Introduction
We’ve noticed that, while Jesus has gotten off to a great start amazing everyone with his teaching, healing and exorcising of demons, he has also started to create controversy. He first seems like he has all the markings of a special man of God – maybe a prophet, maybe…the Messiah? But then he acts in ways contrary to how a man of God should act. He touches an unclean leper; he purports to forgive a man’s sins; he dines with public sinners. He creates as much suspicion as he does anticipation. In this morning’s passage it seems that his disciples cause their own controversy, though it will become clear the criticism is really about Jesus. If it’s not, he will give reason for criticism.
The Problem Raised
The issue raised seems to be a mild one. 18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”
Let’s get the context down first. Who are these other disciples and what’s the deal about fasting? Regarding John’s disciples, it is unclear what their status is in this story. It is probable that John is in jail by now, maybe already beheaded. This would explain why they are not with John. It also could be that they are disciples in the sense of following the teachings of John, but not actual followers of him, in the same way that Christians are referred to as disciples of Christ’s teachings. This would have been the case of the Pharisees’ disciples.
Fasting is an act of refraining from food and drink other than water. John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting frequently. We know that the Pharisees fasted twice a week, probably from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., the beginning of a new day. (The Jewish day ran from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.) Jesus’ disciples did not seem to be fasting, at least as an ongoing religious practice. They would have fasted at least once a year on the Day of Atonement, as prescribed in Scripture. It is probable they fasted the other four times of the year that had become traditional for Jews after the Babylonian exile. But fasting was not a regular practice for them or for Jesus for that matter. In reality, this question is an indirect method of questioning Jesus’ own practice.
Why did John’s disciples and the Pharisees fast? People fast for different reasons. Some fast to promote good health; it is an exercise of cleansing their body of toxics. Some fast to make a statement. Gandhi fasted as a means of civil protest in India. Others have fasted to protest some kind of injustice or to identify with the needy. Some fast to exercise self-discipline. I have conducted monthly fasts of specific foods to keep from becoming dependent on them. For that same purpose, I will occasionally fast for a month from an activity such as watching TV or listening to the radio.
John’s disciples probably fasted as an act of repentance and mourning over sin. That’s what the Day of Atonement fast was about. John’s message, remember, was about the need to repent in preparation for the judgment that the Messiah would bring. This was a period, if any, to be diligent in ridding oneself of sin and to grieve over the sins that existed in God’s people.
For the Pharisees, fasting was more an act of piety, another method of demonstrating devotion to God. Jesus indicates this in his parable about the tax collector and the Pharisee who pray in the temple. The Pharisee prays: God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get (Luke 18:11-2). Now they also understood fasting to be an act of mourning, as did John’s disciples, though, which happens when something is developed into a routine, the mourning was more show than reality. Jesus had in mind the Pharisees when he said, When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting (Matthew 6:16).
Jesus’ Response
Understanding that fasting was primarily an expression of mourning puts Jesus’ response in perspective for us. 19 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. To paraphrase Jesus, how can people expect to be mournful at a wedding party? Let me give you the picture that his hearers would have conjured up from that statement.
As today, the weddings of Jesus’ day were joyous affairs, though even more so. On the day of the wedding, the groom and his attendants cheerfully processed to the bride’s home. From there they would escort her with her attendants back to his home. Alfred Edersheim describes the processional:
First came the merry sounds of music; then they who distributed among the people wine and oil, and nuts among the children; next the bride, covered with the bridal veil, her long hair flowing, surrounded by her companions, and led by “the friends of the bridegroom,” and “the children of the bride-chamber.” All around were in festive array; some carried torches, or lamps on poles; those nearest had myrtle-branches and chaplets of flowers. Every one rose to salute the procession, or join it; and it was deemed almost a religious duty to break into praise of the beauty, the modesty, or the virtues of the bride. Arrived at her new home, she was led to her husband.
The wedding ceremony took place in the home, where the feasting would also take place. A long wedding reception for us might last a few hours; theirs lasted a week! Or perhaps a closer analogy is that instead of taking a week long honeymoon, they celebrated for a week with their friends and family. The people would go home but return daily for feasting and celebration. This was the marriage week, the week of celebration especially for the bridegroom’s and bride’s attendants. It was their obligation, just as it is today to join with the bridal couple in their celebration.
