Sermon Tone Analysis

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Today I want to invite your attention (if you want to go ahead and turn there) to Mark, the second chapter.
I want to look at Jesus' response to a confrontation that He had in this particular occasion with the Scribes and the Pharisees.
To set up the reading that we're going to do, which will begin for us in the eighteenth verse of the second chapter in a moment, by the events that precipitated that, we have Mark who topically presents the Scriptures for us, preceding this discussion with the conversion of Levi, otherwise known as Matthew.
Jesus goes by, and there in Galilee is a man, a Jew, who is a tax collector.
Now he is a man who has found a way to deal with recession.
The recession of Jesus' day was caused by the oppressive taxation of the Roman government, and Levi chose to be a part of that and took a job as a tax collector.
In that day, there was some freedom in being able to add to the amount that you collected and keeping the surplus for yourself.
People knew of this, and though he had the support of the Roman army behind him, he certainly did not have the support of the people, and pretty soon, he became an enemy of the people.
Jesus comes by and looks at Matthew and says, "Come, follow Me."
In that moment, the Bible simply says that Levi, otherwise known as Matthew, simply got up and followed Him.
But man, what a decision that was, because he walked away from his income.
He would not be allowed by the Roman government to be gone for a little while and come back.
His job, his position, his toll booth there would be quickly taken by someone else.
So his decision was a major decision.
It was a change in his life, but he was one who did this excitedly.
He celebrated it so much so that he began to tell his other friends.
His other friends were not Scribes and Pharisees.
They were not those who were more demure and more properly situated in society.
Because of his position (no doubt), the only people that he had to make friends with were first of all, other tax collectors who were equally despised and then other sinners, other prostitutes, other dregs of society.
These became his friends, and they were the ones he went to and told about the teaching and about Jesus being the Christ, the Messiah, and his decision to follow Him.
Others followed Him as a result.
Others left their station in society and chose to become a follower of Jesus.
So in the condensed version of Mark, it simply tells us that Matthew decided to throw a feast.
He invites Jesus and His disciples along with these tax collectors, along with these other sinners, to his feast.
And they have a feast.
They have a great party.
In fact, Mark twice mentions that there were many there.
There were many there, he says.
The Scribes and the Pharisees take notice.
They take notice, first of all, that He's eating with tax collectors and sinners.
This was not what you did if you were a good Jew.
Secondly, was when they were eating…you see, in the days of Jesus, the Pharisees had established a twice weekly fast…Mondays and Thursdays.
Now the law only prescribed really one fast per year, on the Day of Atonement.
One day a year, the people were commanded by the Law of Moses to fast.
But when the Jews came out of exile they added three or four more days of fasting, and there was nothing wrong with that.
By the time of the Pharisees, they had codified it into two days a week.
Monday and Thursday were days of fasting.
No doubt, by the reading we're going to have, they are eating this feast on a Monday or a Thursday.
It's in violation of the customary fast that otherwise the people were enjoying.
You know, Jesus wasn't opposed to fasting.
In fact, He fasted in the wilderness when He was under temptation.
He tells us in the Sermon on the Mount the proper way to fast…do it in secret, not in the open for others to take glory in.
But there is a time for fasting.
and there is a time for feasting.
And Jesus addresses that issue when He is questioned.
So we come to verse 18 of Mark, chapter 2, and it says, /"The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting."/
In other words, this is a Monday or a Thursday, and that group is fasting.
/"Then they came and said to Him,/ (said to Jesus) /'Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?'"/
Now they had seen fasting on Mondays and Thursdays.
They had risen fasting to a level of piety, to a level of godliness…that if you did this, you were living right.
If you didn't do it, you were ungodly.
They had taken what was a man-made tradition, a man-made addition, and had turned it into a sacrosanct celebration that you had to fast on Mondays and Thursdays.
They didn't know why, but they did it.
What you notice in the reading is that even the disciples of John are still fasting.
They're Jews.
They have followed the teachings of John, but rather than following Jesus now, they've stayed with John, and John's aesthetic lifestyle, and they've kept this fasting on Mondays and Thursdays.
It was that entrenched in society.
Here they see some people that are having a food festival on a fasting day, and they are curious, "Why are you doing this?
I thought you were Messiah.
I thought you were bringing a more religious tone to life, and yet it seems like you're violating that."
So Jesus answered them in verse 19, /"Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.
No one sows a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, or else the new piece pulls away from the old and the tear is made worse.
And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wine skins are ruined.
But new wine must be put into new wineskins."/
Jesus explains that He's not fasting because He's feasting.
He compares the feast to a wedding feast.
He says that what we're doing is like what you do at a wedding.
When you go to a wedding, you don't fast.
When you go to a wedding, you don't do what fasting involves.
You see, fasting is about mourning.
Fasting is about being very demure and very contemplative.
Fasting is connected to a funeral, not to a wedding.
Fasting is what you do to get closer to God, to draw away because of all the sins.
Fasting had its own object, and it's a mournful activity.
But Jesus said, you don't mourn at a wedding.
You don't mourn when the bridegroom is there.
When you go to a wedding today, you don't mourn at a wedding.
That's not what it's designed to do.
It's designed to be a celebration.
It's designed to be exciting.
It's not a funeral; it's a feast.
It's not a funeral; it's a festival.
Now there are many similarities.
You know, I was thinking about the fact that in this room, we have both weddings and funerals.
People come, generally dressed about pretty close to the same way, sitting in the pews.
The activities tend to take place near the front, but there are stark differences in your heart between the two.
When you are at a funeral, your heart is saddened, your heart is concerned, and your heart is mourning, but when you are at a wedding, everything about the wedding is celebration.
It's happy.
It's hopeful.
It's a happy day.
Really, the difference between a funeral and a wedding, in this room, really begins in the heart of the person who attends.
So Jesus is saying why would they take this day and make it a funeral day?
You see religion…listen to me now…religion brings funeral; Jesus brings feasting.
When you depend on religion, as these disciples of John and disciples of the Pharisees were doing, then they are going to have funeral all the time.
When people depend on religion, by its definition, life becomes one of somber living.
It becomes one of slow walking and soft talking.
It becomes one of sitting still and being quiet.
That's what religion is to so many people, and it may be that way to you today.
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