"And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins." Mark 2:22
The aim this morning is to move through the rest of chapter 2.
But before we get down to the passage itself, I feel like it would be useful to give you some background here, to help inform, what I believe is, a unifying theme of the remainder of this chapter.
When I say ‘background’ what I mean is something a bit like the difference between the street-view function on google earth - which is like what Mark is giving us in his account - and the aerial function.
By ‘background’ I mean a zoomed out view of the situation. Mark is giving us a close up, but sometimes to understand the closeup you need more zoomed out information.
Maybe you’ve been doing a lot of what I have this week: seeing the terrible images coming out of Israel and Gaza and then going to google earth and getting that aerial view of the scene so that you can understand where border sit and what territories look like. That has certainly helped me to get a better grasp of what’s been going on.
So, let me try, just briefly, at the beginning to give you this google earth aerial view of what Mark is giving us a street-view image of in his account.
As you know, for 1500 years between Moses and Jesus, God had been dealing exclusively with the people of Israel. At the beginning of that period God entered into a binding and solemn promise, or agreement, or covenant with one people group on earth - Israel; Jacob’s descendants - to be their God and they his people.
But by the time Jesus comes on the scene, the situation between God and his covenant people is very bad. God had sent his judgement on the northern kingdom of Israel - 10 out of the 12 original tribes - and they had been defeated by the Assyrians and carried off to Nineveh, never to return to Israel.
The southern kingdom of Judah also angered God terribly and he sent Babylon to take them captive, which they did. But God showed mercy to them and allowed a remnant of people to return to the land and to rebuild the city of Jerusalem including the temple - albeit much smaller than the one Solomon had built previously.
But with the people turning to idolatry all over again, God turned silent. And until John the Baptist, there had not been a prophet in Israel for over 400 years. It seemed like God had departed from Israel for good.
The prophet Jeremiah picking up on this broken covenant relationship between God and his people, in chapter 31 of his prophecy, anticipates something new though - a new covenant between God and his people. He says, ‘“The days are coming”, declares the lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them”, declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time”, declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people”’.
Isn’t that wonderful! What promising words these are. The tone of Jeremiah’s prophecy is very upbeat. It sounds like God is going to start over and this time God is going to make the minds and hearts of the people so turned towards him, so indwelt by him, so enraptured withhim, that this new covenant won’t be able to be broken. God will make sure this covenant never fails.
All the things that went wrong with the first one because of the people’s faithlessness, he’s going to ensure cannot be repeated.
Now, Hebrews picks up on this idea of the passing of the old covenant and the inauguration of a new covenant, especially in chapter 8. The writer of the letter says, ‘By calling this covenant “new” he has made the old one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear’.
So when the writer of the Hebrews was writing his letter in or around AD60 - in Mark’s day, no less - he was seeing the last vestiges of the old covenant still kicking about and he was expecting them to disappear imminently; and that would be the end of that covenant.
Now, it’s no great secret who the mediator of the new covenant is. We celebrate the truth of it every 2-3 weeks here at Riverside when we break bread together. The mediator of the new covenant is Jesus, and he brokered the covenantal deal in his own blood. ‘This is the new covenant in my blood’ he says.
That’s why we come to the Lord’s table. Every Old covenant member celebrated the Passover together annually. And every new covenant member must celebrate the new covenant equivalent which is the Lord’s supper, regularly.
The angel of death didn’t touch the covenant people because of the blood, and they remembered that. And the angel of eternal death doesn’t touch the new covenant people because of Jesus’ blood, and weremember that. Which is why the Lord’s table is so super important for every Christian!
But the point is that, in Jesus there’s a new covenant arriving, and simultaneously there’s an old covenant disappearing. And that is the basis for these verses here in chapter 2.
So, we just took a google earth aerial view of things to understand the big picture and now we can zoom in with Mark, and make some sense hopefully of what Jesus is doing and saying.
