesus will again teach by example and will
use parables. He will rise to the challenge some people put to Him. Jesus will
teach through three common analogies that everyone is unclean, and each person
needs a Savior.
In the encounter by Jesus with the Pharisees in 2:12-17, the
issue for the Pharisees, besides fear and jealousy, was eating with the
unclean, at least the people the Pharisees considered unclean. Under Levitical
law, people who were ritually unclean could not be around people who were
clean. How was this designation determined? God chose the tribe of Levi to be
His priests. He made them the law-teachers, keepers, and givers. They, too, were
the judgment-givers God chose to tell the people how to become clean again when
a person sinned against God. Remember, Israel was a theocracy, a nation whose
head was God. The leaders of the people, the Levites, expanded on the laws God
gave. Some of those expansions included not associating with people they
considered unclean, sinners. Since the tax collectors took more money than the
Roman government required and kept the excess for themselves, the tax
collectors were sinners and, so, unclean. Others who the Levites considered
unclean were prostitutes and lepers. God had a means by which every person
could make atonement for his or her sin daily, the morning and evening sin
sacrifice. God told the Levites to take the offering by the people and offer it
to Him as a sin sacrifice each day. Until they sinned again, that sin offering
for past sins sufficed to make them clean for that time. Yet, the Levites
decided for themselves, once a sinner always a sinner, or in their thinking,
once unclean always unclean. That is why eating with Levi and his friends was
hard for the Pharisees to swallow. It makes the lesson of 2:18-22 difficult for
them to grasp, too. Jesus confronts the Pharisees about their religious rituals
and what He came to bring and give each person who believes in Him.
While John’s disciples and the Pharisees fasted, some people
(other translators say onlookers or some of the disciples of these men.) asked
Jesus, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but
Your disciples do not fast?” (2:18) Again, the question is about rituals. Before
that time, the Pharisees instituted more weekly fasts so people would think
they were more pious than other people and would look up to them. Those who did
not fast as much as the Pharisees, the Pharisees considered beneath them,
inferior. Because some of John’s disciples had remained loyal to the
Pharisaical traditions, they, too, fasted more often than God required. Fasting
in the Old Testament involved abstaining from food and possibly drink for a set
period of time to express grief (1 Samuel 31:13, 2 Samuel 1:12 & 12:20-23),
or penitence (1 Samuel 7:6 & 1 Kings 21:27), or to prepare one’s self for
prayer (2 Samuel 12:16-17 & Psalm 35:13), or to seek the Lord’s favor
(Judges 20:26 and 2 Chronicles 20:3). Jewish law required fasting only for
humbling one’s self in preparation for and including the Day of Atonement. God
declared purpose of the Day of Atonement was so the people could cleanse
themselves from all sins before being with Him (Leviticus 16:29-31 &
23:27). In one other place, God commanded fasting as an act of contrition to
return to Him with a person’s whole heart/being (Joel 2:12).
The Old Testament did not instruct people to fast two or
three times a week. It never told the people to fast so he or she could appear
more religious. Jesus confronted that misconception in Matthew 6:16-18. He
condemned fasting to draw attention to one’s self and one’s piety. Similarly,
Jesus told the people not to give alms or to pray so others would see them do
these things. He told them, instead, go into a secret place and let God be the
only one who sees you doing these things and He will reward you in secret
(Matthew 6:1-8). Jesus did not condemn fasting. He even taught by example when
He fasted forty days and nights in the desert in Matthew 4:2 and Luke 4:2. This
justified fasting showed a person’s sincere seeking of God. It is a denying of
one’s self (one’s flesh) and focusing on God. If we consider the New Testament
after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Christian church fasted in preparation
to make important decisions (Acts 13:2-3 & 14:23). They sought God while
fasting instead of seeking to fill their flesh. The New Testament has no law requiring
fasting.
