Well, good morning, church.
Would you turn with me to Mark, chapter 2, verses 18 through 22?
That is page 786 in the Pew Bible.
We'll have it on the screens as well when I read it in just a second.
We're continuing in our series in the Gospel of Mark this morning.
Let me pray for us as we come to God's Word, and then I'll read.
Oh, Father, what a powerful prayer that is.
To want and to desire and to long for nothing but the Lord Jesus,
the Lord Jesus above all else, above all the pleasures that this world can offer,
above all the success and fame, and, Lord, all the things that might pull our hearts away.
So we pray as we come to your Word now that you would indeed, by your Holy Spirit,
give us Jesus, present Christ to us with fresh splendor,
so that our hearts might know true and deep satisfaction,
the satisfaction we were created for in our Lord.
Make it so, God, by your grace.
In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
All right, let me read for us Mark, chapter 2, verses 18 through 22.
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?
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.
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast in that day.
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.
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.
New wine is for fresh wineskins.
So at this point in his public ministry,
Jesus seems to have a knack for stirring up controversy.
In chapter 1 of Mark, things seem to be smooth sailing.
Jesus was teaching, healing, exercising,
and the crowds were getting larger every day.
It seemed like this was the Messiah everyone had been waiting for.
But then in chapter 2, the mood starts to change.
Jesus begins talking about his authority to forgive sins,
and the radical welcome of God's kingdom for sinners.
And suddenly, things start to heat up.
These controversies will continue through the rest of chapter 2
into the beginning of chapter 3,
until suddenly Jesus is debating with his contemporaries
one of the central practices of first century Judaism,
the keeping of the Sabbath.
But here, the flashpoint in our text,
in the midst of these controversies,
is the issue of fasting.
Fasting.
But this surface question about fasting
soon opens into a deeper and much more profound question.
A question about who Jesus really is
and what exactly his presence means.
What starts as a conversation about appropriate religious practices,
fasting ends up becoming a question
about the radical turning of the ages.
And Jesus is suddenly talking about new wine,
exploding old wineskins.
The door of redemptive history is swinging open,
and the banquet of festival joy is beginning.
It seems the old garments and the old wineskins cannot contain
the new thing that Jesus is bringing about.
And this is exactly what Jesus has come to bring.
Something new.
The inbreaking of God's kingdom.
The new thing that Israel's prophets had foretold.
The new thing that cannot possibly be contained
contained or restrained by familiar human traditions
or comfortable religiosity.
And all that gives many a deep cause for concern.
Why?
Well, because the familiar ways of doing things
are, well, familiar, right?
They're comforting.
And Jesus seems to be upsetting this familiar,
comfortable, even seemingly pious way of doing things.
But the presence of Jesus means much more
than that the old way of doing things needs to be revised.
The presence of Jesus on the scene,
his arrival, his presence,
means that the whole thing needs to be made new.
That we need to be made new.
So let's look at our passage closely in two parts.
That's how the passage kind of naturally divides.
We see it kind of dividing verses 18 through 20
and then the second half, verses 21 through 22.
And first we see that the presence of Jesus
and the newness of what he brings
has sort of this immediate relevance
to the traditional practice of fasting.
Verse 18 tells us that now John's disciples,
that is John the Baptist and his followers,
his disciples, and the Pharisees were fasting.
Okay, now, biblically speaking, what is fasting?
Fasting is the practice of abstaining from food
for a short period of time for a spiritual purpose, right?
That's how we might just sort of quickly
and easily define biblical fasting.
Lots of people today, right,
fast for all sorts of reasons.
You know, maybe you think about something like
intermittent fasting or something like that, right?
Which is really about the physical outcomes, right?
We're fasting in that sense to sort of, you know,
lose weight or feel better or whatever.
But in the Bible, fasting is for a spiritual purpose.
And that spiritual purpose is almost always
to accompany and to focus the act of prayer.
Fasting is a means to intensify prayer.
And as we look at fasting across Scripture,
we see fasting accompanying prayers of intercession,
asking God for help, for rescue, for deliverance,
or accompanying prayers of confession and repentance,
or accompanying prayers of lament,
or accompanying prayers for the advance of God's kingdom.
So fasting, abstaining from food for a short period of time
as a means of sharpening prayer,
is a regular and healthy biblical practice.
And in the Old Testament, you see,
there was actually only one day a year
that Israelites were required to fast
under the law of Moses.
And that day was the day of atonement.
The one day when the high priest
went into the holiest place in the tabernacle or the temple
to make atonement for the people's sins
before the Ark of the Covenant,
that symbolic place where God was present.
