Fasting and gloominess at a wedding, along with broken wine bottles. That doesn’t sound like a pretty picture, does it? Jesus uses both of these scenarios in our Scripture reading today from Mark’s Gospel to teach His disciples some spiritual lessons. Let’s take a look and see what Jesus would like to teach us here.
As our passage opens, two groups of people approach Jesus with a question (vs 18). They are some disciples of both John the Baptist and of the Pharisees. At this time John the Baptist had been thrown in prison for speaking out against King Herod’s marriage. When the Holy Spirit had revealed to John who Jesus was, he had urged many of his disciples to follow Jesus, as He was the Messiah, and John was only the messenger. Peter, James, John, and Andrew were a few that listened to John the Baptist’s words and now were following Jesus. These disciples today were some who had decided to remain with John, and were unsure, at least as of now, about Jesus. They were more in line with the Pharisees’ thinking and traditions.
These men came to Jesus with a question, wondering why His disciples don’t fast, but they and the Pharisees fast twice a week. The disciples didn’t need to fast for the coming Messiah. He was there. Jesus is the Bridegroom, and His people, the Church, is the Bride.
Jesus taught about fasting for the right motives. Fasting can be an outward sign of humility and repentance of sin. It is often used during times of intense prayer, or an inner discipline to keep our spirit alert to God’s Spirit. The Pharisees fasted twice a week in order to be seen, and thought of as super-spiritual (Matthew 6:16-18). The Old Testament Law only prescribed fasting on one day - the Day of Atonement. The Pharisees had again made man-made rules. True spiritual reasons were last in their thoughts. Jesus condemned this.
Jesus then proceeded to use a common, everyday item in those days to explain a spiritual lesson (vs 21-22). Wineskins in Biblical days were made of goatskins, sewn together. As wine ferments, carbon dioxide CO2 is produced. If the wine were put into old wineskins that had already been stretched and were taut they would burst. The new wine, in the fermenting process, would make the skins burst. New wine was only safely put into new wineskins.
The Pharisees were the old wineskins. They would not repent and change their life and way of thinking. The Pharisees would not accept anything but their man-made rules and religion. The newness of the Gospel message cannot be held in the old wineskins of tradition. The Holy Spirit sometimes wishes us to change our thinking and the way we do things.
Nothing in our life - friends, loves, job, hobby, habits, etc., is worth our soul. To repent is to change. Changing is to purge our heart of anything that cannot abide with Jesus Christ. A new life cannot be put back into an old lifestyle. The new life will be lost. The new life must be put under the leading of the Holy Spirit. New wine into new wineskins.
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