While we do not know for sure who asked Jesus why He ate
with sinners, we realize from the question asked, the person still did not
believe about Jesus being the Messiah. By this question, we recognize the questioner
realized Jesus did not follow the religious rituals. Jesus’ actions and
teachings kept rubbing like sandpaper against the rituals the religious leaders
set. They tried to force Him to do as they said, but He determinedly chose to
follow God’s will and not what man dictated. Jesus, recognizing the unbelief of
the questioner and the listeners, taught by using three commonplace occurrences
in the lives of the Jews-weddings, repairing cloth, and storage of wine.
First, He asked, “While the bridegroom is with them, the
attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they?” This was a rhetorical
question. Everyone knew the answer to this was a resounding, “No.” Jesus
continued, “So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then
they will fast in that day.” (2:18-19) Jesus answered the rhetorical question
leading the listeners to His point and alluding to His future-Jesus won’t be
with His disciples on earth always. When He is gone, they will mourn and fast
during their mourning. Jesus added another depth to this image. In the Old
Testament, God is the bridegroom in Isaiah 54:5 & 62:5, and in Hosea 2:19.
Since Jesus is the Son of Man, He used this metaphor of the bridegroom to refer
to Himself. Now, consider the Israelites culture. When a wedding occurred, the
wedding feast lasted seven days. Much rejoicing, eating, drinking, and dancing
marked the wedding of a man and woman. Because Jesus has come as the
Bridegroom, His followers are His bride and while He is with them, they would eat
and drink. When Jesus left, His bride, the church, would mourn. His arrival as
the Messiah, the Son of Man, was to be a time of celebration like a wedding,
not a time of penitence, atonement, and grief.
Rejoice, the Messiah has come!
In this lesson, Jesus told the people not to use fasting as
a marker of a person’s devoutness. When Jesus came, He fulfilled the Law; God
required no fasting any longer. He didn’t remove fasting as a spiritual
discipline. Jesus wanted the people to realize the gift of salvation came by
God’s grace. Salvation requires grace, God’s grace, and nothing else. We cannot
gain salvation by doing anything like praying, giving, or fasting. We don’t get
more salvation by doing these things. Salvation is salvation. It is complete
and sufficient (ample) for each of our sins. Salvation and grace come from God Who
is perfect and holy.
Grace + nothing = Salvation
Because people often understand a lesson better by using everyday
objects or occurrences, Jesus continued to answer this question using the
analogy of a torn old cloth and a new cloth. He said in verse twenty-one, “No
one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls
away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results.” Read that verse
again. Understand Jesus’ concern for the old cloth. His concern was that the
tear would be greater than it was before the repair if the person used unshrunk
cloth. Jesus came to give a new way to be in relationship, in covenant, with
God. That new way is like the new cloth. If you try to sew new cloth onto the
old cloth, the old way of living with its old rituals that did not give
salvation, then the new cloth won’t stay attached and the old cloth will have a
worse tear.
Consider the next analogy. Jesus said in verse twenty-two,
“No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the
skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into
fresh wineskins.” In that day, a tanner made a wineskin of a whole and uncut
skin from a sheep or goat. He would remove first the neck, then each leg. After
the tanner removed the skin, he tied off with a cord all but one opening,
sheared the hair close to the skin, tanned the skin, and then turned it inside
out. By skinning the animal this way, no leak could occur from a break in the
skin. When a person put wine into the skins, the fermentation was not complete.
During that fermentation, vapors arose. Those vapors would stretch the skin into
which the vintner poured it. A new skin had elasticity to expand as the gasses arose
from the fermentation process. An old skin was inflexible. If the vintner put new
wine that was still fermenting into an old wineskin, the old skin that was
rigid could not expand with the resultant gasses and would burst the old skin.
The new wine of which Jesus spoke is His Holy Spirit whom He imparts to each
believer. The old wineskin was the rituals of religion each of the Pharisees and
John’s disciples used to show his piety. These rituals were something from
their past of which they didn’t want to let go.
Jesus showed
concerned for the wine and the skins. He doesn’t want the faith of a person to
become rigid and caught in ritual just to show one’s piety and prove he or she
is better than other people. Jesus wants to give new life to each person. He
wants to have His Spirit abide in each person to teach, equip, guide,
encourage, admonish, and grow him or her into a closer relationship with God
and likeness with Him.
