Religion in Conflict
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Good morning, everyone!
Today we are continuing our journey through the book of Mark. We saw in chapter 1 where Jesus’ ministry got off to a booming beginning. Then we got to chapter 2, and that’s when stuff started getting awkward. Chapter 2 details for us major conflicts with ramifications that would last throughout the rest of Jesus’ earthly ministry. In 2:1-12 we saw Jesus prove that He, in fact, does have the authority to forgive sin. Last week, we saw in 2:13-17 where Jesus called a tax collector, of all people, to be His disciple, and went to eat with him and his friends - a bunch of sinners! And he declared that those who believed they were perfect were actually sick, and the people they believed were sick, the sinners, they were the ones being saved by believing and trusting in Jesus. Now we come to our passage today where, guess, what… There’s more conflict. From the outset, it would almost appear that the subject of this passage is about fasting. For the sake of confession, For the almost 20 years I have trusted the Lord as my savior, I have never really taken the time to understand this passage we will be looking at today, and always thought it was about fasting. I managed to get through seminary without having looked at it either, which makes me greatly appreciative of the privilege of bringing the Word today. After having studied through this for the last couple of weeks, I see now that this is a passage that speaks very clearly to a need we in our culture today: We need to understand that the Gospel of Christ is incompatible with anything we might try to add to it. It is distinctive, it is exclusive and it is God’s way, not the ways of man. An equation I like to use is seen here:
The Gospel + anything = not the Gospel.
Read with me in Mark 2:18-22
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. People came and asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
19 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the groom is with them, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast.
20 But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.
21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new patch pulls away from the old cloth, and a worse tear is made.
22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins. No, new wine is put into fresh wineskins.”
Before we go any further, let’s take a moment to pray.
Father, thank you for this opportunity today to hear Your Word. I ask Lord that you would open our hearts and our minds through the Holy Spirit to receive insight into Your precious Word and Your Son, Jesus. Help me to be bold in proclaiming Your Word. Father I pray that today You would bring Glory to Christ as we read about Him and dig deeper into what it is that He said and what you are saying to us today through the Book of Mark. Be blessed today we pray, amen.
As we go through this, my hope and prayer is that we would see two primary principles in the text, that we cannot force our ideas on God and that the gospel of Christ is incompatible with anything that is not the Gospel - we cannot add anything to it and have it be the Gospel He came to proclaim.
If we were to try and outline this passage, we would see a pretty clear division between what is happening in verses 18-20 and Jesus’ parables describing the principle in verses 21 and 22. First, Jesus is confronted, because His disciples aren’t fasting as the Pharisees had prescribed; then He answers in their defense. Then, He goes on to teach a principle that is of vital importance, that we cannot hold our own ideas of God higher than His own Word.
Let’s jump in, shall we?
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. People came and asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
My first inclination would be to think that it was the Pharisees who were giving Jesus a hard time, but guess what? It was actually John’s disciples! We see in Matthew’s account of the same incident starting in
14 Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”
What is important to look at is the fasting habits of the people questioning Jesus - are they doing what God asked of them?
In the Old Testament, there is only one time a year when the children of Israel were commanded to observe a fast. It was on Yom Kippur, otherwise known as the “Day of Atonement.” It was a day to be somber because of the gravity and weight of sin in the face of a Holy God.
However, if you look at all three occurrences of this incident in the synoptic gospels (Matthew 9:9-17, Mark 2:13-22, Luke 5:27-39) they all depict this happening at the same banquet that Matthew-Levi held with the tax collectors and sinners. There was a celebration occuring.
What was the purpose of a fast? It was a sign of grief, over sin or over something burdening the heart and it was observed in preparation for prayer, like in the Day of Atonement.
So, why would they be fasting during a celebration feast? Perhaps this celebration was taking place on a Monday or a Thursday when the Pharisees mandated a fast for piety - that is for the appearance of godliness. They were following what the Jewish religion had become. And that brings us to our first point:
We cannot force our ideas on God
We cannot force our ideas on God
They were taking what would be biblically considered to be a voluntary fast and they made it a hard and fast rule - looking down on Jesus and the disciples for not working to show outward piety. Rather, the disciples were celebrating! They were celebrating because they were with the Messiah, they were celebrating because they had witnessed a life in shambles rescued by Christ. This was a time for celebration, not to be somber, and that is what Jesus is pointing out when he explains it to the disciples of John and the Pharisees.
Read with me again, starting in verse 19
19 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the groom is with them, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast.
20 But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.
Jesus is taking this idea of celebrating when it is appropriate to celebrate and even taking it a step further to say that He, Himself, is the reason they are celebrating. They have a reason to be joyous and not sad! Look at Jesus’ wording in Matthew:
15 Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
Have you ever been around someone at a party who just insisted on being sad? They are not fun to be around, and in the context of the Jewish culture of the day, it was considered inappropriate to be somber at a celebration - especially a wedding feast, like Jesus uses in His example.
