Old Skin, New Wine

“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.

Cloth and Wine: A New Life

Matthew 9:14-17

Jesus’ first teaching on fasting was in Matthew 6. In that chapter, Jesus taught that other people should not notice when a person fasts. Fasting should only be visible to God because it is a method of humbling self before God. So that we are not mistaken on this teaching, Isaiah 58 and Zechariah 7 both said this. God told the Israelites through these prophets that if their fasting was just motions they went through and they were not taking care of the hungry, poor, naked, and unsheltered, then He would not hear them. God requires a whole life given over to His service, not just outward actions. God looks at a person’s heart behind the actions. Jesus repeated this in Matthew 6. The Pharisees showed they were fasting by not bathing, anointing their heads with oil, and by wearing sackcloth and ashes. They were seeking acknowledgement by people. Jesus told them they received what they desired, public acknowledgement. On the other hand, they did not receive acknowledgement from God. They received and earthly reward, not heavenly.

In Matthew 9:14-17, the topic of fasting arose again. This time John's disciples asked Jesus directly about fasting. John’s disciples approached Jesus and asked why His disciples did not fast like the Pharisees and them. We need to understand this situation better. John’s disciples were still Jews. The disciples were sad and at a loss of what to do about John being imprisoned by Herod (Matthew 4:12). In the past (the Old Testament), people often fasted when seeking God’s guidance or expressing grief. John’s disciples acted as most Jews did when they fasted. They did not know a new day had come with a new covenant, even though John testified to it when he said “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). They did not hear Jesus’ teaching on fasting or the new covenant.

What is interesting is that the Pharisees are involved in this passage. Often when people challenged Jesus on a point of Jewish religious life, the Pharisees were the challengers. We note that the scribes and Pharisees were near when Jesus spoke to John’s disciples. (See 9:3, 11.) The Pharisees probably instigated this questioning so that John’s disciples spoke the challenge to Jesus. The Pharisees forever tried to catch Jesus in blasphemy or breaking Jewish religious laws. Another thing in this passage we need to note is Jesus made a point that showed His disciples are different from John’s disciples and the Pharisees. He called His disciples “attendants of the bridegroom” (vs. 15). “Attendants of the bridegroom” means sons, descendants, or heirs of the bridegroom. Jesus called His disciples his descendants, His heirs. His disciples are new children in Him and are heirs of the Father now. They will receive God’s love, grace, and salvation, as well as live with Him for eternity. Paul said this in Romans 8:17. We can imagine the slap the Pharisees felt when Jesus said this. They felt Jesus slapped them by saying they would not inherit eternal life with the Messiah. This may have enraged them. We do not know for sure how they took Jesus’ words at this point. We do know they never gave up their relentless pursuit to trip Jesus. They wanted to imprison and kill Jesus. Jesus told them the attendants of the bridegroom do not fast. He separated His disciples from the Pharisees and John’s disciples. By Jewish religious law, people at a wedding did not fast. Weddings lasted seven days and they did not fast for those seven days. Jesus’ disciples are not like John’s or like the Pharisees at this time. Jesus equated His disciples with being wedding attendants, but not just any wedding attendants; they were co-heirs with the bridegroom, with Christ.

