MPC, 20th August 2000.Mark 2:13-3:19 - Something Old, Something New
Phil Campbell MPC, 20th August 2000.
The folding canvas chairs on our back deck have got a problem. If you come to our place to visit let me warn you: look before you sit. Trouble is, where the canvas folds across the wooden frame of the seat, the wooden bit rubs against the canvas. And gradually wears through. Tears right across and leaves you sitting on the floor instead of your chair. It's happened to TWO of them already. The third one's one the way. And the other three should be treated with SUSPICION.
So it's REPAIR time. And Lou and I were discussing the options the other day. Lou said, I need to buy some canvas and make a whole new set; replace the fabric in the WHOLE LOT. And I said, how about you just PATCH THEM UP. Sew a second bit under the weak spot, try to hold it together. Re-enforce it a bit. To which she said, if the whole things starting to rot anyway, you'd just be WASTING YOUR TIME.
But they're the options. And they're clear. Either a patch up job. Or scrap the lot and start again. I guess you have to have a close look and decide which is the best way to go.
Very similar to the situation Jesus is in. And he uses EXACTLY THAT ANALOGY... when it comes to the STATE OF ISRAEL. The people who are meant to be the PEOPLE OF GOD. Is it a RENOVATION JOB? Or do you just demolish and start again.
Have a look at Mark 2 verse 21&22. And see what he says. A little DOUBLE ANALOGY. Because it seems like he's saying the old cloth of Israel is far too rotted to be patched up. The wineskin is far too brittle to any further use. We're going to see why in the next few minutes. But let's start with what he's saying here. Verse 21. "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an OLD garment. Or your old verandah chairs. If he does, the NEW piece will pull away from the OLD, making the tear worse. {22} And no one pours NEW wine into OLD wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours NEW wine into NEW wineskins."
Try to renovate, things are just going to get worse. Try to patch up the old trousers, the tear's going to get worse. Try to pour the NEW WINE into the Old Israel - it's not going to work. Because the way things are in Israel, it's BEYOND REPAIR. The two just won't mesh.
Signs of Decay
2b. Feast or fast? (18-19)
And you can see the first hints of that back in verse 18. Here's what's raised the issue. Because the Pharisees, the guardians of all that's right and good for Israel, the MORAL CRUSADERS... they've been watching Jesus, and they don't like what they see.
Have a look. Because Jesus and his disciples are always RIGHT OUT OF STEP with everyone else. Everyone else is fasting, Jesus and his guys are FEASTING. And so the question gets asked. WHY NOT? Why aren't you fasting with everyone else? What sort of Jews ARE YOU?
Verse 19. Jesus says, "You don't get it." He says, this is something NEW. While I'M HERE, it's not the time to fast and be miserable. That can come later. While I'm here, it's time to party. He says "How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They can't, so long as they have him with them."
I mean, imagine a wedding; the bride and groom at the front table, you're sitting down to the wedding reception, and you say, OH NO THANKS... I'M FASTING. You've got to know the difference between a wedding and a wake. And according to Jesus, it's wedding time.
Can you patch up something so stern and stiff? So harsh and critical? Because that's all the Pharisees want to do. Watch Jesus... and CRITICISE. Which is where Jesus says those words we started with. He says, "I guess you can't sew a piece of new cloth on your old shirt, can you." No point pouring your new wine into hard old wineskins. You've got to just START ALL OVER AGAIN.
TWO SABBATHS
Same again. Keep watching. Verse 23. It's Saturday. Israel's day of rest. Which for the Pharisees means you don't lift a finger. No work of any description. Even these days; you get in a lift, you're not meant to PRESS THE BUTTONS. So on a Saturday, lifts in Jewish high rise buildings are programmed to STOP ON EVERY FLOOR. So you don't have to do the work of pressing buttons. And God will be very impressed with your spiritual sincerity.
And Jesus and his disciples, they're walking through a paddock and they're picking some heads of grain, and they're chewing them. Which by the Pharisees definition is HARVESTING. And probably GRINDING as well. And so it's ON AGAIN. Look what they're saying, and ask yourself the question, CAN YOU RENOVATE this sort of attitude? Or do you just have to start again.
What do they say. Verse 24. "Look - why are they doing what's unlawful on the Sabbath?"
And Jesus answers them. An answer so BOLD it's going to really raise the pressure. An answer that says to them, I'M ONLY DOING WHAT YOUR GREAT KING DAVID DID. In other words, I'm your NEW KING.
King David. The one they kept looking back to and saying, THEY WERE THE GOOD OLD DAYS. Jesus says, have a little HISTORY LESSON. A refresher course. Great King David, before he was crowned; there's the OLD KING. Saul. And the one ANOINTED TO BE NEW KING. David. And DAVID THE NEW KING is on the run. Because Saul the OLD KING wants him dead. In which case, says Jesus, you'll remember what David and his men DID. They were hungry; they ducked in and ate the CONSECRATED BREAD in the tabernacle that only the priests were meant to eat. Under the circumstances, WAS THAT OKAY? For God's anointed KING?
Pick it up in verse 25 and see if you can get the drift. "Jesus answers, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."
So work it out. David was hungry with his friends; so was I. He was the ANOINTED KING. So am I. And under the circumstances we've overlooked a few of your RITUAL RULES because WE'RE HUNGRY. You Pharisees ought to be CELEBRATING the fact that the BRIDEGROOM'S here. You Pharisees should be PARTYING BECAUSE THE KING HAS COME. And all you can do is NITPICK over a few bits of grain.