So turning to Mark 2 and verse 13, Jesus appears to have left town and is teaching beside the lake again. And like before - when he called Simon and his brother Andrew, and John and his brother James - now from beside the lake again he calls another disciple, Levi - only this time its not a fisherman, it’s a tax collector.
In fact Levi was sitting in his tax collector’s booth when Jesus said to him the same words he said to the others - ‘follow me’. And just like the others, Levi followed.
Now according to Matthew’s gospel, Matthew identifies himself as this character Levi. It seems likely that his birth name was Levi, but that Jesus conferred on him the name Matthew.
He’s a tax collector working for the Roman appointed ruler of Judea, Herod Antipas. And just like his fellow Jewish tax collectors, his profession makes him one of a group who were despised as traitors by the teachers of the law and Pharisees.
A tax collector’s association with the Roman tyrant and their reputation for inflating the tax-levy meant that their houses were considered impure and their presence not fit for the synagogue.
And, with all that in his mind, Mark tells us in verse 15 that Jesus went to Levi’s house - which was regarded as impure - and sat and ate in the company of people who were regarded as sinners and unworthy to be counted kosher in Israel.
Mark says ‘many’ of these kind of people had followed Jesus to Levi’s house and were now sitting with Jesus and Levi (and presumably Jesus’ other disciples too) eating.
And the Pharisees are looking on at all this and they just can’tunderstand it. ‘Why is he eating with the low life’s when he could be eating with people who care about virtues like purity and loyalty to Israel’.
I guess it would be a bit like a prominent Israeli sitting down to eat this afternoon, in Israel, with a group of Palestinian-sympathising Jews. That would be a beautiful thing, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. It just wouldn’t make sense. And it didn’t make sense to them either.
I wonder if it makes sense to us? I care about the emphasis the bible places on eating with friends - with fellow believers. Hospitality in the church is one of the most visible expressions of one another-ing we can do and we don’t by and large do it in the UK.
I think we’ve got to fix that. We’ve got to get each other over for food, because fellowship happens well over a dinner table. So yes and amen to opening up our houses to one another. I think we’ve got to do that more.
But what about opening up our houses to unbelievers. What about sitting down to food with the tax collectors - with our neighbours and our unbelieving friends? What about sitting down to eat with somebody you met on the streets, or some person you know who just might be lonely in your neighbourhood?
Our houses can be powerful venues for the gospel and our tables can be where souls hear about Jesus weeks or even months before they come to church if we open them up. Jesus shows us that here. He doesn’t just teach and go home. He teaches and he eats with them.
And the food doesn’t need to be amazing either; the knives and forks don’t need to match; and you can sit children on laps if you haven’t got enough seats. It doesn’t need to be picture perfect - it needs to be real, and vital, and it needs to be full of love.
That’s what Jesus has in mind. Look at verse 17, ‘On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners’.
It’s not the righteous who need Jesus, its the sinner. These Pharisees saw themselves as pure and righteous - as far as they were concerned they didn’t need Jesus. But the tax collectors and sinners had been following him around and they wanted to eat with him; they wanted to encounter him.
The kind of people Jesus comes to is the kind that want him, not the kind that think they don’t need him. To the kind that want him, he’s very willing (like we saw last time) to be their doctor - their saviour. And to the rest he’s an offence.
I wonder what he is to you this morning? I see some of you come week in and week out but never seem to want Jesus. Maybe you need to become like these tax collectors and seek out an audience with Jesus. Follow him all day if you have to, until you get close enough to hear his voice speaking to you across the dinner table.
It’s not only the Pharisees who have questions though, it’s John’s disciples too. They see Jesus and his disciples eating - maybe at the same meal - and they have a different question, verse 18: ‘How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting but yours aren’t?’
Mark tells us in verse 18 that at the time both those sets of disciples - John’s and the Pharisees’ - were doing that very thing - fasting - and here’s a new and prominent teacher - Jesus - and his disciples aren’tfasting. How can that be?
