Sermon Tone Analysis

RECORD

If you were here last week than you may remember that we began the process of looking at the parable of Jesus from and while we never got to the actual parable we instead spent our time looking at what happened leading up to Jesus speaking this parable

In the days and hours leading up to this confrontation with the Pharisees Jesus had begun His earthly ministry by doing things opposite of the way that the religious teachers of the day were doing them

Without trying to, Jesus was provoking these powerful men and threatening their way of life as well as their position among the people

And as can be expecting they were not just going to sit idly by and watch it happen, so they took action by challenging Jesus about His beliefs regarding fasting, or the lack thereof

Let’s pick up our story in ,

Luke 5:33-

Fasting is the act of denying oneself food and it was commanded by God for one day a year, Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement as per

Fasting is the act of denying oneself food and it was commanded by God for one day a year, Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement as per

So it is no wonder that while fasting was only

Despite being commanded for just this one day however, fasting became an important part of Jewish life and is seen throughout the Old Testament

Usually when there was a desperate need of the people calling or doing the fast

Over and over again God responded to His people when they fasted and prayed and so with time fasting began to become associated with a person’s level of spirituality

It was a marker so-to-speak of the more pious

I believe that this is what led to it becoming a part of the regular routine of the “more spiritual” people such as the Pharisees

The Pharisees fasted twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays

And they wanted to make sure that everyone knew they were fasting so they would put white ash on their heads and parade around moaning and groaning to show that they were spiritual

This practice is what led Jesus to say in

So when they confronted Jesus that day about His views on fasting they were challenging His level of spirituality as well as His take on the traditions of the Jews

These practices could be traced back thousands of years, they were the normal and accepted practice of the day

It is to this that Jesus responds and tells everyone listening (remember there’s a great party going on) that the time has come for the old to go and the new to come

Let’s break down what Jesus really said

Jesus begins by talking about it being time for a celebration a big party and the reason is that the bridegroom is with them

This might seem like a nice illustrative picture to us but for those Bible scholars who were present that day Jesus is declaring Himself to be the Messiah, the one whom they had been waiting for

This concept of the Messiah as the bridegroom was throughout the Old Testament, Especially in the prophet Hosea's writings

Not to mention that the recent words of John the Baptist which were probably still ringing in their ears

John 3:

At the risk of oversimplifying what is taking place here, Jesus is basically saying that the seasons have changed and the time is right for some spring cleaning

And that’s when He speaks to them this parable ,

Luke 5:36-39

Let’s look at each of the “Old things” that Jesus said needed to go

First the “Old Garment”

Many of us can relate to this illustration because while growing up our moms did everything that they could to make our clothes last as long as possible, including sewing patches onto them

Little bit different from today where people pay extra for jeans that are already ripped and torn…but I digress

The practice of patching ripped and torn clothes was also common in the days of Jesus, money was tight and people had to what they could to extend their budget

But remember that they did not have the technology that we have today and to sew a new patch on an old garment meant one thing would happen, the first time it was washed the new patch would shrink and the older frailer garment would pull apart making it worse at the end than at the start

Jesus was making it clear that He had not come with some new patches to cover over the holes that people were exploiting in Judaism

Unlike every other Rabbi who was trying to make a name for himself, Jesus was not trying to add something to what they already had

That His ways were not ways to be added to the collective form of Judaism with its concepts of working towards your righteousness

reminds us that “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags”

If you forget about the bad stuff we’ve done and only use our righteous acts to make a judgement, it still amounts to nothing more than a pile of filthy rags

Not something you patch and put back on but that you get rid of

Now just before someone misinterprets what I am saying, I am NOT saying that Christ was saying to get rid of the law

Matthew 5:17

The law was never intended to be a list of does and don’ts but was supposed to be a means to the heart and character of God, following the law wasn’t intended to provide righteousness but was supposed to lead a person to faith in Jehovah and that faith was their key to righteousness

In AKA the Hall of faith it states 23 times that these great women and men of God acted “by faith” and thus were made righteous

But the law had become the end and not the journey and Jesus said it’s time for that way of thinking, that method of religion to go to the curb

He then moves right into the new wine and the old wine which is so very clearly a representation of the covenant that God had with His people

Because we have the privilege of hindsight let us flip over a few chapters to where the earthly ministry of Jesus is about to come to an end so He joins His disciples for one more passover meal

If you were with us several years ago when we celebrated the Haggadah of Passover you may remember that there are four different “cups” of wine that are celebrated

Before the meal the cup of sanctification, during the meal the cup of plagues, after the meal the cup of redemption and at the very end the cup of praise

Let’s read,

Luke 22:

In God had made a covenant with the people of Israel and had sealed it with the sprinkling of the blood of sacrifices

But the people had broken the covenant, they hadn’t kept up to their end of things

So when Jesus, the Lamb of God, comes on the scene He tells them that it is now the time to do away with the old wine, that the time for a new cup of redemption was at hand

Redemption that came by placing their faith and trust in Him

There’s one problem with that though, new wine in an old wineskin is never a good combination

As the wineskins age they would dry out and they would lose their elasticity, the new wine which was still in the process of fermentation needed that flexibility to allow it to mature

The same was true of this new way of doing things that Jesus was proposing, they could not work within the unrelenting confines of the traditions associated with the law

Again notice that I said the “traditions associated with the law” and not the law itself because Jesus had come to fulfill the law

Perhaps the best example of what Jesus meant by this is found in the sermon on the mount right after the part I read earlier about Jesus not coming to abolish the law

From there Jesus goes on to explain the difference between His teachings and the traditions of Judaism for such things as murder, adultery, divorce, revenge, love, generosity and more

The Pharisees strictly observed the Talmud which was the oral laws or traditional interpretation of the laws that had been collected over the centuries but instead of the traditions of men Jesus concerned Himself with the heart of God

These are the famous “You have heard that it was said…But I say...” sayings and they show that the way that Jesus was teaching, which was still in fulfillment of the law, went against the grain of the traditions of religion

The Pharisees strictly observed the Talmud which was the oral laws or traditional interpretation of the laws that had been collected over the centuries but instead of the traditions of men Jesus concerned Himself with the heart of God

These religious men were indignant with Jesus because in the past little while He seemed to be doing everything that He could to show contempt for the things that a Rabbi should hold near and dear

So they tried to challenge Him on an obvious and very public tradition, the fast

In response Jesus did what He always did best, He kind of ignores their question and yet uses it as a springboard to tell them what they really needed to hear

That they season was right to do some spring cleaning to get rid of the old and replace it with the new

So why have I spent two weeks on what amounts to more of a Bible study than a sermon series?

The reason is simple, because the message that Jesus spoke is a message that we still need to hear today

Jesus ends His parable by stating that in spite of the new way being better, people get stuck in their old ways, in their traditions and they find it very hard to give it up

The reason, religion is far easier than following the way that Jesus calls us to, it’s more comfortable, it’s a fulfillment of duty

It is far easier for us to follow a religious set of parameters than it is for us to transform our lives

It is far easier to mandate a tithe of 10% than it is to change our heart so that we become generous

It is easier to forgive 7 times for the same trespass than it is to forgive just as we have been forgiven

It is easier to look good on the outside than it is to transform from the inside and that is the point of this parable

The time is here to do away with righteousness based on works and to base our righteousness on our faith in Jesus Christ

To do away with religion and replace it with a personal relationship with the God of the universe who took the opportunity to be present with us and show us what God is like

And, as says, to “take off your old self with its practices, and put on the new self, which is being renewed in the image of its creator.”

Let’s Pray