Indeed, celebrating was considered so important that the attendants were excused from religious obligations. Again, let me quote from Edersheim:
By universal consent and according to Rabbinic law, this was to be a time of unmixed festivity. Even on the Day of Atonement a bride was allowed to relax one of the ordinances of that strictest fast. During the marriage-week all mourning was to be suspended – even the obligation of the prescribed daily prayers ceased. It was regarded as a religious duty to gladden the bride and bridegroom.
What is Jesus’ point? He is the bridegroom was has come to start the marriage-week celebration. This is not a time for mourning; it is a time for rejoicing. There will come a day for fasting when the bridegroom is taken away. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. It seems clear that Jesus is speaking of his crucifixion; nevertheless, for the present he remains, and this period of all times should be a joyous one.
A New Age
The Pharisees would have rolled their eyes at Jesus’ comment, but John’s disciples should have understood. John the Baptist himself had taught the same thing. Listen from John’s Gospel:
They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”
27 To this John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete (John 3:26-29).
It is possible that his disciples were doubting if Jesus really were the Messiah to come, as John himself seemed to question at one time. Mark doesn’t record this, but Matthew and Luke do. Matthew 11:2-3 reads: When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus, after all, wasn’t acting like John had thought he would. He did not have the same prejudices as the Pharisees about what was proper for a religious man, but he did have his own expectations. He had taught that the Messiah would baptize with the Holy Spirit, which was as much an act of bringing judgment as it was redemption. Jesus is preaching about the kingdom of God, but John was expecting him to usher it in with power. And as far as John’s disciples were concerned, Jesus and his disciples just don’t bear the markings of a prophet of God. Jesus doesn’t live a life of luxury, but, on the other hand, he seems to enjoy the dinners he gets invited to, whether they be in the homes of tax collectors or Pharisees, neither of which John’s disciples would have been impressed with. They certainly aren’t impressed with Jesus’ disciples who seem to lack their own zeal to practice self-denial for the kingdom of God.
I mentioned that the Pharisees would have rolled their eyes at Jesus’ statement. Here was just another off-the-wall remark justifying irreligious behavior. At this point, it seems that they regarded Jesus and his disciples as not being really committed to a pious life. If it hasn’t already, that reputation will become worse. Jesus tells what it is in Luke 7:34: “Here is a glutton and a drunkard.”
The problem for both John’s disciples and the Pharisees is that they were trying to apply the ways of the old age to the ways of the new. He gives two metaphors to explain. 21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.”
The principle is simple and clear. Old cloth has already changed as much as it can. It will only be torn if new cloth is attached to it, because the new cloth will shrink. Likewise, an old wineskin has already stretched has much as it can. To pour new wine into the skin, which will then ferment inside, will result in the skin bursting under the pressure. His point is that when something new comes along, the structure to receive it must change to handle it. Otherwise, a calamity takes place.
John’s disciples and the Pharisees are living as though the Messiah has not come. The Pharisees keep up their rituals to preserve good Law-keeping. That, they understand, is the way to glorify God. John’s disciples live a lifestyle of protest and prophetic warning such as the prophets did to warn of sin and judgment. For them, that is God’s message to proclaim.
Well, maybe these approaches to religion were appropriate for the pre-Messiah days, but they are not suited for now. Why? Understand, the reason is not merely that Jesus has new ideas. Business consultants would have been proud of Jesus’ comment about making changes. Business gurus are always teaching how we need to apply new ways of doing things with the changing times. But Jesus is not a religion consultant teaching how the Jewish religion leaders need to adapt to changing times. He is not saying this: “You need to get with the times. People don’t get into fasting anymore like they use to. They feel more worshipful when they are feasting than when fasting. See how much better response I get when I show a good time. If you insist on using the old way of fasting, you will ruin the good feelings towards God that I am able to bring.”