John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples were fasting with purpose. Whether out of good motive or ill, they were both desiring two things: Israel’s alienation from God to come to an end, and their oppression under Roman rule to come to an end.
The prophets had indicated that that would happen, so they were longing for it. And fasting was practiced as a means of seeking God’s blessing.
That’s not the only reason it was practiced but it seems the most likely one here - like when David sought the favour of God for his sick son - he fasted.
And it seems from Luke 18:12 that, these pharisaic disciples at least, probably fasted twice a week as a regular custom.
Well, Jesus of course, has an answer for their question too. In verse 17, he alluded to himself as a doctor. Here in verse 19, he alludes to himself as a bridegroom. ‘How can the guests of the bridegroom fast [that’s his disciples] while the bridegroom [that’s Jesus] is with them?’
Now I know that feasting and weddings go hand in hand. You don’t go to a wedding and not eat. Or you don’t go to a wedding and there not be food laid on at least. Part of celebrating the forever union of two people is eating together.
I once missed a whole wedding service by locking my keys in my car, and by the time I’d wandered around Croydon for an our in my wedding suit, got a lock smith out, and broken into the vehicle, and driven across London, all that was left of the day was the meal. And believe me nothing looks worse than being absent for the ceremony and turning up for the food!
But, even though I had missed the ceremony which was undoubtedly the most important part, celebrating with everyone else as we ate together was a blessing in itself. Even the heartache of the locksmith’s bill was quickly forgotten!
So we get the connection between feasting and weddings. But why does Jesus introduce himself as a bridegroom? He’s not at a wedding. And there’s been no talk of weddings. Where does this weirdly placed expression come from?
Well, it comes from the Old Testament - from Isaiah chapter 62 (see also Isaiah 54 and Hosea 2 that say the same thing).
The context is the restoration and vindication and salvation of Israel. Isaiah says, ‘The Lord will take delight in you, and your land will be married. As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Buildermarry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you’.
So, the very thing that John’s disciples and the Pharisaic disciples are fasting for - namely the restoration of Israel, Jesus is saying is the reason his disciples are not fasting. The bridegroom, Isaiah foretold, has come. Jesus says; ‘how can his disciples fast?’
Now you might say, ‘how can Jesus claim to be the bridegroom of Isaiah 62 when he didn’t liberate Israel from her enemy and he didn’t restore her fortunes - that’s what the opening verses of Isaiah 62 are all about?’ And you’d be right.
The answer is that Jesus didn’t have in mind physical-national Israel as his bride. He had in mind a new entity called ‘the church’ for his bride. His bride is a spiritual nation of people - a people who we heard Jeremiah saying at the beginning, would receive the law in their minds and have written on their hearts.
His bride is a people who are marked out not by their DNA but by the Spirit of God. A people who are circumcised in their hearts not in their flesh. A people who are in-dwelt by God not dwelling in the place where God manifests himself.
Ephesians 5:25 puts it like this: ‘Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy…’
That’s what Jesus has in mind when he introduces himself as the bridegroom. So, no fasting for his disciples - not with he bridegroom on the scene.
Are they feasting forever? No. Jesus says, their feasting will turn to fasting. He’s predicting that in verse 20 - a day is coming when he’s going to be ‘taken from them’ and on that day they will fast.
The first day that Jesus is taken from them is the day of his death. Up until then they’d always had him with them, but on that dreadful day, when the sun was darkened, and the earth quaked, and the tombs split open, on that day they must have fasted at the shear horror of what they witnessed.
Verses 21 & 22 are Jesus’ way of giving us the google earth aerial view of things we thought about at the beginning.
At the very least, I think, we can know from these two one line parables - new patch on old cloth and new wine in old wineskins; Jesus says neither work - is that he is aligning himself with what is new, and the Pharisees and John with what is old.
And to go a little further, I personally think that he is saying, ‘the reason why I don’t look like you expect me to look is because I am the new patch and the new wine and you keep trying to stick me onto the old cloth and pour me into the old wine skin, but I pull away; and I burst out. You need to pour me into a new wine skin and then you’ll see me for what I am’.