On that holy day, God, under the law of Moses,
wanted everyone to fast and pray
as their sins were symbolically covered and forgiven.
So that was it.
Just one day a year when everyone
under the Old Testament had to fast.
But by the time of the first century,
many, many other practices had cropped up
that prescribed fasting on other days of the year.
Many of these sort of regular fast days
that had developed and been picked up in tradition
were related, a lot of them,
to the destruction of the temple
and the exile in the sixth century.
So they became ways to commemorate
and to remember the fall of Jerusalem
and to express a longing for God to come
and to restore his people.
And you know, even after the temple was rebuilt,
when the exiles returned,
those additional traditions about fasting,
they continued.
They kept going.
And some groups, some movements
within first century Judaism
even went beyond those prescribed fasting days.
The Pharisees, for example,
they prescribed fasting twice per week.
Do you remember Jesus' story
of the Pharisees and the tax collector?
The Pharisee and the tax collector
from Luke's gospel?
What does the Pharisee say
when he's praying in the temple?
Oh Lord, I fast twice per week.
Right?
Do you remember that?
Now on the surface,
this wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
In fact, many people looked to the Pharisees
as models of piety,
as models of serious godliness.
And the disciples of John the Baptist.
Well, the disciples of John the Baptist
might not have fasted twice per week,
but they probably also practiced regular fasting.
And yet,
to the surprise,
and the scandal of many,
the disciples of Jesus,
they didn't fast like that at all.
They weren't fasting regularly
like John the Baptist's disciples.
They certainly weren't fasting twice a week
like the Pharisees.
Or, you know,
the many people who were attracted
to the model of the Pharisaical spiritual life.
You know, that's probably what
disciples of the Pharisees means here.
Those people who look to the Pharisees
as their model for how to do
their life with God.
And this is the problem, right?
So how could Jesus say,
how could Jesus say that he was here
doing God's work
when clearly Jesus and his disciples
were falling way below the mark
of what serious spiritual people
are supposed to be doing?
Why do John's disciples
and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples don't?
But notice in verse 19
what Jesus' answer is.
You don't fast during a wedding, do you?
And of course the answer was
in the first century,
no, you would never fast
during a wedding, right?
Now if you think weddings today
are a big deal,
they were an even bigger deal
in the first century.
You know, you think about
planning a wedding today
and you're like,
we've got to plan a whole day
of festivities
from early sunrise
till sundown.
We're planning a service
and we're planning a party
and we've got to invite
all of our relatives,
the ones that we like
and the ones we don't like
and we've got to feed them.
You know, this is a problem
and it costs a lot of money
and it's a lot of effort
and it's a huge logistical challenge
to plan a whole day,
a party that lasts a whole day.
But most wedding celebrations
in the first century
lasted a whole week.
They were meant to be times
of celebration and joy.
They were one of the handful of times
in a community
where for a whole week
they would just let down
and celebrate.
Even the serious scribes,
the religious scholars of the day
were willing to give themselves a pass
when a wedding was afoot.
Even they could sort of lay off
their rigorous spiritual routines
and celebrate.
The tables were set,
the wine was poured,
the music was played,
and you didn't fast.
You feasted.
So why don't Jesus' disciples
participate
in the traditions of fasting
of their contemporaries?
Because according to Jesus,
during the time of his earthly ministry,
that's not what time it is.
It's not the time
for fasting.
It's the time for feasting.
The kingdom of God
is breaking in.
The blind are receiving their sight.
The lame are walking.
The prisoners are being set free.
The poor have good news preached to them.
It's like a wedding feast is at hand.
It's time to celebrate.
But notice,
as wonderful as all that is,
Jesus is saying,
it's the time of the wedding feast.
We can't fast.
Jesus is saying something
even more pointed than that.
Verse 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.
So you see,
it's not just a question of when,
but a question of who.
The bridegroom is here.
And if he is here,
then they simply cannot fast.
And Jesus is obviously referring to himself here,
right?
He is the metaphorical bridegroom.
He's here.
He's with them.
Imagine yourself,
you know,
sitting down at a rehearsal dinner,
right?
In our sort of cultural context,
rehearsal dinners are put on
by the groom and the groom's family,
right?
Imagine you're at a rehearsal dinner.
The groom and his family
have made preparations
for a wonderful meal.
You sit down,
and you say,
oh,
I'm sorry.
I'll just watch you all eat
because I'm fasting,
right?
How silly.
No,
you sit down
and you eat the food
and you feast
because you're in the presence
of the groom.
But you know,
Jesus is saying something
even more pointed.
