Jesus’ reputation and popularity continued to grow after his time in Galilee, but since the beginning of Mark 2, there is an escalating conflict between he and the religious leaders.
In Mark 2:1-3:7 Jesus has five conflicts (four with the religious leaders).
- 2:1-12 – Jesus heals a paralytic and forgives his sin.
- 2:13-17 – Jesus calls a tax collector to follow him and then shares a meal with tax collectors and sinners. Last week, we saw that Jesus extends an invitation to sinners, but he rejects the self-righteous.
- 2:18-22 – In today’s text Jesus is asked about fasting.
Sermon Text: Mark 2:18-22
Jesus came to bring joy, not sorrow (18-20)
18 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?” 19 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. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
Jesus is asked a question, probably by those who saw or heard that Jesus had dined with tax collectors and sinners (Mark 2:15-16): “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
The question seems to imply that to be a spiritual Jew, you need to regularly fast. To the onlookers, Jesus’ lack of concern for the practice of fasting was disturbing.
In the Old Testament, the only mandatory fast for all of Israel was one day of the year, the Day of Atonement (Lev 16). This was the day that the high priest entered the holy of holies in the temple and made sacrifices for the sins of the entire nation. The Day of Atonement was a very solemn day.
The disciples of John the Baptist were probably fasting because John the Baptist had been arrested (Mark 1:14) and possibly killed (Mark 6:14-29).[1]The time of John the Baptist’s death isn’t certain to my knowledge.
The Pharisees fasted twice a week as an expression of their religious piety. They thought that fasting was one way that they could earn God’s favor. In Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18, the Pharisee boasted about his fasting (Luke 18:12). In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned against this kind of external self-righteousness.
Matt 6:16-18
16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Verses 19-20 provide the first part of Jesus’ response. Jesus’ response probably surprised, confused, and annoyed his questioners.
Jesus likened his disciples to guests at a wedding banquet. Jewish weddings were a big-time celebration. When a man and woman got married, rather than going on a honeymoon, they had a weeklong celebration where they visited with guests and had joyous meals together. For many, this was the happiest week of their lives. For a wedding guest to fast during a wedding would have been offensive because the guest was rejecting the hospitality of the host.
Here, Jesus says that it doesn’t make any sense for his disciples to fast, because the king is with them! Remember the message of Mark 1:15 – “The kingdom of God is at hand…”. Just as one wouldn’t fast at a wedding, his disciples shouldn’t fast while the bridegroom is with them.
In the Old Testament, God is the bridegroom and Israel is the bride. Here, and throughout the rest of the New Testament, Jesus is the bridegroom and the church is the bride (Eph 5:22-31).
Thus, Jesus is saying that the coming of the bridegroom and salvation should lead to celebration, not mourning. The kingdom of God is at hand!
The Pharisees believed that religion was a solemn and joyless practice. In their minds, Jesus and his disciples were having too much fun. Jesus and his disciples were not serious in their religious practice because they refused to fast.
There are some people who claim to be Christians who live like the Pharisees. While they may not fast twice a week, they have no joy in their lives. They think that God is a cosmic killjoy that wants to deprive them of joy.
There are people who claim to be Christians, but they find no joy in reading His Word, prayer, singing God’s praises, hearing God’s Word preached, giving and sharing with others, or gathering with other believers to worship Christ. However, God commands for Christians be people that rejoice at all times (1 Thess 5:16-18; Phil 4:4).
Instead, Jesus says, that the time to fast and mourn is when the groom has been taken away (v. 20). Then his disciples will fast. Here, Jesus alludes to his arrest and subsequent crucifixion and death. And it should be the same with us. We don’t fast during joyous times but rather during times of mourning or great spiritual need.
Examples of when to fast:
- Praying for a lost family member, etc.
- Praying for someone or yourself with a serious health issue.
- Praying about a big decision in your life.
- Practicing repentance from a certain sin.
- Mourning the state of our world as we yearn for Christ to return.
It’s important to note that Jesus does not condemn the practice of fasting itself (Matt 6:16-18). Fasting is a good thing at the appropriate time. Let’s talk about fasting for a moment:
Fasting is not focused on our hunger but should be done out of a hunger for God and his presence. Fasting reminds us to focus on spiritual needs rather than physical needs. When we eat, we are fulfilling a physical need.
The main biblical purpose of fasting is to strengthen prayer. Other purposes include expressing grief, seeking God’s guidance, seeking deliverance or protection, expressing repentance and more.
If you would like to learn more about fasting, I recommend to you Donald Whitney’s book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.
In this passage, we see that the way to God is not through religious practices, but through joyful association with Jesus.
The way to God is not through religious practices, but through joyful association with Jesus.
Jesus came to bring new life, not to perpetuate religion and rituals (21-22)
21 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. 22 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.”
Jesus provided two examples to illustrate the newness of his ministry.
The first is a new cloth on an old garment. Everyone that sews understands this example. If you have a garment that has been washed several times and has dried, then it has shrunk. If it gets a tear in it, then you cannot use a new piece of fabric. If you do, then when the new piece of fabric is washed and dried, it will rip and cause a worse tear than before. To patch up an old garment, you have to use an old piece of cloth.
The second is putting new wine into old wineskins. Wineskins were made from the hides of sheep, goats, or camels. When wine ferments, it releases gases. If you used an old wineskin, the expansion of the wine during the fermentation process would bust the wineskin and you would lose both the wine and the wineskin. Thus, the softer leather of the new wineskins had to be used for new wine so that it could withstand the fermentation process.
With these metaphors, Jesus was saying that what he was doing would not fit into the old structures because these old structures couldn’t bear it. He was not condemning the Old Testament law but rather the traditions of men that that the Pharisees had added to the law.[2]R.C. Sproul, Mark, 48.
Judaism had become a religion of works and external self-righteousness and Jesus was saying that the external traditions of self-righteousness and ritual would make it impossible for people to receive him.
Jesus had not come fit into the mold of external Judaism. Instead, he had come to provide salvation by grace and to give us a new heart.
Listen to the words of Jeremiah that speak of the new covenant.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, he said this in Luke 22:20.
Luke 22:20
“This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”
The Pharisees had had their skin circumcised, but their heart was still a heart of stone. They needed the heart of flesh spoken of in Ezekiel.
Ezekiel 36:25-27
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Do you see the difference? In the Old Covenant, every male Jew was physically circumcised but that didn’t change their hearts. In the New Covenant, God’s law is written on the heart of every believer (Jer 31:33). Every true believer has a heart of flesh instead of a heart of stone. Every true believer has the Spirit of God living inside them.
Here is what Jesus is teaching: Jesus did not come to patch us up! Jesus doesn’t just patch up your life. Rather, he gives you a whole new robe of righteousness. Your heart that was hardened toward God becomes a tender heart of flesh. You are not driven by your own desires but are led by the Spirit.
When you come to Christ, the Bible says you are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). For gospel joy to ferment, it needs the wineskin of new hearts.
Is that you? Has your heart been made new?
A relationship with Christ will bring joy. Do you have joy in Christ?
Here is how you know. Are the things of God a duty or a delight?
- Is it a duty or a delight for you to read the Bible?
- Is it a duty or a delight for you to sing God’s praises?
- Is it a duty or a delight for you to listen to the preached Word of God?
- Is it a duty or a delight for you to give to God’s kingdom work?
- Is it a duty or a delight for youto share the gospel with the lost?
- Is it a duty or a delight for youto gather with other believers to worship Jesus?
Friends, if you have no joy in your spiritual life and no desire to please Christ with your life, then you need to trust in Christ. He is the Bridegroom that will ultimately gather his people to feast with him.