The Story of Jesus part 9: Mark 2:18-21
Here's the latest installment in the Mark series. This piece looks at the idea of celebration of the Kingdom of God as part of Jesus' ministry and how it brought him into conflict with the Pharisees. What made the difference between old wineskins and the new? How might we apply this warning to our lives today? Read on and find out.18Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, "How is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?"
19Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.
21"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."
Apart from when he fasted in the desert at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus seems to differ from many other Jews of his day by abstaining from fasting. But what significance was there about fasting and feasting in Jesus’ day, and why was it such a controversial issue for the Pharisees? It will first of all be easier to say what is not happening here before saying what is. It is often thought that the Pharisees were a bunch of legalists who were mainly concerned with doing outwardly impressive religious works, whilst Jesus was offering an alternative view of salvation which focussed on the heart and inner relationship with God where works didn’t matter. Whilst there is a grain of truth in this statement it is does not really help us to understand what is happening here.
Remember behind the story of Jesus are centuries of trouble and strife for Israel. They were sent into exile in Babylon, and while they were physically returned from Exile by Jesus’ day, there seemed to be no sense in which the Exile seemed to have ended spiritually, the people were still as wicked and sinful as before. The Jews knew of the Old Testament promises of the forgiveness of sins, of the promised defeat of their enemies, of the new covenant and the circumcised heart, and the hope for the Messiah who would deal with Israel’s sinfulness and bring the Gentiles into God’s people – and yet they seemed just as far away as ever. At the time of the Exile God’s glory had left the Temple, and it seemed as though he was never going to return.
Fasting was part of this mindset, and did not really have much to do with building up religious discipline or developing a better prayer life in the sense that we might think of it today. Rather it was connected with the idea of loss and remembering the oppression and suffering that Israel had suffered in her turbulent history. Specifically this had to do with mourning the destruction of the Temple when Jerusalem had fallen to the Babylonians just before the Exile. Fasting was part of a national remembrance and grieving, it was a mourning process.
As we have seen from the life of Jesus so far however, that long-awaited return and restoration was now happening. Sins were being forgiven, the sick were being healed, and God’s Kingdom was arriving and it looked as though the promised age to come was finally beginning to dawn. If this is happening, then there is no longer any need for Israel to fast because they are being restored. In the prophet Zechariah we find the promise:
“This is what the LORD Almighty says: "The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. Therefore love truth and peace." (Zechariah 8:19)
The prophets promised that when God restored Israel’s fortunes, fasting would turn into feasting and there would be celebration. This is the underlying issue behind Jesus’ confrontation with the Pharisees here. He is saying “Why fast? The reason that you are fasting is over, God’s time of restoration is here – we should be celebrating!” As we saw in the last study, there was also at this time an idea of a messianic banquet, a great feast where God’s kingdom would be celebrated. The bridegroom is here, Jesus says, the time of fulfilment and restoration is at hand. Notice that Jesus also uses the ideas of bridegrooms and wedding banquets elsewhere in his teaching, and he emphasises these ideas for a very important reason: bridegrooms and feasts spoke of celebration and consummation, which is what Jesus was doing as he brought God’s Kingdom to the world.
Next comes a phrase that seems to be rather cryptic:
"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."Jesus is not simply making a point about how revival works or about how the Holy Spirit comes or about the evils of ‘religious tradition’ (this verse is of course deeply popular within the Charismatic movement for these reasons). Still in conversation with the Pharisees, this utterance is somewhat of a cryptic warning leveled at the would-be true people of God who have already begun to grumble and complain about Jesus’ work. The new era that Jesus is inaugurating will mean that it will be the end of the old way of doing things. Those in Israel who insist on clinging to the Temple and their Torah-based nationalism will simply not be able to participate in God’s Kingdom. As will become clear, Jesus knows where the nationalism, violence and Torah-based (but misplaced) zeal will take them: it will not have the effect of bringing in God’s Kingdom and defeating God’s enemies, it will lead to war and destruction.
Thus God cannot simply patch over his people or do a quick repair job on them. God’s people are sinful and corrupt, and have to be completely remade, reshaped and reconstituted. Anything less than a complete renewal will be like sewing a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment or pouring new wine into old wineskins, it just won’t work. What is needed are new wineskins, a new way of being of God’s people, and this is what Jesus is doing by calling people to follow him and proclaiming and demonstrating the Kingdom.