He's not just saying,
I'm here
and that's why we're fasting.
That would have been bold
and controversial enough
and it would have raised
a number of eyebrows.
But consider Jesus' choice
of metaphor.
Of all the metaphors
he could have chosen
to describe the time
and his identity,
he chooses not just a wedding
but a bridegroom.
You know,
it's interesting that many
of the Old Testament metaphors
for the coming Messiah,
there are a lot of them,
right,
that describe sort of
what this coming king
would be like,
what his ministry
would be like,
what his reign
would be like.
In the Old Testament,
there are a lot of metaphors
for the coming Messiah
but bridegroom
is not one of them.
We don't find
the coming Davidic king
spoken of in these terms.
So what is Jesus doing here
with this choice of metaphor?
Well,
when we look at the Old Testament,
we find
that someone else
is spoken of
in that way.
In the Old Testament,
this metaphor
of a groom
and his bride,
of the husband
and his bride
is used most often
of the Lord God himself.
The Lord,
God,
the creator of all things
is Israel's husband,
Israel's bridegroom.
And the prophets
speak again and again
of when the Lord
will come
and bring his wayward bride
back home.
They tell the story
again and again
of how the Lord
loved his people
and how he took them
to himself
but tragically
how they turned away
and sought other lovers
but full of compassion.
The prophets say
the Lord will remain faithful
and he will bring his people,
he will bring his bride
back to himself.
He'll renew his covenant
with them.
In fact,
he'll even make
a new covenant with them,
one that this time
can never be broken.
Can the wedding guests fast
while the bridegroom
is with them?
Ah,
do you see what Jesus
is doing here
in this early stage
of his ministry?
Slowly,
patiently,
he's trying to get
their minds to open.
He's trying to get
their eyes to see
that his presence
in their midst
is so much greater
than another rabbi
or another prophet
or even another
would-be Messiah.
He is, of course,
all those things,
prophet,
teacher,
king,
but would they be willing
to see
that he is
the Lord
come in the flesh?
And if God has indeed
come in the person
of Jesus
to bring home
his wayward bride,
then indeed
it is time
to celebrate
and to rejoice.
Jesus is in their midst.
The Lord
is in their midst.
It is not time
for fasting
but for feasting.
Is that still the case
for Christians today?
Well, you know,
here in this passage
Jesus acknowledges
that in the future
his disciples
will indeed fast,
right?
Look at what he says.
He says,
the days will come
when the bridegroom
is taken away from them
and then they will fast.
They will fast
in that day.
Jesus speaks here
of the bridegroom
being taken away.
You see,
Jesus knows
that in order
to win back
his wayward people,
he will need
to give himself over
on their behalf.
He will be handed over.
He will be taken away.
He will lay down
his life
for his beloved.
He will be taken away,
taken away to the cross,
taken away to be condemned
and die.
Why?
So that our sins
can be forgiven.
So that our unfaithfulness
can be covered
by his utter faithfulness.
Faithfulness even unto death.
Jesus says,
they will fast
in that day.
And indeed,
Mark tells us
in his passion account
that comes later
in his gospel
how after Jesus' arrest,
the disciples
are scattered
and afraid
and the feasting stops
and it seems like
the wedding is over.
But three days later,
what happens?
Jesus is raised.
Having paid
sin's penalty,
death no more
has dominion over him.
He's raised in power
and he comes
to his disciples
with what?
With a message
of grace
and peace
and the forgiveness
of sins
for all who believe in him.
And then he ascends
on high
and he pours out
the Spirit
at Pentecost
and the church
begins to testify
in his name
with great boldness
and great joy.
And so for the church today,
we kind of ask again,
well,
is it a time
of fasting
or feasting?
Well,
the answer is
both.
Fasting remains
a biblical practice
to accompany
and empower prayer.
And indeed,
we see the church
in the book of Acts
so bristling
and cracking with joy.
What are they doing?
They're fasting
and praying, right?
And we see God
mightily answering
those prayers.
And for us today too,
we still await
the Lord Jesus'
return in glory.
And so our prayers
continue
and at times
we will punctuate
those prayers,
sharpen those prayers
with fasting.
But the church age,
this time that we live in,
this age between
the first and the second
coming of Christ,
is not just a time
for fasting.
It is also supremely
an age for feasting.
The joy that Jesus brought
in His earthly ministry
has been sealed
by His resurrection
and the outpouring
of the Spirit.
We have joy
because our sins
have been forgiven
and we've been reconciled
to God.
Joy because
the new creation
has begun
and we see its fruit
sprouting around us.