So the disciples of John and the Pharisees, along with those who followed them insisted on being somber to show outward godliness when they really should have been celebrating - but the didn’t recognize Jesus for who He was because they themselves were lost: Lost in their tradition, lost in their cultural identity above their kingdom citizenship, lost in their religion over their relationship with God. Perhaps had they been more focused on God than their religious duties - that didn’t come from the Bible but were the laws of men - they would have recognized Jesus and understood why then was not a time to fast. Notice the bombshell that Jesus drops - He is the bridegroom - the one for whom wedding guests experience this joy. What is he really doing here? This is Jesus claiming to be deity. People fast to get closer to God and by Jesus placing Himself as the bridegroom and saying that they didn’t need to fast, He is saying, God is here! I AM in your midst, come talk to me! So how can they fast and be somber, getting ready to pray when the Lord Himself was with them? It didn’t make sense.
Something that would be wise for us to consider - is there anything we put between us and God that isn’t necessary? Something that is more a matter of opinion or cultural identity than scriptural fact that we allow to be obstacles between us and God?
What are some of these self-made obstacles? (Open it up for comment)
I thought of three:
Politics - do we allow ourselves to sin because of what is happening in the political landscape all around us? Anger? Insubordination to the government God put in place?
Family - I have a friend who now denies the authority Scripture because it condemns homosexuality and his brother is gay and he is doing what he feels is his duty to love his brother. I am not saying that he should not love his brother, but it is important to understand that if we are ever in conflict with what the Word teaches, we need to be humble enough to admit and understand that God’s Word is right and we need God’s perspective and grace to help us understand how to live.
Christian culture - Do we adopt the bad theology of a lot of Contemporary Christian Music because we don’t want to be the “sinners” listening to secular music?
The Pharisees and the disciples of John were so involved in their own self-prescribed religious duties that they missed God in the flesh standing in their midst.
Notice what else he does: in verse 20, he says:
20 But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.
He, for the first time in the Gospel of Mark is predicting His death. He is telling His disciples and anyone listening in a very albeit, discrete way, that a time is coming when He will be taken away. At most, this would have given them reason to pause for a second and ponder what He meant, but it would not be until after the death of Christ that they would understand retrospectively what He meant. And while the focus of the passage gives it no more mention, it is important to understand the point that He was trying to make: When Jesus would be, from the way it is worded in Greek, taken away, or “snatched away”, they would then have reason to be somber and fast. This validates the idea that they were free from the need to fast as long as they were with Jesus because there was literally no need. If Peter had a burden on his heart, he could go talk to Jesus about it. Not in prayer, but literally walk over to Him and engage in conversation like you and I would do with one another today.
Jesus defended His disciples against the judgement of those who expected them to jump through a bunch of man-made religious hoops, and goes on to explain the religion they are practicing is incompatible with what God was doing in bringing about the Gospel. Our second point is:
The Gospel of Christ is incompatible with anything that is not the Gospel
The Gospel of Christ is incompatible with anything that is not the Gospel
What Judaism had become, was and still is, no longer what God had put in place with the Nation of Israel. They no longer looked to the covenant promise they had with God, but rather sought to have the appearance of righteousness on the outside devoid of the condition of their spirit on the inside. What Jesus would go on to preach would be radically different than what the Jews were used to and what their tradition dictated. The Jews held more tightly to their traditions, like fasting on Mondays and Thursdays than they did showing mercy and compassion to those around them. Their religion was void because their hearts were hardened against Christ Himself.
Read with me again starting in verse 21
21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new patch pulls away from the old cloth, and a worse tear is made.
22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins. No, new wine is put into fresh wineskins.”
Jesus gives two parables here that talk about the same thing: you cannot take something new and incorporate it in with something old - they are incompatible.
In todays day and age, we don’t really understand this idea of patching an old garment because for the most part, we don’t really patch our clothes. In fact, a lot of people my age and younger buy jeans with the holes already in them and pay a premium price for it! Fabric naturally shrinks as it is washed and dried. An old garment is going to remain the same size because it has already shrank over the course of being used. What Jesus is saying is that a new piece of cloth being used as a patch - something new being added to something old - wont work because the new fabric will shrink and could make the tear in the garment worse. Going into this too much further, I think we could start to miss the point of what Jesus is getting at, so we wont go into fabric choices anymore but we would benefit greatly by understanding this principle - the new and the old of what God is doing compared to the Jewish religion they had made for themselves do not work together - You cannot be a Jew depending on adherence to the Torah and the Rabbinical Law and expect to be saved. You cannot be the old garment expecting to adopt Jesus’ teachings while remaining unchanged, you will only be destroying yourself!
Imagine trying to install brand new software on a 15 year old computer - It will not work! Likewise, try installing really old software on a new computer - It will not work! How many people played Oregon Trail on the computer? It was a really popular game about 25 years ago, and it came on these huge 5.25” floppy disks. If you had one of those floppy disks, you could not install it on a new computer - the technology is incompatible.
Long ago, I studied the Arabic language. My goal was to learn enough about Islam and the Middle-Eastern culture so I could introduce Muslims to Jesus. I remember thinking to myself back then how great it would be to adopt their daily five-times of prayer into how I practiced my faith. It wasn’t until God showed me that I was struggling with legalism in so many other areas of my life that I understood where that desire was coming from - it was a desire to have the appearance of godliness, and it was not coming from the heart. Can you think of a time when you tried to bring something non-biblical into your understanding of the Lord?
