Talking Points:

• In Mark 2:18-22 Jesus challenges the religious police of his day. Faith always expresses itself in certain activities (like fasting), but toxic religion  uses this as a litmus test to police the spiritual life of others. Mark 2:18
• Jesus uses a wedding feast to illustrate that fasting doesn’t make sense at a party.  Religion treats spiritual practices like requirements on a checklist, but Jesus treats them as opportunities to express your heart toward God. Mark 2:19-20
• Jesus expands the principle with the example of putting new wine into old wineskins. Religion takes a rigid, legalistic approach to spiritual practices as an end in themselves, while in Christ these practices express the dynamic relationship we have with God by grace. Mark 2:21-22

Discussion:

1. What’s your background regarding faith and religion?
2. Make a list of spiritual practices that people are the “Religion Police” about.
3. Read Mark 2:18-20. What do you believe about fasting? Is Jesus against it?
4. What does it mean that Jesus is the groom and we are the bride?
5. Read Mark 2:21-22. Explain the two illustrations that Jesus gave. What is their spiritual significance?
6. Read Revelation 19:6-9. How does someone get invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb?

See Also:

• Mormons drinking coffee
• Breakthrough series
• Jesus coming back

Shownotes:

Opening / Hook

Big Idea: Religious systems want to authorize what religious practices (like fasting) are required, and how they are to be performed, believing that these practices prove who is worthy before God. This form of religion values doing the activities for their own sake. But Jesus reveals that since the Messiah has come, we can’t do religious activity the old way anymore. Thus he is more concerned about heart attitude and purpose than mere conformity. Jesus still endorses religious practices (like fasting). But he shows that religious practices are not about measuring up, but express a growing relationship with God from our inner heart.

The flow of the text:

• Jesus criticized. Mark 2:18
• His first response: there’s a time to fast and not fast. Mark 2:19-20
• His second response: the approach of the Pharisees is not compatible with what the Messiah brings. Mark 2:21-22

The Religion Police

• Mark 2:18 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?”
• This question feels like a critique, not an honest inquiry
• It’s an accusation = Why don’t you do what you’re supposed to?
• Important note: this critique is not leveled against spiritual outsiders / heathens / unbelievers
• Last week: saw attitude of religion toward irreligious people
• Today: attitude of religion toward people who supposedly should know better → less zealous / righteous / serious followers of God
• Explore fasting in the OT
• The law of Moses does not command or regulate fasting for God’s covenant people
• But it was widely practiced as a custom
• By individuals and corporately as a nation 
• Note: Torah commands humbling oneself on Day of Atonement
• This was clearly understood in later Judaism to include fasting
• Although the Hebrews words for “fasting” are not present
• Fasting reflects the recognition that something is wrong (in nation, my life, etc)
• Coupled with a hope / longing for deliverance
• So fasting becomes a sign of grief / mourning
• Fasting reflects a drawing to the presence of God
• Humbling oneself in the process
• So fasting becomes a sign of repentance and seeking forgiveness
• Compare fasting in 1st century Judaism
• Don’t want to stereotype Jewish fasting as completely negative or hypocritical
• But it could definitely trend that way
• Over time fasting became more ritualized / more codified
• In some circles → violation of fasting rules seen as actual sin
• Elevated to an elitist function = to mark off who is spiritually elite / better
• See Pharisee in Luke 18:12 condemned by Jesus for his elitist attitude toward fasting
• If Jesus’ followers weren’t fasting → called into question their piety, sincerity and devotion to God
• Contemporary issue → when religious people believe certain kinds of religious activity are necessary
• In this case, the discussion is about fasting → but not limited to that one practice alone
• Empty religion and true faith have this in common = spiritual practices involved
• Prayer / giving to the poor / fasting / attending worship / etc.
• But the religious mindset looks at certain practices as a test of one’s piety / rel’ship with God
• These practices define the code you’re expected to live up to
• Try hard to live up to the code themselves
• That becomes a way to show your spiritual superiority
• When they can’t / don’t → hide it & still preach it
• Why religious-minded people often come off as hypocrites
• But also: watching others → accuse them of not living up to the code
• Contemptuous of people who don’t conform / don’t perform
• Why aren’t YOU doing it?
• The more religious, the more they feel like it’s their calling to police other people’s relationship with God
• Use outward expression of faith / religion to do so
• Give some examples
• Why don’t you dress up for church?
• Why aren’t your services more “reverent”?
• Heard this week: Why don’t you do deep theological Bible studies?
• How about daily quiet time? Never commanded in Bible
• It’s a great idea to set aside time for daily communion with God
• But it’s exactly the kind of activity people use to judge others & measure ‘self against others

