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Today’s passage highlights yet another scene where Jesus
Why were John’s disciples and the Pharisees fasting and why at the same time?
We need to answer that question before we can answer the question in the text.
Why no fast?
Why no fast?
Mark 2:18 (HCSB)
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting.
Why were John’s disciples and the Pharisees fasting?
The desired outcome was to have an effect on the soul.
Fasting was used for various purposes, but two reasons why you would fast would be to draw near to God, and as part of a grieving process.
For the Pharisees, they were probably fasting because they were waiting for the Messiah who would liberate Israel.
They felt like their country was under the thumb of God for disobedience, and by right living and obeying God’s law, they would usher in the age of the Messiah.
Side note, is that you?
Do you obey God because you are trying to usher in his rule?
Or do you obey God because you love him?
It’s the difference between seeking God’s hand and his face.
The Pharisees were searching for God’s hands, when they had God’s face right in front of their eyes.
John’s disciples probably were fasting for similar reasons.
But they seem to be caught in between two worlds.
Their Rabbi’s teaching was all about the coming of the Messiah, but now he’s here, and some of them aren’t quite sure what to think of Jesus. He’s not what they expected at all.
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Jesus is asked why his disciples aren’t fasting.
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. People came and asked Him, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”
I think the people asking the question had mixed motives for asking it, which is why Jesus responds in two different ways.
If you’ve ever visited the worship of a much different part of the church, you likely encountered things that you didn’t immediately understand or recognize.
For some of you that’s been your experience at the Table.
There are some things we do that are genuinely different then what you’ve experienced before.
But there are churches out there that would feel extremely different than even what we are doing here.
And when you see those differences, you have three options,
curiosity that leads to knowledge,
an unwillingness to learn anything new so you tune out,
or you scoff at what you see.
The people coming to Jesus are a mixture of these.
Some people are genuinely curious.
Why is it that they’re not fasting?
Some people are in the foolish to scoffer range,
Why is it that they’re not fasting? (said differently)
Jesus is asked a question and he answers in two different ways.
Answer Part 1 - Wedding Groom
Answer Part 1 - Wedding Groom
In Jesus first response he answers with relative simplicity.
He uses an analogy.
And it’s an analogy that already fit into the Jewish hopes for the future.
The idea of a wedding celebration marking the age of the Messiah was already something they talked about and looked forward to.
Have you ever been to a Jewish festival, wedding, or party?
They don’t mess around.
Our weddings are simply boring compared to a jewish wedding.
Their is intense celebration.
Jesus is identifying himself as the groom of the wedding.
He’s saying, “I’m here!”
19 And Jesus said to them, “The bridegroom’s attendants are not able to fast while the bridegroom is with them, are they? As long a time as they have the bridegroom with them, they are not able to fast. 20 But days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
So he’s also prophesying of the day that’s coming when he won’t be with his disciples and they will fast again.
2 And while they were serving the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart now for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then, after they had fasted and prayed and placed their hands on them, they sent them away.
Remember the Messiah comes twice.
Once to inaugurate his kingdom, and once to consummate it.
This is why Jesus uses analogies of yeast, and growing plants to talk about his kingdom.
He starts this kingdom project and then comes back to gather it when it’s done.
So before the first coming of the Messiah, people fast.
Before the second coming of the Messiah, people fast.
But when he’s with us, we don’t fast.
It’s a very simple point that Jesus is making.
He is demystifying reality for his listeners.
They can’t see that he is the point of it all.
We could use our own food analogy to make it even more plain and highlight the absurdity of it.
If Nick makes a brisket and I don’t eat food all day in preparation for the feast,
Jason thinks brisket is some kind of chocolate.
“Wait I thought you were waiting to eat brisket!”
Answer Part 2 - Old and New
Answer Part 2 - Old and New
At this point Jesus is going to employ a parable.
This will be the first parable recorded in the Gospel of Mark.
Why does Jesus speak in parables at all?
Sometimes they can seem so difficult to understand we wonder is this the most effective teaching tool?
We need to remember that for Jesus, the goal is always to make people understand their need for him to be the king of lives.
But not everyone is READY to listen, he is going to need to do some work.
Those who are humble, are able to listen right away.
Those who are proud, need to be humbled in order to listen.
And parables are one way of drawing out humility, because they force the person who wants to know the answer to A. Admit they don’t know, and B. Ask the teacher for the explanation.
Think of parables like a gate that sorts people based off their willingness to be humbled.
It’s important to notice that Jesus doesn’t automatically use parables with everyone.
He employs wisdom as he talks to people.
And not just a little bit of wisdom.
All the wisdom.
24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Have you ever considered that Jesus isn’t just sinless, he has never done an unwise thing.
Wisdom as the undercurrent of being fully human.
Simple
Simple
1 Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: 2 To know wisdom and instruction, to understand sayings of understanding, 3 to gain insightful instruction, righteousness and justice and equity, 4 to give shrewdness to the simple, knowledge and purpose to the young, 5 may the wise hear and increase learning, and the one who understands gain direction, 6 to understand a proverb and an expression, words of wisdom and their riddles. 7 Fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; wisdom and instruction, fools despise.
25 Strike a mocker, and the inexperienced learn a lesson; rebuke the discerning, and he gains knowledge.
11 When a mocker is punished, the inexperienced become wiser; when one teaches a wise man, he acquires knowledge.
Fool
Fool
Proverbs 17:10 (LEB)
10 A rebuke strikes him who understands deeper than one hundred blows to a fool.
4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly lest you become like him—even you.
Scoffer
Scoffer
7 The one who corrects a mocker will bring dishonor on himself; the one who rebukes a wicked man will get hurt. 8 Don’t rebuke a mocker, or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.
Jesus way with these three characters:
To the Simple:
Generous, plain, revealing
(Examples, sermon on the mount, woman at the well)
To the Fool:
Parables. and some rebukes.
To the Scoffers:
Woes, and then silence.
A new thing is coming, the old thing is fading
Context of Hebrews...
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second one. 8 But finding fault with His people, He says: Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by their hands to lead them out of the land of Egypt. I disregarded them, says the Lord, because they did not continue in My covenant. 10 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. 11 And each person will not teach his fellow citizen, and each his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” because they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their wrongdoing, and I will never again remember their sins. 13 By saying, a new covenant, He has declared that the first is old. And what is old and aging is about to disappear.
Another analogy that I like that is helpful for understanding this is the imagery of scaffolding. on a building.
When do we use scaffolding?
When it’s being built.
Buildings at Ina and Thornydale right now.
Wouldn’t it be absurd and useless if the scaffolding stayed up after the building was built?
It’s the same way with the old and new covenants.
The administration of the Old Covenant was a very good thing.
Jesus is clear when he says “I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfil it.”
Ok, why is this important to me?
Conclusion and Application:
The days of fasting are here.
But so is the New Covenant.
The New Covenant is a better covenant because it is a covenant that changes people.
The New Covenant allows us to grow up.
It is marked with mature members.
11 We have a great deal to say about this, and it’s difficult to explain, since you have become too lazy to understand. 12 Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food. 13 Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. 14 But solid food is for the mature—for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil.
A great deal to say about what?
9 After He was perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him, 10 and He was declared by God a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
Salvation!
This is about saving people from hell.
This is about restoring people to being holy image bearers of God.