Jesus punctuated this proclamation with two parables, the parables of the new cloth and the new wine. In these parables, Jesus did not speak specifically to fasting, but to the new covenant and new life in Him. He said, “no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch pulls away from the garment and a worse tear results. A couple of things we should notice here are the old garment needed a patch and patches came from shrunk cloth. First, the garment needed patching. The garment needing a patch was the old way of relating to God. Prior to Christ, the Israelites came to God through sacrifices for sin, which never took away all sin. They had to repeat sacrifices regularly. Also, within the religious life of the Israelites, there were arguments and divisions over how to live before Yahweh. The strict Jews required obedience to 613 laws. The stringency of these laws often did not allow for giving of mercy or compassion on the Sabbath. A chasm between the different forms of Judaism occurred because of their interpretation of the Law. The people did not need their old ways, the old garment, mended. They needed a better way to be in a right relationship with Yahweh God. Jesus came to earth to bring that better way, the New Covenant. The new cloth represented the better way. Trying to sew a patch of new unshrunk cloth onto old cloth will not work. These disciples of Jesus were new disciples. They had not had a chance to wear the cloth, their new life long enough to allow it to fit them well. The cloth/life was not yet tried, tested, and shrunk to become a familiar, loved garment. They were just learning about the new garment. Also, the patch of unshrunk cloth will pull away from the old cloth, but new life in Christ is not to be an add-on to an already existent life. Jesus came to bring a new way and a new covenant with God. He fulfilled the old covenant. The old has gone the new has come, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17. When a person becomes a follower of Jesus, the person has a new life and it does not fit with the old life. The habits of the old life do not go with the new life Jesus gives us. A person must choose which life they will lead. The Pharisees and other Jews could not realistically expect the new believers in Christ to follow their old methods of coming before God and of living on the earth. Thus, Jesus stated, they will not fast according to the old customs of the Jews. (Remember, nowhere in the New Testament does God mandate His children must fast. Fasting is one way of humbling oneself and seeking God, but God does not mandate it. The Jews must realize Jesus wove a new cloth to make them a new set of clothes, not something just to patch an old cloth. Jesus provided a better way, the new covenant. He fulfilled the old covenant.

With regard to the parable of the new wine, we must understand the method used in Bible times for making wine. The wine bag/bottle is just as important as the wine. People made the wine by pouring fresh grape juice into fresh skins/bottles. They skinned and tanned goat hides. The neck of the goat became the neck of the bag. After the person poured the fresh grape juice into the skins, over time the juice would ferment. As it fermented, it produced gases. The need for new bags was most necessary for this part of the process. The new bags were fresh, young, and expandable. They grew with the production and increased pressure of fermenting gases. Old bags were dry and inflexible. They could not withstand the pressure of the fermentation gases, but were not supple and expandable. Old bags could not grow. This analogy is what Jesus meant when He spoke to John’s disciples and others who listened. The message Jesus brought of the new covenant, the new way of relating to God, must go into new wineskins, lives made new by Christ. As people grow more in the knowledge of Christ and grow more like Him, they expand and grow just as the fermentation gases from the grape juice expand the new wineskins. The new wineskin is the new life Christ gives to people. The old way of life was stagnant, insufficient, and could not bring a person into a right relationship with God. A person must choose between their old way of life - religious and secular life - or the new life Christ gives. If we try to put the new covenant (the wine) Jesus brought into an old lifestyle (wineskins), it will not fit. The old life fights against the new wine, the new covenant, Christ brings and bursts the old wineskin, then both the old life and the new message will be lost to the person. The person will become confused and drift in life. When we allow Christ to pour the new life He brought (salvation and life with Him forever) into new wineskins (a new way of living/the new man) both are preserved, the Gospel given to the person and the person’s life.

Jesus made 4 points. One, His disciples are co-heirs with Him of eternal life with the Father in heaven. This meant that the Pharisees were not co-heirs. However, Jesus told them in verse 12, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.” Jesus came for everyone, but only persons who recognize he or she is sick, who realize he or she is a sinner, will receive salvation. The Pharisees as a group did not recognize their sickness. Second, Jesus came to give a completely new life/cloth, not have some of what He brought for humankind added onto what they already did in life. Christianity is not a patch for our lives. It is the only way to have abundant life, to be made right before God (have salvation), and to have eternal life in God’s Kingdom. Third, the new wine must go into new wineskins. Jesus gave a new way, the new covenant, to be in relationship with God and that requires we accept and live out a new life and no longer live as we did previously. We cannot continue to live our old sinful lives and expect that since we say we believe, we will be all right with God. Our acceptance of His grace and forgiveness must bear fruit in our lives. Fruit will show by the way our lives changed from what they were to a new way of living, a life of mercy, compassion, and devotion to God. The fermentation gases represent this growth. Fourth, fasting is a personal issue. For John’s disciples, they mourned the imprisonment of John and fasted humbly to go before God asking Him to intervene for John. For the Pharisees, they fasted to advertise their piety hoping to gain praise from other people. For Jesus’ disciples at that particular time, fasting was not needed because God, in the form of Jesus Christ, was in their midst. He already acknowledged them and chose to be with them. There would be a time later, after Jesus ascended to heaven, when they might want to fast to humble themselves, recognize and repent of their sin, and ask to be in God’s presence. Fasting is just one method of coming before God. God does not mandate it. By definition, fasting is a religious exercise of abstaining from food or drink. It removes our focus from our wants and needs to focus on God. Every time we think of eating or drinking the item from which we are fasting, we remember our fast and that we are seeking God. We remember not to focus on our self, but on God. We are seeking God’s presence, His will, and His way.