Trans: Jesus has two responses to the critique → the first is in vv. 19-20

Wedding Guests 

• Mark 2:19-20 Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. They can’t fast while the groom is with them. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 
• Jesus draws from common experience → a wedding celebration
• In this illustration: the groom represents Jesus
• The wedding guests represent his followers
• Nobody fasts at a wedding! Fasting is not how you celebrate.
• But after the wedding → the guests are separated from their friend
• So they might mourn that separation
• The Messiah has come / his presence changes things
• Perhaps Jesus is foreshadowing his death here
• Which was an occasion for fasting / mourning
• Perhaps just acknowledging that he won’t be present like this forever
• Implication: a time is coming when Jesus’ followers would fast
• Like John and his disciples / like the Pharisees
• As Xians, we do fast
• To remind us of our dependence on God / need for his mercy
• Apply this to spiritual practices / activities
• Jesus draws our attention to the WHY
• Asking his critics to consider the true meaning of fasting
• Fasting, then, is not about checking off a box
• Doing a religious practice just because you’re supposed to
• In this illustration → fasting is a reflection of a person’s genuine heart
• When you’re celebrating God’s goodness / mercy / salvation
• That’s not a time to fast
• Bc fasting is not the right activity to express that inner response of praise & gratitude
• When you’re mourning → that’s the time to fast
• Mourning loss / but also mourning sin
• Bc fasting is the right activity to express sorrow / need / brokenness
• The same principle applies to every spiritual practice / discipline / activity
• Shouldn’t be done to look righteous
• To keep score
• To feel better than other people
• Shouldn’t be a way we measure others or ourselves before God
• Bc those kind of things are easy to fake
• Easy to separate from the motives / attitudes within
• SHOULD be done to express a genuine heart response to God
• Examples: why attend worship?
• Why read Bible every day?
• Etc. → other examples

New Clothes and Wineskins 

• Jesus has two responses to the critique → the second is in vv. 21-22
• The first response was clearly addressing the idea of fasting
• This one is a little more obscure
• Harder to see the connection → but he is still answering the original question
• I think Jesus is expanding the question beyond fasting
• I think he is saying, “Speaking of the Pharisees and their practices…”
• Mark 2:21-22 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. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the win and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins. 
• Jesus gives two similar illustrations to make his point
• 1st: you don’t patch old clothing with new cloth
• 2nd: you don’t put new wine into old wineskins
• Similar idea in both
• 1st illustration: talking about making a repair to a worn garment
• It has a tear that needs to be patched
• Don’t use brand new cloth to repair the tear
• Old cloth of the clothing has already shrunk
• New cloth will shrink when it is washed the first time
• So it will pull away → the tear will be worst
• 2nd illustration: talking about storing wine that is not yet fermented
• Wineskins are made of leather = skin of goat or lamb
• Old leather doesn’t have much “give” / elasticity anymore → won’t stretch
• New wine is unfermented grape juice
• But as it ferments into wine, it creates gasses as byproduct
• So the wine expands → leather has to stretch
• In old, rigid leather, the expanding wine will burst the wineskin
• The wineskin is ruined
• The wine is spilt and lost
• But what do these illustrations have to do with fasting?
• The central idea is common → incompatibility with old and new
• But: old and new what?
• Old and new spiritual practices / activities?
• Is he saying that new practices have to replace the old ones?
• That’s why his disciples don’t fast?
• Bc fasting is now obsolete?
• That doesn’t seem to be the case
• 1st: Jesus says (20): the friends of the bridegroom will fast at some point
• 2nd: other places, Jesus endorsed fasting
• Matthew 6: “when you fast…” / not IF you fast or DON’T fast
• So what is the old / new incompatibility Jesus is getting at?
• What’s clear: something NEW has arrived
• Most obvious NEW thing on the scene is the Messiah himself
• With Jesus’ coming a new day is dawning
• That raises the question: what is the OLD thing Jesus has in mind?
• How is that thing related to the Pharisees?
• The Pharisees were devoted to God, yes
• But in practice → their true devotion was to fulfilling the rules
• They were committed to the ceremonial law of Moses
• Equally committed to their own traditions of interpreting the law of Moses
• So their approach to religious activity was inflexible / brittle
• What Jesus called “traditions of men”
• Rules added to God’s law
• But also: trying to fulfill God’s law outwardly w/o change of heart
• That seems to be the old wineskins here = 
• The legalistic system of traditions erected by man-made religion
• We could say: their approach was based on LAW
• Jesus invites his followers to a vibrant, dynamic rel’ship with God 
• One based, not on LAW, but on GRACE
• Yes, religious activities are certainly part of that
• But it’s not about keeping the rules
• A rel’ship with God that’s by grace alone (new wine)
• Can’t be compatible with an approach that’s governed by merely  keeping the law (old wineskin)
• Fasting, etc are about cultivating a rel’ship with God from the heart
• Not just skin deep
• Not just practicing these things as an end in themself
• Not just about fulfilling some outward formality

CONCLUSION

• Application: why do you do the things you do as a Christian?
• Why do you pray? Read your Bible? Come to church?
• What do those things mean to you?
• External ceremony and tradition?
• Or a transformed heart?
• YES to fasting; YES to other spiritual practices
• They’re valuable to us
• Not as an end in themselves
• Not as a way to measure who’s elite or not
• Not to pump up myself and criticism others
• Not with such rigidity that there is no freedom to express one’s true heart toward God
• But as expressions of our love for God / our desire for him / conviction of our sin against him / etc