If we take the old covenant and understand it in light of the new covenant we’ll understand what God was intending that covenant for, and how it can instruct us and warn us and help us.
But if we take Jesus and try to pour him into the old covenant; or patch him onto it, then we’ll miss all the importance of the old covenant that God has designed for our benefit. And crucially, we’ll miss the significance of Jesus.
1 Corinthians 10:11 is the clearest instruction for me on this. Paul says, ‘These things [all the Old covenant events] happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come’.
So let’s not be dull and make the mistake John’s disciples made, let’s take Jesus as the new wine that he really is and enjoy him in the new wine skin of the new covenant where he is meant to be tasted.
Well, that’s all good foundation for this last section because there’s nothing that’s more quintessentially old covenant than the sabbath day.
Sitting at the very heart of the Ten Commandments the sabbath day was one of the most tangible expressions of Isreal’s fidelity to God. In fact, on some occasions God’s anger with the people is directly connected with their violation of the Jewish sabbath. So, the connection is strong.
And therefore, it’s very shocking to the Pharisees when they see Jesus and his disciples going through the grain-fields on the Sabbath day and picking heads of grain off the stalks.
Mark doesn’t say they were eating them, but that’s the implication based on what Jesus subsequently says about David eating bread in verse 26.
I think they were taking the ears of grain off the stalk, rubbing the ear between their fingers or the palms of their hands until the grain came out, dispensing with the chaff and eating the grain.
Basically, they were harvesting and threshing - preparing the food on the sabbath day. A bit like, going out on the Sabbath to collect manna and quail that had fallen from heaven in Moses’ day - something God got mad about.
What was the point of the Sabbath? Jesus shows us by the story he tells and the conclusion he draws. First, he explains how David of old, when he was on the run from Saul and had no food, went to the high priest, he entered the tabernacle - the house of God - and he ate the holy bread (you can read it in 1 Samuel 21).
The bread God had instructed should only be eaten by the priests - David who wasn’t a Levite ate, and he gave some to his hungry friends too. The law prohibited that action by David, and yet David didn’t get in trouble with God for it.
He was in need and he was the chosen one of God and therefore God let him do something, governed by the right motive, that was normally unlawful.
Now, of course these Pharisees did not reject their famous king! They revered him! But Jesus just showed them that their hero David did some challenging things with the law too.
And, just as David and his companions were in need, so Jesus and his companions are in need - they’re hungry. David took the finished loaf, and Jesus takes the raw grain because ‘the Sabbath was made for the needs of man, not man for the sabbath’.
God worked into the old covenant a day of resting on him completely. The people weren’t allowed to do anything for themselves for a whole day, so that they would see that God would supply their needs - it was a weekly reminder of how much they needed him.
It was a law designed to engender trust and reliance and a leaning on God. Which of course is integral to faith.
But reliance on God for the new covenant people doesn’t look like not working for a day of the week, it looks like a heart attitude. It looks like dependence on Jesus.
Hebrews 4 says we can still enter God’s rest if we want to. How? By ceasing from our own works and relying whole sale on Jesus’ work for us - namely his perfect payment for sins.
So Jesus is pointing to himself when he takes the old covenant sabbath and says ‘it was made for man’. He’s saying, ‘I came for man. Stoprelying on yourself’. He’s saying, ‘I am Lord of the rest, don’t miss the point here!’
God speaking through David said, ‘Today if you hear my voice, do not harden your hearts’. That was a voice of mercy and grace. They had notentered his rest, but he set another day, calling it ‘today’ when if people heard his voice and did not harden their hearts, they could still enter his eternal rest.
And that day, folks, is today. His voice calls to you, ‘receive my dear son, Jesus’. If you do not harden your heart, but respond, then you, too, can enter God’s rest today. It is his abiding and unbreakable promise.
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