I do not know if you are fasting this Lent. If you are, why are you doing it? Do you want to be part of the crowd who does? There is a better reason to fast. Being a part of the crowd will not get you acknowledged by God. See Isaiah 58 and Zechariah 7. Do you want to be in God’s presence? God desires a continual relationship with us. He created us to be in relationship with us. God created us in His image, the crowning glory of creation. We are the only ones of His creation into whom He breathed His life. It is for us that He sent His Son, Jesus, to be the once and for all sacrifice, the only sacrifice ever needed for our sin, so that we could have a renewed relationship with Him.

Are you ready to accept His love and sacrifice? Are you ready to become new wineskins for the new wine? Are you ready to put on the whole new garment that Jesus gives to you, not just the patch? What do you need to do to come before God today? Maybe fasting? We must always come to God in humility, recognizing His greatness and our sinfulness, and asking for His forgiveness, and then we can be in a renewed relationship with Him.

Christians observe Lent for forty days before Easter. At Lent Christians prepare for the celebration of Easter by humbling themselves before God with repentance, moderation in life, and spiritual discipline, some include fasting in the latter. Lent is a time to reflect on Jesus Christ’s suffering and sacrifice. Have you taken the time to consider God’s great love for you? He allowed His Son, Jesus the Christ, to be beaten and crucified for your sins. That thought is humbling. Take this time now and consider what Jesus did for you so you could be in a renewed relationship with the Father and have eternal life with Him. Whatever it takes for you to consider God’s great love for you do it because He gave everything He had to show you how much He loves you.

Seeking God Through Fasting

Matthew 6:16-18

            These three verses are part of a famous sermon by Jesus. It is part of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Jesus taught the disciples and other of His followers important things - how to pray, how to give, how to fast, how to have a relationship with Yahweh. This week, God caught my attention with the fasting part of the passage, verses 16-18. The verses say,

16 Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. 17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face 16 Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. 17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face 18 so that your fasting will not be noticed my men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

            I always read this part of the sermon as not to be as the Pharisees who seek attention. That is one of the lessons taught here though not the only lesson. In the fifteen verses before this, Jesus taught His disciples how to give and pray. He preceded this with His thematic statement in verse 1, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.”

            Jesus told His disciples to give in secret so that no one other than God knew who gave. He said to pray to the Father in their inner/secret room so that no one other than God knew they were praying. In these verses, 2-8, Jesus contrasted those who gave and prayed in the open so other people would see and hear them to the redeemed, righteous ones of God. He told them the people who acted so others saw sought acclamation from other people; thus, they already received their reward on earth. These hypocrites did not do these things from their heart for God, but from their need of approval by people. Jesus, in verses 9-13, taught His disciples how to pray. The prayer He taught put God’s will first, their relationship with God second, and their relationship with other people third. God is to be the priority if you are a disciple of Christ. Later in chapter 6, Jesus taught God’s love and provision for His children by showing them how much He cared for the sparrow. The analogy is that if God cares even for a sparrow, how much more does He care for His creation made in His image.

            With this setting placed before us, in this week’s study, God brought my attention to verses 16-18. These verses are on fasting. I have never studied fasting, nor have I ever fasted for my faith. When I read this, God piqued my interest. I delved into the Biblical history of fasting. My questions were: 1) What is fasting, 2) Why do we fast, 3) How do we fast, and 4) Does God mandate fasting as a part of the religious life of a church, to be on the church calendar.