If we look at the passage as a whole then, it becomes clear that it is not simply a timeless religious statement about fasting followed by a rather curious phrase about wineskins and torn clothes. It is somewhat of a two-edged sword which first of all contains a note of celebration – the bridegroom is here! Celebrate the arrival of God’s kingdom! But then this is immediately followed by a subversive warning to those who are already beginning to oppose what Jesus is doing: God’s Kingdom is new and radical, it is not going to be a patching over of a wicked and stubborn people, it is going to radically redefine who those people are, and the centre of their identity will not be Torah and Temple, it will be around the bridegroom who has now finally come to Israel in the person of Jesus.
Reflection
How can a passage about celebration and warning in a very specific ancient Jewish context be meaningful for us today? It may be helpful at this point to say something on the conflict between the Pharisees and Jesus. For centuries Christian preachers have frequently used the term ‘Pharisee’ to stigmatise and belittle those they perceive to be the enemies of God within the church, yet this is perhaps not all that justifiable.
The Pharisees were zealous for God. A few centuries before Jesus they had led an uprising against the pagan rulers of Israel in protest at the desecration of the Temple, and over 900 of their number were captured and crucified. They knew that zeal for God was costly and so did not take kindly to Jesus’ criticism of their position. The crucial point about the Pharisees was that what they considered to be important in showing their devotion to God was in fact not very important at all. They were zealous for the Temple and for the Torah, and considered not only the Romans to be pagan oppressors that God’s Kingdom would destroy, but also that God would punish Jews who were lax about such important matters. At the time of Jesus the Pharisees had a saying, that if the whole of Israel kept the Torah for just one day, then the Messiah would come. They were steeped in the scriptures and passionate about God – yet according to Jesus they just don’t get it and are in fact ‘old wineskins’ who will not be able to share in the new wine that God is giving.
Are there any ways in which we are zealous for certain things of God in such a way that we either misshape or misuse the good things that he has given us so that we ourselves turn into ‘old wineskins’ that are no longer useful for containing the life and power of God? We can turn the Bible from the liberating word of God into a controlling mechanism for bullying and manipulating people, or we can confuse the Kingdom of God with our own personal, national and social agendas (as the Pharisees did) so that we can end up doing so many ungodly, proud, and violent things that we think are based on a zeal for God and for his word.
The ‘new wine’ however is not found in misplaced zeal, even if that zeal is for things that God has given - it is found in Jesus. Jesus was inaugurating the Kingdom of God quite apart from the Temple and the religious nationalism of his day and he was doing it through his own person and ministry. So then, we must come to Christ first and always. We do not mature as Christians by being able to quote more of the Bible, or by being so zealous for our religious traditions and establishments that they become idols. We are transformed to a greater Christlikeness by beholding him and by knowing him. We know him through his word and his Spirit, and we strengthen our relationship with him through prayer and as we obey him we grow in love for God and for one another. Christ produces love in us, but concepts and religious idols cannot.
Let us offer ourselves afresh to God and ask him to make us new and overflowing with the new wine of his Kingdom, so that we may manifest the righteousness, peace and joy that his life in us is to manifest. Let us forget what is behind us and stop dwelling on the past, because God’s Kingdom restores, heals, forgives and makes new that which is ruined, dark and shameful.
Prayer
Father God,
We delight in you and worship you because it has pleased you to give us your Kingdom and to place us into relationship with you through your son Jesus Christ.
Cleanse us and deliver us from those things of you that we have made more important than you yourself. Cleanse us and make us new so that our lives might overflow with the new wine of your Kingdom, that we may bring forgiveness to the guilty, healing to the sick, hope to the broken, food to the hungry and restoration to the ruined and so spread the aroma of Christ.
We turn from every idol we have made at every level of our lives, even those we have made in your name. We also forgive everyone who has sinned against us, and choose to no longer hold anything against them. Your Kingdom come, and your will be done.
In the Name of Jesus Christ your Son,
Amen.
Other studies in this series can be found here.
For the previous study, go here.