Besides which, says Jesus, laws like the Sabbath weren't given to be a burden. It was meant to be a PLEASURE. And the harsh unloving way you Pharisees apply it just missing the point. Verse 27; "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. You're putting the CART BEFORE THE HORSE. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
See what he's saying. I'm BIGGER than your RULES ABOUT THE SABBATH. I'm bigger than the Sabbath itself. I'm BIGGER THAN KING DAVID. And you just want to criticise and complain. What's Israel come to?
Funny, we haven't caught on to that in a way, have we? Because there are still people who want to CRITICISE. And nit-pick. In exactly the same way as the Pharisees. Even about things like SABBATHS. It's NOT THE SORT OF ATTITUDE Jesus was looking for!
2. To heal or hurt
Well, there's more in the next story. And if there's anything that shows how deep the rot goes in the fabric, it's this one. If there's anything that shows how much the old wineskins have hardened, it's got to be this. Chapter 3, it's Saturday again, and Jesus is in the synagogue. And there's a poor bloke there with a shrivelled up hand; twisted, fingers locked together. Next to useless.
And again, there's trouble brewing right from the start. What's the big concern here? This poor guy with his withered hand? Or whether Jesus is going to GET HIMSELF IN TROUBLE AGAIN? It's like one of those BOMB DEFUSING scenes you get in movies. Cut the red wire and everything blows. One wrong move and they've got him.
Verse 2 sums it up. "Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely TO SEE IF HE WOULD HEAL HIM ON THE SABBATH."
I mean, what a TERRIBLE THING that would be. All the guy with the bad hand is good for is to be BAIT IN THE TRAP. All eyes on Jesus. Who's going to show them again, HOW FAR the leaders of Israel have gone from the GOD THEY KID THEMSELVES they're serving. This isn't something you can just patch up.
Because Jesus is on about COMPASSION FROM THE HEART. Verse 3. Notice how there's NO EFFORT to hide what he's going to do. He's tackling the Pharisees HEAD ON, right out in the open. "Jesus says to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone." And verse 4, he asks a question: - "Which is LAWFUL ON THE SABBATH... TO DO GOOD OR TO DO EVIL, TO SAVE LIFE OR TO KILL?" But they don't say a word. There's just SILENCE.
I mean, what an OBVIOUS QUESTION. The INTENTION OF GOD'S LAW. What is it? And the leaders, the Pharisees, the religious watchdogs of Israel, they can't give an answer. What sort of GOD ARE WE SERVING? A God of compassion who wants to save life and do good? Or a God who gave laws to LIMIT LOVE? And contain our compassion. The tragedy is, apparently nobody knows. Nobody answers. Because in their old ways, in their traditions, they've moved so VERY FAR from KNOWING THE NATURE OF THE GOD they say they're serving.
Verse 5, Jesus looks around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their STUBBORN HEARTS, says to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretches it out... and his hand's completely restored."
Right in full view of everyone. And as he does that, he signs his own death warrant. Verse 6; the Pharisees, and the Herodians, they go out and they begin to plot how they're going to get rid of him. They've seen enough.
See, for these guys, it's not okay to eat some grain or heal a hand on the Sabbath.... but it's okay to KILL the SON OF GOD.
And as Mark tells the rest of his story, as the gospel unfolds, we're going to see how the opposition keeps growing. Whenever Jesus does something great, there's always a dark cloud. THE PHARISEES. And the Chief Priests. And the Teachers of the Law. Looking to kill him. Waiting for the time. To silence the new voice. Can you just PATCH UP an Israel like that? Can you pour NEW WINE into wineskins that shriveled and hard? Jesus says NO. Time to start again.
THE NEW ISRAEL
Which you'll notice is exactly what he's doing from verse 13 on. Makes a great Sunday School story; I can still remember when I was a kid learning all their names. As Jesus goes up on the mountainside and calls the roll.
But there's just a little bit more to the story than meets the eye. There's another roll call like this one back in the Old Testament. At the very start of Israel. Twelve TRIBES. Named after people like Reuben. Dan. Judah. See, no co-incidence that Jesus calls out TWELVE; because he's STARTING ALL OVER AGAIN. A whole new PEOPLE OF GOD.
Read from verse 13. " Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. 14 He appointed twelve--designating them apostles --that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. They're going to DO WHAT HE'S DOING.
16 These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder); 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot 19 and Judas Iscariot... who betrayed him.
The start of something new. And even then, there's Judas. And among the others, there's going to be failure after failure as well. They're going to SLEEP when he says watch and pray. They're going to RUN AWAY. They're going to DENY HIM. But in spite of that, in the end, these are the twelve who are going to be the start of something NEW. That's not going to look like the harsh, hard, stubborn heartedness of the Old Israel. But are meant to lead the NEW ISRAEL of people with REPENTANT HEARTS. Instead of stubborn hearts.
See, in the end that's where the Pharisees have got it so wrong. And it's easy for people today to get it wrong the same way. To think that the main thing is to abide by some sort of harsh set of rules and regulations, make sure every one else does as well - and yet on the inside, there's a harsh, cold hardness. And NO LOVE.
They reckon the big difference between cooking in a Microwave and cooking on a Barbeque is that the MICROWAVE starts heating things on the inside. And works outward. And a Barbecue starts heating on the OUTSIDE - and works inwards. Well, what you need to be is a MICROWAVE type Christian. Where the warmth starts on the inside and works its way out. Instead of the other kind you see here. Who Jesus says can't be RENOVATED. Can't be patched up. Because there's a coldness on the INSIDE... that just won't warm up. Jesus comes... and they don't want to know him. Jesus comes - and they only want to criticise. Jesus comes - and they want to kill him. So he doesn't interfere with their fasting. And their rules for the Sabbath day.
Jesus comes to you today with something NEW. And much better than that. Looking for people with warm hearts ready to be part of it. You can't put NEW WINE into old wineskins. What sort of wineskin are YOU?