As I began my study, I looked up every instance of fasting in the Bible. I found that the words “fast” and “fasting” in the Old Testament Hebrew are tsowm and tsuwm. These Hebrews words mean abstaining from foods (Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon). The prophets, priests, and kings/queens called fasts for their people. Individuals sometimes chose to fast of their own accord. These leaders called fasts to humble themselves or their people before God, to confess their sins, and to pray to God because of their need for forgiveness, guidance, God’s presence, to know God’s will, and to express their grief to God. We find these passages in Judges 20:26; 1 Samuel 7:6 and 31:13; 2 Samuel 1:12 and 12:16; 1 Kings 21:9, 12, and 27; 1 Chronicles 10:12; 2 Chronicles 20:3; Ezra 8:21 and 23; Nehemiah 1:4, and 9:1; Esther 4:3,16, and 9:31; Psalm 35:13, 69:10, and 109:24; Isaiah 58:3-6 and 10; Jeremiah 14:12, 36:6 and 9; Daniel 9:3; Joel 1:14, 2:12, and 15; Jonah 3:5; and Zechariah 7:5 and 8:19. In the New Testament, fasting and fasts, in Greek, are nesteuo and nesteia. These Greek words mean to abstain as a religious exercise from food and drink as a part of private or public religious devotion (New Testament Greek Lexicon and Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary). These words are found in Matthew 4:2, 6:16-18, 9:14-15; Mark 2:18-20; Luke 5:33-35, 18:12; and Acts 13:2-3, 14:23. These passages show the reasons people fasted in the New Testament era – to be in commune with God, to know His will, to be in His presence, and to bless and send out God’s called messengers, such as Saul and Barnabas in Acts 13:3 and 14:23.

In one of the above passages it seems God mandated a fast. Zechariah 8:19 stated the LORD declared a fast four different times a year. These fasts appear to commemorate times when the Israelites fasted previously because they were being attacked, Jerusalem destroyed, and people taken into captivity. God told the Jews that historically these four fasts were because of sadness and desperation, but now they would be for joy and gladness. Jewish rabbis, priests, and historians stated that God mandated a fast before the time of Zechariah on the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16:29. The Hebrew word used in that instance is ‘anah and means to humble oneself, be downcast, and be afflicted. ‘Anah can be used for “humble” and other words, such as “afflicted.” The Jewish leaders stated this affliction could be the afflicting of the soul by abstaining from food, drink, anointing of the head, or bathing. The Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) does not explain specifically what this “affliction” should be though. Since the Hebrew words tsowm and tsuwm specifically mean a fast or to fast, abstaining from food for a purpose, 'anah of Leviticus 16 is not the same. As evidence to this interpretation, that afflicting is fasting and thus fasting is required for the Day of Atonement, Jewish leaders refer to Psalm 35. Yet, when I study Psalm 35, David used ‘anah in verse 10, “Lord, who is like You, Who delivers the afflicted from him Who is too strong for him.” Later in verse 13, David used the word tsowm to speak of fasting. Since David differentiated the two words, afflicted and fasting, I do not believe we can say ‘anah in Leviticus 16:29, Leviticus 23:27-32, and Exodus 30:10 refers to a God mandated fast for the Jews on the Day of Atonement. Fasting is a purposeful humbling of one’s self before the great and majestic Yahweh. We will see, though, in Matthew 6, Isaiah 58, and Zechariah 7 that performing a fast does not make a person acceptable before God. Humbling oneself does not come from the act of fasting. Being humble before God comes from being in a relationship with Him so that our actions on earth glorify Him.

In studying the passage, the word for fasting used in Matthew 6:16-18 is nesteuo. Jesus explained to the people that when they fast they were to “anoint their heads and wash their faces so their fasting would not be noticed by men, but by their Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you” (vs. 17-18). The hypocrites purposely neglected their appearance so men would notice them. Jesus said the hypocrites already received their reward, which was recognition by men of their supposed devotion to God. He implied the Father does not recognize hypocrites. This continued Jesus’ theme from giving and praying in the preceding verses.

