Guarding our hearts from conforming to human traditions – Mark 2:18-22

We are continuing with our Expository preaching from Mark.

Today’s Passage – Mark 2:18-22

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

When we look at this passage the most obvious thing that stands out is the mention of fasting and I can probably preach a sermon on fasting using this passage. But as I’ve read & re-read this passage I realize that preaching on fasting from this particular passage would not do justice to the actual context in which it is written, here’s why I say that …

1. Firstly, the emphasis is not on fasting but on the foundational beliefs of the people which needed correction, which is what I will be focusing on.
2. Secondly, if I have to preach a sermon on fasting then I believe there are much better passages that explain the concept of fasting. And because our goal today is to explicitly focus on this passage only, it is important that we don’t divert our attention from what the author is trying to tell us.

Mark is telling that one particular day some people came to Jesus and said: “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

On the onset, it sounds quite like a genuine question to me. Did you see anything wrong with that question?

But let me give you little bit background … The three main pillars of Judaism at that time and even today are prayer, almsgiving, and fasting. And about fasting, it is said that during those days the Pharisees fasted twice in a week, on Mondays and Thursdays although there is no indication or mention in the laws about fasting twice in a week and fasting on Mondays & Thursdays.

Scriptural references to biblical fasts were on the Day of Atonement mentioned in Leviticus 16:29 and four days post-exile mentioned in Zacharias 18:19.

The Pharisees fasted twice in a week in addition to this.

Now notice Jesus had no complaint with fasting per se as it is practiced by the disciples of John and the Pharisees. If he had any complaints he would have mentioned it.

Instead what we see Jesus do is to draw their attention to himself and his ministry on earth. He describes his mission as a wedding – himself as the bridegroom and disciples as the guests of the bridegroom. And his point is that wedding is not a time to abstain but to live it up.

John’s disciples, the Pharisees, and their disciples missed to see the significance of that moment and did not see it as an occasion to celebrate.

In the Old Testament, the bridegroom is referred to as an image of God, not the Messiah (of course later in the New Testament we see Jesus clearly been referred as the bridegroom). So, at that time, Jesus, by even mentioning that he was bridegroom was indicating the fact that he was God himself. Those were actually provocative statements least expected by the Pharisees.

And then from there Jesus goes on to tell them two parables

Parable number one – “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.”

Parable number two – “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

What we see here is the Pharisees and the disciples of John had a way of doing things. Especially with respect to fasting, they fasted two days in a week even though it wasn’t required for them to do so.

What essentially was happening there was that people were trying to convince Jesus to fit in their model of doing things, in this passage, it was about fasting. They wanted to make room for Jesus in their already full agendas.

Maybe you might be able to relate with me here as I give this example … It’s like when we join a new company or an organization, we join them with full of zeal and enthusiasm to make a difference to the company and grow ourselves.

But we often find ourselves in a place where we are made to comply with the already existing traditional ways of doing things by the seniors. Even when there are better ways to do the same task with much efficiency we and made to stick to the old methods and fit into their already existing methodologies and processes. You want to make a positive difference by bringing in new ideas but you are restricted from doing so.

Have you been in a situation like that?

I believe that’s the kind of pressure the people were trying to put on Jesus when they wanted him to fit in their mold, and in response to their expectations, Jesus’s tells them these two parables.

Now let’s read those parables once again.

Parable number one – “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.”

Parable number two – “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

Did you get the point?

Wish we had the liberty to speak that way with our company bosses. But I’m sure it would put them off, so did the Pharisees. Why do you think they became even madder at Jesus.

What I want you to see is that – Jesus is in a standing debate with Pharisees and the people, primarily over the issue of tradition, in this case, it was fasting. But he addresses it even more harshly in Mark 7:1-13

Jesus wanted the people to see how blinded they had become because of all their traditions, so much so that they were unable to see the Son of God who came to make everything new.

Paul beautifully elaborates this fact in 2 Corinthians 5:17 where he says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

The old way of doing things, the old way of thinking, the old way in which we lived our lives, has passed away.

• They failed to see and accept Christ as the promised Messiah who came down to earth as a representative of God to make things new.
• They failed to see how their traditions and so-called godly lifestyles had made them even more corrupt and sinful and wretched in the eyes of God.
• They failed to see that they needed a savior to save them from their wretchedness and make them a new creation – holy and acceptable to God.

Instead, they wanted Jesus to fit in their way of thinking and doing things as per human traditions to which Jesus opposes them and explains what happens when a new cloth is stitched into an old one and when a new wine is poured into an old wineskin.

