loudandclear

Mark 2:18-28

18 Once when John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, some people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t your disciples fast like John’s disciples and the Pharisees do?” 19 Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. They can’t fast while the groom is with them. 20 But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 21 “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. 22 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.” 23 One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. 24 But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?” 25 Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 26 He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions.” 27 Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”

(((This passage opens up with some people questioning why Jesus’ disciples aren’t fasting.  He has an interesting answer that says three things.  First by referring to Himself as the groom, He was calling Himself God.  God the Father was the groom to the Israelites in the Old Testament, so Jesus is once again confirming that He is fully God.  Second, He says that wedding guests don’t fast while celebrating that the groom is with them.  He is saying here that they should rejoice now because they are in the presence of God and should enjoy being with Him while they can.  Third, He predicts His own death on a cross by saying that the groom will be taken away.  Fasting is to seek the presence of God, so when he is taken away then they will fast.)))

(((Jesus then uses two parables to try to teach, one about clothing and another about wineskins.  Jesus was bringing a new way of doing life.  The Jews had fallen into the trap of becoming legalistic.  They made all kinds of rules and laws about what you could and couldn’t do, but what they hadn’t taken in account is that laws and rules can’t change someone’s heart.  We all have rules we follow not because we believe they are good, but because we don’t want to get in trouble for breaking them.  Jesus was trying to show the world a new way of life where your heart came before rules.)))

(((The chapter ends with the Pharisees trying to reprimand Jesus for for His disciples picking grain for food on the Sabbath (the day of rest).  This stems back once again to the Pharisees creating more and more rules.  Because they were supposed to take a day of rest, they had created rules of how many steps you could take on the Sabbath and even how you got your food.  Jesus tells them that God created the sabbath so that people could rest and enjoy God, not so that they would have more rules to follow on that day.  The day of rest was a gift to His people, it wasn’t a punishment.)))