There is more to fasting than the act of giving, praying, or fasting. Isaiah 58 gives council on fasting. God spoke through Isaiah to the house of Jacob in this chapter. God told them it was because of their sins that He did not heed their prayers nor acknowledge their fasting. The Israelites’ lack of confession kept Him from hearing and acting for them. Jews not seeking His righteousness made Him turn His ear from them. The house of Jacob fasted and on the same day, they drove their workers hard (vs. 3). God told them He desired a fast where a person humbled himself or herself (vs. 5). God wanted a fast where the “bonds of wickedness were loosed,” “the bands of the yoke” were undone, and “the oppressed went free” (vs. 6). The “house of Jacob” was to “divide their bread with the hungry, bring the homeless poor into the house,” and cover the naked (vs. 7). God desired their righteous actions and then He would be “their rear guard” (vs. 8). He would answer when they called and their light would shine in the darkness. God would be the light of the Israelites if they sought to follow Him and His righteousness (vs. 9-10). God promised He would guide them, satisfy their desires in desolate places, give them strength, and provide them with everything they need, if they made Him their light (vs. 11).

 Matthew 6 and Isaiah 58 say that acts performed out of duty while fasting is not what God accepts as humility and righteousness. God requires His righteousness to show through by His children giving to the hungry, sheltering the homeless, releasing the captives, and clothing the naked, without drawing attention to themselves. By being in such a relationship with God that His love is enacted by His children for the less fortunate and hurting, people show God’s righteousness and their faithful following of Him. Our care of others and humility of self is what God requires even today. (As an aside, ‘anah does not show care of others, just concern of self before God.) When we are in a relationship with God, then our fasting as a method to humble ourselves and seek Him will be accepted by Him. James wrote on faith in action in James 2:18. He stated that faith is what you do for others because of God living in you.

Jesus spoke on hypocrites in Matthew 6. They gave, prayed, and fasted to be seen by other people. God did not give mandated fast days during Bible times since the time of Zechariah. God does not mandate fasting for the church calendar. When we want to come before God, we must humble ourselves, be penitent, and seek to follow God’s will on earth. One way to remind us to be humble is fasting, abstaining from food or drink. Some Christians, during Lent, choose to fast from a food or drink that does not help their bodies, the temple of God. When they think of or want to consume that item, fasting reminds them to focus on God, be humble before Him, and seek His will. Fasting at Lent also reminds each of us of God’s great love for us as expressed through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son so that we can be forgiven of our sins and live with Him forever in heaven. We fast to humble ourselves before almighty God, to be in His presence, and receive His acknowledgement.

Jesus summed up the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Whether you believe fasting should be on the religious calendar or not, what is most important is your relationship with God. Are you coming humbly before God? Are you seeking Him and His righteousness and acting it out on earth? As God said in Matthew 6, and Isaiah 58, if you are not living a righteous life, secret from the eyes of other people, then your act of fasting is not done with humility and will be rejected and go unheard by God.

This Lenten season, whether you fast or not, are you in a right relationship with God? Is it obvious by your heart actions of caring for the “least of these” that you act because of submission to God’s will? Or, do you act as if by remote? Fasting is a state of mind and includes actions that acknowledge your humility before God. This humility shows as actions lived out toward other people because of your relationship with God – actions of giving clothes, food, shelter, and freeing the oppressed and enslaved. These actions glorify God. Christ is the supreme example of living a righteous life and having a relationship with the Father. Christ showed us how to pray to God (Matthew 6:9-13), how to be humble (John 13:12-17), and how to care for the “least of these” (Matthew 25:34-40, Isaiah 61:1-3, and Matthew 11:5).

Seek God with utmost humility, confession, and prayer. Be genuine and He will hear and respond to you. Enact out of obedience God’s righteousness, which comes from a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ, and you will be heard by God and have your reward in heaven (vs. 1).

Are you seeking God, His kingdom, and His righteousness?