find another way to wash out their clothes and hang them out to dry so that the smoke will clear, or they have to find a way to hang Jesus out to dry. Guess which plan is on their minds?
Mark 2:18–28 Controversy over the Old and the New
Giving up things has a long tradition in religious practice. Fasting is like a Hallmark greeting card when it comes to piety. Fasting shows “you really care.” The religious leaders of Jesus’ day love to send greeting cards. Too often, however, they like to flaunt their faith by wearing T-shirts with slogans. John’s disciples evidently wear T-shirts that say “Fasting R Us.” Fasting is one of their defining traditions.
It seems that John’s disciples are lean and mean in their style. Some of them think the end is right around the corner and they want to be found ready by not being engulfed by the world. They fast regularly to be like first-century Boy Scouts; on the back of the T-shirts reads a complementary phrase, “Be Prepared.”
While Jesus acknowledges that there is value to the spiritual discipline of fasting, and that there are appropriate times for fasting, he does not so much appreciate the way they have of drawing attention to their devotion. Outward signs are important to them, but Jesus is more interested in the inward sources of their devotion.
Let us not misunderstand Jesus here. There is the danger of making him into yet another slogan, like the line from Forrest Gump, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Jesus affirms the practice of fasting, but declares that now is neither the time, nor the place for it.
Jesus takes a bite out of the way of viewing things of his contemporaries. They are concerned with outward signs of devotion and being prepared for the end, but Jesus asks, “Why fast when the party is going on?” He announces to the fasting groups of his day that “the time is at hand,” the bridegroom is present. This is not the time for fasting. Mark’s emphasis in these verses is on the joy and the abundance of life that Jesus is offering.
Change is hard for religious types. We get stuck easily within our comfort zones. In the next few verses of this chapter in Mark, Jesus speaks of how things need to change because old ways can sometimes be like oil that has not been changed in an engine. Things get sluggish and it is not at all good for the overall running of the engine.
Since the engine analogy does not quite fit (we are a long time from Henry Ford after all), Jesus uses what is at hand and understandable to his audience. He speaks of sewing an un-shrunk piece of new fabric onto an old garment. Jesus also uses the image of putting new wine in old wineskins. Both practices result in ripping or spilling.
Jesus is getting his audience ready for some ripping and spilling. The theological irony is that these two verbs describe what end up happening to Jesus. The old is not ready for the new. Trying to sew a Jesus patch onto existing fabric still has its problems. Jesus is speaking of the need for a whole new garment.
Can it be that what is happening in our present day is that many people want simply to sew a Jesus patch onto their daily outfits and go on about business as usual? When the laundry is done, the wearer may discover that the new patch has pulled away from the old garment.
Mark then tells a story to make Jesus’ point. This would be like the preacher on Sunday morning stopping the sermon and pointing to a chancel drama for emphasis. Actions, especially dramatic ones, speak louder than words.
Jesus’ disciples are caught eating grain from a field on the Sabbath. The Jews considered the Sabbath, one of their oldest traditions, not to be tampered with. However, not only do Jesus’ disciples not tip-toe carefully through the tulips, they trample all over everything. This field is not filled with tulips but with grain. They eat the grain because they are in need.
The Pharisees, like children watching other children do something wrong, tattle on the law breakers. It is the Sabbath. To break it in this way is an ultimate no-no. In the story, Jesus drops a few lines of Scripture about how the hero of the faith, David himself, had him some fast food one Sabbath.
Most commentators say that Jesus stretches the point here. The example that Jesus uses does not exactly fit. The disciples are eating grain from a field, while King David takes some of the specially consecrated bread from the temple. By doing this, Jesus helps all preachers out who reach deep to make an example fit the theme.
Jesus defends this use of an old story by stating that his general point is that something new has arrived, and the old way of seeing and doing will not fit.
Jesus finally just goes ahead and says what he means, “I am Lord of the Sabbath!” You can bet that got some people’s attention. Some of the Pharisees can be heard in the back of the crowd saying something like, “Did he say he was bored with the Sabbath? What’s the matter with him?”
When the correction is made, the crowd gets real quiet, and someone hears the sound of a garment being torn or wine being spilled all over the ground. The old is not going to handle the new. The religious establishment does not need or want a “Lord.” There is but one Lord and they already have him boxed in the Temple. The religious leaders want no one, especially some upstart from Nazareth or Capernaum, or wherever he is from, messing with the old traditions.
“Lord of the Sabbath, really! Somebody needs to take him down a notch or two.” Plans are heard in the background even in these early chapters of Mark. Mark wants to make it crystal clear just why Jesus is hung up to dry like some piece of cloth.
Jesus is more interested in human need than he is in religious practice. This was and is good news for humankind, but not such good news for the establishment. Institutional religion easily gains a self-preserving quality. Jesus was and is a constant challenge to those who think they have finally got the recipe for the best wine or who finish sewing the garment and want no new additions.
Jesus wants people fed no matter what day it is. He wants power to be present no matter how uncomfortable it makes those who like it the way it has always been. And yes, he will tear things up if need be to make sure that people stay alive to the constantly changing spirit which “blows where it wills.” I know that is from another Gospel but it applies to the same Lord.
Chapter Three
Mark 3:1–6 Healing the Man with a Withered Hand
“What makes Jesus mad?” would be a good title for this section. Those who want to make Jesus some kind of moral policeman who stands by with a set of the Ten Commandments and keeps score are disappointed with the findings in these verses. In these verses the very ones who anger Jesus are the ones who want him to be that moral policeman.
A good deal of religious practice is based on a God who is like Santa Claus—“making a list and checking it twice, gonna find out who’s naughty or nice.” Jesus is more concerned with the source of a person’s actions. He keeps talking about matters of the heart, the heart being the seat of emotions and thought for the Jewish people.
Keeping the rules for the sake of keeping the rules is not enough, and it can lead to empty ritual and self-righteous merit badge collecting. Jesus has a way of seeing through actions and looking for attitudes. If it is a question of giving someone a cup of water, Jesus would be interested in where the water is drawn from. For Jesus, the reasons for actions reveal more than the actions themselves.
The people who make Jesus mad are the ones who forget the reason that God made guidelines in the first place. God is not concerned with list-keeping nor is God impressed by the quantity of rules that one keeps. God loves. God wants wholeness for God’s people. God knows best, and God knows what hurts people. God knows that we are less than God, and we