It is not that the times have changed, but that a new time has come, the time prophesied by the Jewish prophets and anticipated by the Jewish people. Jesus’ very presence marks the beginning of a new age – the age of the Messiah. Now, he doesn’t explicitly announce this. If he did, he certainly would have created an uproar. As it is, he has been aggravating the Jewish leaders enough with his semi-veiled statements and actions.
But this is the clear teaching that Mark wants his readers to understand. Jesus Christ is the Messiah who has ushered in the age of the New Covenant. And if we are to live to God’s glory under that New Covenant, we must adapt to its ways, shedding whatever belongs to the Old Covenant that no longer applies.
Living Under the New Covenant
What are those new ways to follow and old ways to shed? What has Jesus’ coming changed about the way we live for God? Under both covenants, the only way to salvation is faith in God to redeem. In both, that faith is in the promised Messiah. The difference, of course, is that where the Old Covenant anticipated the Messiah, the New Covenant celebrates the Messiah.
Here is an example of the Old Covenant way of thinking. The Old Covenant Jew offered sacrifices to God as prescribed in Scripture to make atonement for his sins. He committed sins, so he needed to make up for the sins. Sacrifice was a necessary step; he also might do good, like giving to the poor, to improve his standing before God. You see the principle? He does whatever he does to earn approval before God. For the New Covenant Christian, that approval has been won already by Jesus. He made the sacrifice for sin, the only sacrifice good enough to make atonement. He did the good works of obedience that we might stand approved before God. For us to make sacrifices would be to denigrate Jesus’ sacrifice. It would be a way of saying that his work was not good enough. The result is a burst wineskin. The wineskin of the Old Covenant is burst, because it wasn’t made to contain the actual sacrifice of the Messiah; and the wine of the New Covenant is wasted, because it was not intended to fit in the old bag of a works-related religion.
We might smile at the idea of making sacrifices. That’s something we’ve never done. But we have and we do. We don’t offer up goats and sheep, but we offer up sacrifices to earn God’s favor, nevertheless. We go to church. That’s good to do, right? Won’t God notice and be pleased? We give offerings. Why we do even more. We serve in the church; some of us help the poor. We practice good morals. Surely God is pleased, right? Surely these things will make up for our mistakes. Surely God will be kind to us on the Day of Judgment when he sees our efforts and sincere attempts to be good. That’s Old Covenant religion.
To do anything in order to win God’s acceptance is the Old Covenant mindset, and Jesus cannot be made to fit in. He came to fulfill the sacrifices that had been made. What I mean by that is that the sacrifices never were earning the people favor. They were intended to be a visual reminder of the real atonement that needed to be made. Jesus made that atonement. Following all of the Old Covenant laws and regulations never was intended to be a way to redeem people of their sins, but they at least served the purpose of teaching about holiness and sin, and how redemption needed to be made – through sacrifice. But to approach the Christian faith in the same way – doing religious deeds and good deeds as though we are really are earning God’s favor – that approach only degrades and veils the true righteous work of Jesus. The people under the Old Covenant at least demonstrated how needed the redemption of Jesus was; but for us to act like the people of the Old Covenant demonstrates that we think Jesus’ redemption still needs the help that we can give. We need to adapt to the New Covenant that the work of Jesus made and not make his work try to fit in with our Old Covenant mindset.
Here is another distinction between Old Covenant and New Covenant religion. We live in the age of rejoicing, because we live in the age of the Messiah. The message of the gospel is just what it means – good news, good news that redemption has come. Our message includes repentance; it includes warning of judgment; but its central theme is that redemption has come; atonement for sin has been made; the Messiah has come.
The wedding party has begun. God calls us to join it. He goes to the streets and the byways, to every corner of the earth and every person, whether we be high class or low class, whether we be pious or blasphemous. Whoever we may be, to us he calls to join the feast of the bridegroom, to join his bride the church and enter into rejoicing and rest. To you who work so hard to earn God’s approval, he says to put down your sacrifices and enter his rest. To you who have tried to avoid him and hide in the world, he says to cease from your running and join his feast.
It is feasting, not fasting that best marks the life of the Christian. It is joy, not mourning that best fits the New Covenant life. Let us give up whatever old bag or old garment that we may hold onto, that Jesus may fill us with the joy of his salvation.