Joy because
eternal life,
eternal life
has been secured.
King Jesus
has inaugurated
God's kingdom
and what is
that kingdom about?
Paul will say
in Romans 14,
righteousness,
peace,
and joy
in the Holy Spirit.
If the righteousness
of Christ is ours,
and it is,
then the peace
of God is ours.
And if the peace
of God is ours,
then surely
we must know
the joy
of the Holy Spirit.
And so as Christians,
we make fasting
a practice,
but we also make
feasting,
celebration,
a spiritual practice.
To be a serious
Christian
doesn't mean
wearing a somber face
and never having fun.
a spiritual
thing.
Serious
Christianity
takes serious
the reality
that death
has been defeated
and one day
God will make
all things new.
And so we celebrate.
We take time.
We make it a practice
not only to fast
but to feast.
But you might ask,
you know,
is it right,
I mean,
is it really right
for Christians
to make a practice
of celebration,
of feasting,
when there is so much
going wrong
in the world?
I recently ran
across a statistic
that in 1991,
the National Park Service,
so that's the organization,
the governmental organization
that runs the national parks
all across the country,
I ran across a statistic
that in 1991,
the National Park Service,
after decades
of cutting its budgets
and laying off staff
and closing campgrounds
and buildings
due to disrepair,
they decided
to spend
half a million dollars
on a 75th anniversary
gala
in Vail, Colorado.
Okay,
so like,
clearly everything's
not going great
at the National Park Service
and they're like,
let's spend half a million dollars
on a gala
in Vail.
Was that really
the best way
to spend their budget,
right?
Should they have been feasting
when everything
was going so wrong?
Are Christians
essentially doing
the same thing
if we make a practice
of celebration
in a world
where so much
is going wrong?
Even if we aren't
so financially foolish
as the National Park Service,
is it still just
not the right thing to do?
Should we be lamenting,
not rejoicing?
Well,
to be sure,
there is a place
for lament
in our broken world,
but consider,
consider what
feasting says
in a world
where so much
is going wrong.
Do you remember
the scene
in the line
The Witch and the Wardrobe?
It's kind of
towards the end
of the book
when spring
has just started
to set in
and the snow
is starting to melt
and the white witch
is sort of driving
her sled
through the melting snows
and she's just
sort of plowing along
and trudging along,
probably going out,
I think at this point
in the story
she's going out
to meet Aslan
and do battle
and spread wickedness
and all that sort
of fun stuff.
She's sort of
driving along
and then what happens?
As she's sort of
trudging along,
she comes across
a small group
of woodland creatures
and what are they doing?
She kind of
stumbles across them.
What are they doing?
Well,
they're holding
a small feast.
They're raising glasses.
They're eating together
and the witch
basically says to them,
who told you
you have a right
to throw a party?
Stop it right now
or I'll turn you
to stone.
And what do
the creatures do?
They raise their glasses
and basically say,
turn us to stone.
The king's on his way
and no amount
of evil
is going to stop him
from making
all things new.
So what does
the witch do?
In a rage,
she turns them
to stone, right?
It's okay.
Spoiler alert,
you find out
they get brought back
to like, you know,
fleshy woodland creatures
after Aslan wins.
But what's the point, right?
What's the point?
You see, friends,
in a fallen world,
feasting,
feasting
can be an act of war,
an act of spiritual warfare.
Feasting is a way
of saying to the powers
of evil and darkness,
you shall not win
and you cannot win
because Christ has died,
Christ has risen,
and Christ will come again.
So no matter
what darkness may come,
Christians in this age
can raise a glass
and celebrate our king
with hope and joy
that the final word
over this fallen creation
belongs to him
and to him alone.
So the first point
of our passage
is that the presence
of Jesus
and the newness
he brings
means that we have
reason to feast,
reason to be joyful
and to celebrate.
But the passage ends
with a second point.
In verses 21 through 22,
Jesus gives two quick parables
or metaphors
to point to the deeper significance
of what he's accomplishing.
You know,
this whole thing
isn't just about fasting.
Jesus talks here
about new cloth
and new wine
and even new wine
exploding old wineskins.
Something deeper is afoot.
This is about more
than whether we should fast
or not.
This is about something
so new,
so good on its way
that the old structures
and the old systems
simply won't
and cannot contain it.
Fasting is just
a little sample
of what's about
to be utterly transformed
by Jesus and his ministry.
And isn't that so?
Think about it.
What else
in the practice
of first century faith
would Jesus
utterly transform
when he had finished
his new work?
