Oh, Taste and See

Mark 2:18 “John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they 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, ‘While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. ²⁰ But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.’

²¹ ‘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. ²² 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.’”

I had never seen a connection between verses 18-20 and 21-22 before. Mostly this had to do with my interpretation of verses 21-22. I had been taught that this parable was about the Holy Spirit and that you couldn’t pour grace into the law – that the New Testament superseded the Old. While it is true that grace and law cannot coexist, I am no longer convinced that this typical protestant interpretation of the parable is correct. If the new wine is Jesus or the Holy Spirit or grace, then the end of verse 22 makes no sense, “the wine is lost and the skins as well.”

How do these verses look in context, and how would the disciples and Pharisees have understood them? Here I have to give credit to Chuck Colson.  http://www.colsoncenter.org/the-center/columns/changepoint/17244-old-wine-in-new-wineskins-2

The Pharisees were complaining that Jesus’ disciples did not observe the extra fast days that they observed. Jesus responds with three parables, the bridegroom, the unshrunk cloth and the wineskins. The bridegroom parable makes the most sense to me. I get how it would be inappropriate to fast during your friend’s wedding. And on the surface, I get the unshrunk cloth and wineskin parables.

Luke’s account of this event sheds some additional light. Luke adds, ““… And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’” (Luke 5:39) The word for good here can be translated gentle, pleasant, kind.

What if what Jesus was saying was, “God declared one time a year, the Day of Atonement, to fast. You Pharisees are burdening the people with more rules, more law, so that you feel good enough for God. The old wine is the truth of who God is. When you add your ‘new wine’ you are ruining the image of who God is. The god you are presenting to the people is not El Olam, the Unchanging Eternal God. My disciples have tasted the ‘old wine’, the aged, perfected wine. They have seen El Olam, because they have seen me. They have experienced the gentle, pleasant, kindness of El Roi, the God who sees me. Why would they ever want the false god you are offering? “

I tend to try to earn God’s favor rather than resting in His kindness and grace. I add burdens to myself. I can never be good enough, but He is good for me. I don’t need new wine. I need the Ancient of Days.

The cure for religiosity is found in Psalm 34:8. “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.” Drinking deeply of the old wine this morning as I wander the straight crooked path.

It's Your Kindness, Leslie Phillips and Matthew Ward
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeZe1NzjNoQ

Radical Love

¹⁴ As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.

¹⁵ And it happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him. ¹⁶ When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹⁷ And hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:14-17)

 

What would it have been like to have walked with Jesus? Jesus had invited Peter, Andrew, James and John to be with him. They were ordinary people who had normal, respectable jobs. They were your average sinner – nothing major. After being invited to hang out with Jesus, they must have felt pretty good about themselves. Jesus had healed Peter’s mother-in-law, eaten at their homes…

They got to be in on something big. Crowds were following Jesus, and they were His friends. They were in the spotlight because He was in the spotlight.

Then Jesus did something totally radical – more radical than touching a leper.

It must have shocked the disciples when Jesus invited Levi to join the group. Levi was a tax collector, a traitor and a thief. No one respectable wanted to be around people like Levi. And then, after Levi started following Jesus, all his scumbag friends started following, too. The word for sinners used here is the word for blatant sinners, obvious sinners; not people who just miss the bulls-eye of righteousness, but people who don’t even come close to hitting the target.

Jesus started to hang out with disreputable people. These social lepers wanted to be near Him. He ate with them. He drank with them. He went into their homes. I bet the food was not kosher. I bet they didn’t go through the motions of ceremonial washing.

The religious people followed Jesus, too. But they did not like Jesus. They kept themselves separate from “sinners.” They were good at hitting the target, and they couldn’t understand why Jesus would want to dirty Himself with such scum. It was incomprehensible to them. God is holy; we need to be holy. He is separate; we need to be separate.

Jesus used the indignation of the Pharisees to teach, not only the Pharisees, but the disciples who were with Him. “I did not come to call (summon or invite) the righteous, but sinners (scumbags) to repentance (a change of heart and mind.)”

The religious leaders got it half right. God is holy, He is totally other. But He is not angry at those who are not holy. He loves unconditionally. He knows that I can never be good enough. I can never keep all of the rules. I can never reach God through my own efforts. And so He reaches down to me. He makes me good enough. He was perfect in my place.

This is the gospel. The kingdom of God has come. We can not reach up to the kingdom. God has reached down to us.

And this is the job we are called to do-to preach the kingdom of God. We are not called to hang out with the respectable people. We are not called to sit in judgment with the religious people. We are not called to be the righteous who have no need of a physician.

We are called to have eye surgery. We are called to see others as Jesus sees them. We are called to love.

Wandering the straight crooked path, looking for opportunities to be radical.