February 20 & 21 – Mark 2:18-28
At the time Jesus came, many Jewish religious practices were more about established ritual than authentic worship. That’s why Jesus regularly challenged the Pharisees’ thinking. They were more focused on adhering to rules and correctly performing rituals than on loving God and ministering to the needs of people. In trying to keep the Old Testament Law, they had forgotten the very heart of that Law: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31).

In today’s reading, Jesus confronts the Pharisees’ strict notions about fasting and Sabbath. Jesus’ disciples don’t fast because Jesus is in their midst. The Messiah had come—it’s a time for celebrating, not fasting! But the strict rules and timetables the Pharisees followed left no room for exceptions—no room for God to lead them in a new direction!
Jesus’ mysterious statement about cloth and wineskins goes to the heart of the matter:
“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.” ~ Mark 2:21-22
The Pharisees had taken God’s Word and made it into strict rules, rituals, and practices. These were inflexible and rigid, like old cloth that cannot shrink with a new patch or old wineskins that cannot expand when new wine ferments in them. The religious practices that had grown up around the Law were not flexible enough to change with the realization that God cares more about people than ritual, that He wants mercy and compassion more than sacrifice (see Hosea 6:6 and Matthew 9:13).
One way that the Pharisees were missing the point was in their strict observance of Sabbath. Even picking grain to have a meal (rather than go hungry) was prohibited by the rules they had created to make sure the commandment about not working on the Sabbath was kept. But Jesus challenges this idea, saying, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (v. 27). And Jesus as “Lord of the Sabbath” has the authority to proclaim this (v. 28). The Sabbath is a day of rest that God gives us as a gift. If we make it an inflexible ritual, we miss the blessing of it. We miss Christ’s Presence with us in it as we focus on our own efforts in trying to “get it right.”
Take some Sabbath time this weekend as a gift from the Lord. Spend some of that time in conversation with Him, and ask Him to show you any rigid ideas you might have that are getting in the way of living the life of love, mercy, and blessing that He longs for you to live.
תגובות