Temple,
sacrifice,
priesthood,
the whole ceremonial law
that had led
and instructed Israel
for hundreds of years
would pass away
because of the new thing
Jesus was bringing about.
Could the new wine
of Jesus' sacrificial death
on the cross,
the once for all
atonement for sin,
be put back in
to the old wineskin
of the sacrificial system
of bulls and goats?
Could the new cloth
of Jesus' perfect
high priesthood,
standing at the Father's
right hand,
forever to intercede
with us,
be stitched back
into the old garment
of the Levitical priesthood?
With the arrival
of Jesus,
the shadows
of the Old Testament
were giving way
to substance.
The old covenant
was giving way
to the new.
And this is what God
had planned all along.
You see,
Jesus wasn't replacing
the sacrifices,
the temple,
the priesthood.
He was fulfilling them.
He was bringing them
to their completion.
They were signposts
all along,
pointing ahead,
preparing the way
for what He would
ultimately accomplish.
The work Jesus
was accomplishing
through His earthly ministry
wasn't going to go back
into the old bottles.
It was making something new.
But were the people
of His day
ready for it?
Many people
in Jesus' day
wanted His person
and His work
to fit into their agendas
and their expectations.
Right?
The people who came
to Jesus
on this particular day
in Mark 2,
18 through 22,
they wanted Jesus
to look just like
the serious religious folk
that they knew.
Jesus,
You should look
just like the Pharisees.
You should look
just like John's disciples.
That's what we know.
That's what we're familiar with.
That's what we can control.
But it wasn't going
to work like that.
Some of Jesus' own disciples
thought that Jesus' kingdom
was going to bring them
prosperity
and political power.
Jesus,
who gets to sit
at your right and left hand
when you enter
into your kingdom?
But it wasn't going
to work like that.
How about us?
Are we trying
to fit Jesus
into the old clothes
and old wineskin
of our former life
or of the world around us?
Do we think
that we can take
the new wine
of Jesus' person and work
and fit it
into the tired
old agendas
for money
and sex
and power
that are so rampant
around us?
Are we going
to try to take
the new wine
that Jesus offers
and put it
into the old wineskins
of our post-enlightenment,
late-modern,
tired, anxious culture?
Or are we willing
to become something
radically new?
New wine
is for new wineskins.
Friends,
the gospel
is about so much more
than just whether
you fast or not.
The gospel
of Jesus Christ
is about so much more
than just putting
on a few new
spiritual practices here,
doing a little bit
of personal betterment there.
No,
Christ didn't come
to tweak
and to revise.
He came to fulfill
God's redemptive plan
and to make
all things new.
And he wants
to start
with you.
Why did Jesus come,
lay down his life,
and fulfill all the types
and signs of the Old Testament?
Why did he come
to be the true
and better sacrifice,
the true and better priest,
the true and better temple
where heaven and earth meet?
Why did he come
to do all this?
He did it to make you new.
The apostle Paul
puts it this way
in 2 Corinthians 5, 17,
therefore,
if anyone
is in Christ,
he is a new creation.
The old
has passed away.
Behold,
the new
has come.
And friends,
if Jesus
can make you
and me
new,
what else
could he make new?
If he can take
your life
and my life
and make us
a new creation
by the power
of his spirit,
if he can take
the new wine
of what he's done
and in pouring it
into us,
make us a brand
new wineskin,
if he can take
the fresh cloth
of his perfect righteousness,
throw it over us,
and suddenly we can
be a new garment
altogether,
if he can do that
for you and me,
then what else
could he make new?
Could he make
our churches new?
Could he make
our communities,
our neighborhoods
new?
Could he renew
our marriages
and our friendships
and our schools?
Could he renew
our economies
and political
processes
and the way
we relate
to one another
on the most
meta scale
all the way down
to the most
micro scale?
Could he do
a work like that?
He can make
it all new.
And one day
when Jesus returns,
he'll make even
the fabric
of the material
creation new
and he'll
liberate it
from its bondage
to decay.
You see,
friends,
that's where
the work of
Jesus Christ
is headed.
New wine
is for fresh
wineskins.
Jesus won't be
squeezed into
our old agendas,
but when we come
to him in repentance
and faith,
he promises
not merely
to reform us,
but to transform us,
to make us new.
How about you,
friend?
Do you want
to be made new?
Then come to him.
Let's pray.
Father in heaven,
we pray
that you would
pour out your Holy Spirit,
give us a true
conviction of sin
and a true vision
of Christ our Lord,
crucified,
risen,
reigning,
utterly sufficient.
Oh, Lord,
grant us faith
to be united
to him
and be made new.
Amen.