Jesus lived every day with regular people. Some people were mostly
good, some were considered unclean, some were sick, others were possessed by
demons, all were sinners. When asked a question, Jesus wanted to make sure people
understood Him well and so used analogies from every day life. These analogies
are parables. Just as groomsmen do not fast at a wedding, but rejoice, Jesus
wants us to rejoice with Him by accepting the new life He offers by grace
through faith in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:4-5, 8). Grace is God’s gift to us
given by sacrificing His Son, Jesus, on the cross to take our penalty for our
sins. Nothing we can do would be enough to cleanse us from what we’ve done wrong.
Only God’s sacrifice of His sin-free and perfect Son is sufficient. Jesus
wanted to make sure people understood this. The new life He gives cannot be
added onto old rituals. We cannot and do not have to add any personal works-actions
with resultant attitudes-to what Jesus gives us. When we believe in Jesus
Christ, we become new like the new cloth and the new wineskin. If we just add
what Jesus did to what we already do, the patch will tear off and the hole in
the old cloth will be worse. Considering the analogy of the wineskins, when
Jesus pours new wine into wineskin, He can’t pour it into an old wineskin of
old rituals. It will burst. We cannot add the new way to the old way. The old
wineskin of old rituals or religion cannot contain the Spirit of God. Keeping the
old rituals means a person has not truly given his or her heart and life to God
for salvation and His purposes. The person cannot grow and become more like Jesus
daily because of the rigidity and bursting of their old wineskin.
Each of us must look at our lives. We must ask ourselves
what we do in our religious moments that are just ritual and what God requires.
We cannot add to our salvation. Jesus paid the full penalty for each person’s
sins. His sacrifice was sufficient and perfect. Nothing needs to be added, Nothing
we, human, fallible created beings can add to it makes Jesus’ gift of salvation
more perfect. Perfection is already perfect. So, what do we do? What religious
rituals do we have that make us consider ourselves and ways as better? Do we go
to church every time the doors are open? Do we make sure we are on every
committee? Do we make sure we give the most money to church? Do we say long,
rambling prayers in church, Bible study, cell groups, etc. to prove our piety? Do
we fast every week and make sure people know it? People consider and do many
other rituals to make themselves feel better and appear better than other
people. But we must consider, does God require these of us or are we just doing
them for show? The other side of this question is, are you making Jesus fit
your idea of church? How are we making Jesus fit into our cloth or His Spirit
into our wineskin? Do we think we can we even consider tell God where He is
allowed in our lives? What arrogance and self-centeredness!
Perfection is already perfect.
Jesus’ offered salvation is already perfect!
Jesus invites us to His feast. He invites us to be His
bride, His church. Jesus doesn’t come to fit our mold. He came to make us new
and give us a new life. He calls us to rejoice with Him at the blessings of God
each day. The people of Israel had trials, but He taught they could rejoice
even while facing trials because He was their Bridegroom and was with them.
Today, we can know and believe with our hearts, Jesus is
with us now. We can rejoice because of the hope He gives for now and eternity.
Our faith doesn’t have to be old, dry, inflexible, torn, and human ritual. It
can be alive because of it being in Jesus Christ. Jesus gave His sacrifice because
of God’s grace. He gives us salvation and new life.
You no longer have to
go to a wedding and fast.
Go to the wedding and rejoice…even during trials.
Jesus is enough. He paid it all.
God’s grace can save us through faith in Jesus Christ.
God
offers salvation to everyone.
Will you accept?
1And you were dead in your sins. 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved). 8For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:1, 4-5, 8-9 [NASB])
Lord, I fail often. I
am a sinner. I find what I do is not enough to make me feel good about myself.
There’s nothing I can do to make my guilt go away and, Lord, I come today to
lay it all down at Your feet. Please, take my pain and my shame. Take my heart;
it’s all I have. Cleanse me. Make me new. Give me Your loving grace. I accept
You as My Savior, Oh Son of God. Forgive me, please. Amen.
