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?” Jesus said to them, “The wedding-guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? 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 on that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”
This is one of those funny passages to us. Not funny “ha ha,” but funny odd, a little peculiar, rather uncommon. We aren’t much for fasting in our culture anymore, and so the practice of the Pharisees and John’s disciples may strike as unusual. Fasting in the ancient world, however, was a sign of repentance and spiritual discipline. It was a common practice that demonstrated a particular and apparently public form of religious devotion. (Otherwise how would everyone know that the Pharisees and John’s disciples are fasting?)
In any event, it’s a common enough practice that it strikes people as odd that Jesus’ disciples don’t fast. What kind of religious leader is he, they may wonder, if his own disciples are not fasting, not practicing the expected forms of devotion?
Jesus responds by comparing his disciples to guests at a wedding. No one fasts during a wedding. Which means, I think we’re intended to gather, that Jesus is the bridegroom. Which is another peculiar image. In what way is Jesus a bridegroom? Whom does he marry? What does all this mean?
We get a clue as he goes on. This time the comparison isn’t to a wedding but to clothing. You can’t patch an old garment with a new piece of cloth, he says, and we’ve actually got some experience with something similar when we buy clothing. When checking sizes on a cotton T-shirt, for instance, we look to see if the shirt has been “pre-shrunk.” If it hasn’t, we’ll get a larger size. Similarly, if you were to use new, unshrunk material as a patch on an old cloak, the first time it got wet it would pull back from the other material and cause a larger tear. And in case we haven’t gotten it yet, Jesus repeats his example, this time talking about wine and wineskins.
All of this is to say that there is something so new going on that none of the old ways or systems can comprehend or contain it. We sometimes talk about this kind of thing as a paradigm shift, and Jesus is claiming that he’s inaugurating just that: a shift in paradigms that neither the old ways, nor the old expectations, nor the old rituals or authority structures can contain or, perhaps, even understand. In short, Jesus ushers in a new era in which God seeks to be in relationship with us in a new way.
It all sounds good, doesn’t it? Yes, but it’s also a little ominous. Torn cloaks and bursting skins isn’t someone anyone wants, but that’s what’s bound to happen. Because we find it difficult, incredibly difficult, to give up the old for the new, to change our ways, to alter our expectations. And this is what spells trouble for Jesus. He will, indeed, invite people into a new way of relating to God, and that newness, that difference, will excite some – especially those who weren’t included in the old ways – and will offend others.
Jesus senses the same. After explaining why his disciples do not fast, he peers forward to the destiny that awaits him on a hill outside Jerusalem and embraces it: “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.”
Which brings us back to his image of the bridegroom. Ultimately, Jesus marries himself to us – to our fate, our limitations, our hopes and wants and needs and hurts, taking all of them unto himself. He is the bridegroom that approaches the bride – the whole of God’s creation – in delight, even as he knows that to free and redeem his bride he will need to give his life. Odd, peculiar, and so incredibly uncommon indeed.
Prayer: Dear God, let us face our challenges and struggles with hope, knowing that Jesus bears them with us and, in time, will bear us into the new reality he inaugurates. In Jesus name, Amen.
Is Jesus’ death on the cross the bursting of wine skins and the tearing of cloth? Is Jesus the ancient, old cloth or wineskin or are we? Is this why the bridegroom had to leave, it is a mismatched pairing?
I believe the old wine skin represent those practicing Christianity without being born again. If Christ is not accepted His teaching will make no sense to them, it will upend their theology, if I may borrow from the word of Kennet Hagin. In Mathew 9:17, the Lord Jesus says you pour new wine into new wine skin, then both are preserved. When a Christian becomes a believer in Christ Jesus, he gets the ability to understand what the scriptures says, his body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor.6:19, and the presence of God’s Spirit in him/her enables such to know what God says or what He desires. 1 Corinthians 2:6-16.
The Bridegroom had to leave for the time being because He has fulfilled the first part of His mission, which was to lay down His life for His bride. Ephe. %:25-27
I hope this answers your question?
I want to add to my earlier reply to DJL comments on fasting. Though fasting was not commanded by Jesus,it should not be neglected. Jesus fasted, the apostles fasted, the churches then fasted for specific reasons. So it’s a personal decision, a personal race. Life is a choice. And so I conclude by saying, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Thanks.