He said it will make the worst tear if a new cloth is stitched into an old one and the new wine will burst the old wineskins.

What he is saying is that if you try to fit the redemptive work of God through Christ into your old wretched traditional ways of doing things then you will do more harm than you can ever imagine.

Now, how do this passage and this understanding help us?

It helps us to see Christ’s life, death, and resurrection far more glorious and life-changing than we’ve ever thought of.

We don’t believe in the gospel because it sounds great, but we believe in the gospel because it transforms us into a new person.

Once we were sinners, we deserved God’s wrath and our destiny was eternal death and life in hell. We lived selfish lives, hated and mocked God by creating idols out of mud and worshiped them, we even worshiped animals and birds, much worse we worshiped & desired money, wealth and possessions of this world more than the living God himself.

And mind you – just like the Pharisees and the people who questioned Jesus, even we followed the traditions of the world, we manipulated one another, we robbed, we killed, we lied. We did all the evil in this world.

There is absolutely no man who can say he never did anything wrong, there is no man who can say he is sinless. Not even the sadhus and monks of this world can claim to be holy.

And because of all this, we deserved punishment, and the punishment was eternal death.

Until one day the promised Messiah, the savior of the world, the Son of the most holy God, Jesus, came down on this earth – not to improve our living conditions by fitting into our ways of doing things but to reform us and make us a new creation.

He did that by taking the penalty of our sins – the wrath that we deserved – the punishment that we should have endured – upon himself by dying on the cross. And his last words before his final breath was “It is finished”.

Finished forever – the old has gone – the new has come.

Three days later Jesus rose again from the dead, defeating the power of sin in us, giving us the freedom that once was unknown to us, restoring back our relationship with God our creator.

The old sinful man is now dead and the new man is alive.

And we receive this free gift of salvation not by any good works but by putting our faith in Christ and his finished work on the cross.

I believe Jesus wanted the Pharisees to see him for who he is.

I believe even today, Jesus wants us to see him for who he is, the one and true God who transforms our lives and makes us into new being in him. Not by fitting into our ways of doing things but by his ways.

Here are some questions we should ask ourselves this morning:

• Did we put your faith in Christ only because he does miracles in our lives?
• Did we put our faith in Christ only because he provides for our needs?
• Did we put our faith in Christ only because having associated with him makes us look cool.

Or did we put our faith in Christ because we truly believe in our hearts that it is only through him that we can be set free from sin & death, have eternal life, and be transformed into a new man that doesn’t fit into the traditions of this world?

The second application of this passage is that it warns us not to fit Christ into our ways and even our expectations from him like the people did.

Our human tendencies are always to get our work done, our way. Whether it is in business, whether in looking out for a suitable job, whether it is in our workplace, our family, our church, our surroundings.

We like it that way.

But once we become a Christian, we need to be careful that these tendencies don’t manifest in our relationship with Christ, that we don’t try to fit Jesus in into our dreams, our desires, our way of doing things, our human, earthy expectations. Even bind him to our traditions and customs.

Even in the church and more often in our ministries we can try to fit Jesus into our goals & our agendas.

And the warning is, in doing so we will cause more damage than we ever imagined.

It will suck out the life in us and paralyze us from enjoying a grace-filled, sanctified relationship with Christ.

In Romans 12:2 Paul reminds us by saying “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”

In all things, we should always discern what the will of God is for our lives and allow him to be in the driver seat.

Go where he takes you, speak what he asks you to speak, do what he tells you to do.

It could be that God is calling you to go and settle in a new place among strangers

It could be that God is asking you to take a risk with your job and start something new so you can serve him in bigger measures.

It could be that God is asking you to give more of your time and energy into serving him and his church.

And probably it may not fit into our contemporary ways of thinking and living. Nevertheless, follow him who is faithful and knows the end from the beginning.

He’s given us the Holy Spirit as a helper to help us pursue the right things to be led by the Spirit at all times.

If I had to fit Jesus into my dreams and desires that I had before I became a Christian I wouldn’t be where I am today. I feel blessed and happy for where God has kept me at this moment.

Yes, there are moments when I sometimes try to fit Jesus into my thinking and way of doing things but I’m thankful that his Spirit always convicts my heart, reminds me of the Gospel and enables me to let it go.

Let’s evaluate our hearts this morning and identify the areas where we try to fit Jesus into our mold instead of giving him the reins of our lives.

Let’s repent of those ways as his words convicts our hearts this morning.

And finally, as I end my sermon my encouragement to you this morning is to cherish this new life you have in Christ in full measure breaking out of all human traditions that binds you and allow him to rule over you 100% percent by following the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life.