Mark 2:18–22 (ESV)
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. 20 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 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.”
How great to have a passage about fasting and feasting on the eve of Thanksgiving!
Have you ever watched any of those reality TV shows where an expert comes in to help a failing business, such as a restaurant or a local bar? Tension, tears, and drama overflow as the expert confronts the systemic problems that have led these business owners to the edge of bankruptcy. What’s interesting to note is that more than a third of these businesses fail within a year of the expert's visit. Why? The owners were unwilling to embrace the new wholeheartedly and returned to their old habits and practices.
I was thinking about those shows as I read this passage this morning. Something completely new and astonishing is breaking into the world. As Jim Edwards notes in his commentary, “The kingdom of God is making a personal appearance in Jesus.”
Here in this passage, the kingdom of God is announced in the amazing imagery of a wedding, and while Jesus is with them, it is a time of celebration and feasting (not fasting) as God’s love, forgiveness, and grace are present in Jesus.
However, even though it’s a time of celebration, conflict is also on the horizon. We get a glimpse of the conflict when Jesus speaks of the time when the bridegroom will be taken away and in the imagery Jesus paints for us with the unshrunk cloth and the old wineskins; the old is incompatible with the new and to try and combine them together will result in both being lost.
That’s what happens when we try to make compromises in our faith. When we try to combine our old ways of living with the new life that we have in Jesus, it ultimately results in ruin, and that’s reflected in the imagery of the bridegroom being taken away, the patch being torn away, and the wineskins bursting.
As N.T. Wright noted, “you have to take the new thing whole or not at all.”
In the passage just before this, that’s exactly what Levi did when Jesus called him. That’s exactly what Andrew, Peter, James, and John did when Jesus called them; they left it all and followed Jesus.
That’s what we’re invited to do personally and in the church; we’re invited to join the wedding party celebration feast, but we can’t do that if we’re going to continue to hold onto those old ways of doing things.
Whenever I am asked to officiate at a wedding, one of the main things that I emphasize to the couple is that they are beginning a new life together. Can you imagine the impact on their marriage if the couple refused to let go of their old ways of living?
It’s no different for us in the church and in our personal relationship with Jesus. Jesus has invited us to the wedding celebration feast. Will you wholeheartedly accept and clear your calendar, or will you try to see how you can fit it in with everything else that you’re doing?
God bless you, and know that you are constantly in my prayers.
Scott