Now what is this business Jesus is bringing up with wine? I will admit, this is a portion of the text I didn’t understand because I kept looking at the details of the illustration instead of the principle. I couldn’t see the forest through the trees, so to speak. I did not know enough about how wine was made in the day, and that made understanding this really hard for me.
As a side note, let me say this - it does not take a seminary degree to know scripture, it takes a diligent heart. If you ever struggle with understanding a passage, know that you are not alone, you are in good company. Just be diligent, ask the Lord to illuminate the scriptures to you and press on. Show yourselves to be approved workers of the Scripture.
An ancient wineskin was what they would put all the juices and berries in while they would ferment. While fermenting, the wine would start releasing gasses that would cause the wineskin to expand like a balloon. But not like a nice latex balloon that we think of - this skin was the skin of a goat that could only stand so much pressure. It would get bloated and bloated until it was time to pour the wine into something else to try and filter out all the berry skins and seeds left behind. Once the empty wineskin dried out, it was essentially useless. The skin would become brittle and crack, but sometimes they could keep them and use them to store wine that had already fermented.
Everyone who was listening to Jesus would have known exactly what he was talking about - Of course you don’t put new wine into old wineskins, you will destroy both the wine and the wineskin!
It would be similar to knowing that you don’t put diesel into you non-diesel motor at a gas station - you’ll ruin it! Gasoline engines cannot combust diesel fuel, so the car would stop running. Once that happens, the car has to be towed to a shop, and the fuel system needs to be drained. Diesel fuel and regular gas engines are not compatible the same way that the new wine is not compatible with old wineskins.
The principle that Jesus is teaching is that you cannot take your own religious ideas or old system of religion and try to blend it with what God was doing - it could not be done.
What does that mean for us today? It means that the gospel is God’s exclusive way for man to be in right relationship with Him - it is what He prescribes, and as the creator of the universe, it is His right. Does this mean that Jewish people are going to Hell? If they die in their sins without the covering grace of Jesus, then unfortunately, yes. Does it mean that Muslims are going to Hell? If they die in their sins without the covering grace of Jesus, then unfortunately, yes. Does it mean Mormons, or Jehovah’s Witnesses, or even some of us sitting in this room today could possibly go to Hell? If anyone dies in their sins without the covering grace of Jesus, then unfortunately yes. It doesn’t matter if you practice a religion or consider yourself to be a good person, the only way in which we can be saved is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said in
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
He is the only hope for us, and for those who may be watching online today, what a privilege it is to call Jesus our friend! What a privilege it is to know that Jesus is our Lord and Savior! But if you are here today, not sure about where you stand with Jesus, not sure where you would go if you died today, I implore you - put your trust in Jesus. Listen to the words of John the Baptist in:
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
For those of us who already believe, what does the Gospel continue to do in us? We have assurance that it is not through our own righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ that we will be judged. Imagine what we can accomplish for the Lord with the weight of our performance removed from us. That is exactly what He has done! We will fail - we are not perfect. But I know someone who is: Jesus. If God is giving you the gift of faith in Christ, please let us know. We would love to answer any questions you might have and we would love it if you got plugged in here at Dishman.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Through our text today, we saw that we cannot force our own ideas about God on Him and expect that they will be as valid to Him as what He prescribed. We cannot add our hypocrisy, our attempts at outward righteousness to how we live in relationship with God.
16 “Whenever you fast, don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so that their fasting is obvious to people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward.
It is useless! Fasting is a great way to focus on the Lord, but for Christians, it is a voluntary spiritual discipline we partake in when we are expressing sorrow and brokenness for our sin and it is a discipline we partake in when we have something weighing on our hearts that we want to bring before the Lord.
Don’t let anyone tell you that you are not spiritual enough if you are not living up to the outward appearances of the religious. What God is doing is in your heart and must take place on the inside before the fruits of that can be seen on the outside.
Do you want to follow Jesus and incorporate aspects of your own religious background? I have met people who have claimed to have blended Christianity with Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism as their faith. Let me ask you this: Can such a faith save someone? Can a faith where Jesus is only partially incorporated be anything that would move their heart to genuine repentance and under the Lordship of Christ? No. We, friends, have God, His Son, Jesus, and His Holy Spirit, and the instructions He gave us on how to be saved in the Word, the Bible. Seek after Jesus.
Let’s pray.
Father, thank You for what You have done for us. Through the death of Your son, You made a way for us to be freed from the burden of sin and reunited in right-relationship with You while we wait to be eternally reunited with You in Heaven. God, I pray for anyone here today that may be struggling with their own self-prescribed religious duties that do nothing but put obstacles between themselves and You. I pray for those of us today who realized that we truly are sinners in need of forgiveness. You are our joy. You are our reason to celebrate. Help us to see You more clearly. Help us to boldly proclaim the only gospel capable of saving us - the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Holy Spirit, move in us and remind us of the joy we can have because of the salvation granted to us through Jesus.