New Wineskins

Mark 2:1-3:6

Introduction

Many things have changed in our lifetime. I remember milk being delivered to our house in glass bottles. Today you can buy milk at stores on almost every street corner any time of day or night. I remember when each home had one black dial telephone. Today if I asked to see a phone almost everyone here would put their hand in their pocket or purse and produce a phone.

Many of the changes that have occurred have required changes in the way we do things. About ten years ago Carla and I went on vacation to Banff. I bought about 3 rolls of film and was very careful about how many pictures I took with our film camera. After we got back home we had the pictures developed and finally got to see how they turned out. Carla put the 70 or so pictures in an album and it is stored in our cupboard along with many other albums. About five years ago, we took a trip to Israel and Europe and with our digital camera, we took over 2000 pictures. At the end of each day, we looked over the pictures. When we got home we had a few printed, but mostly we have looked at them on the computer and I have occasionally used them in power point presentations. The invention of digital cameras has greatly changed the way we take pictures and what we do with them.

Changes are not always easy and different people have varying degrees of success at making changes. Jeremy and many of his generation don't even have a home phone, they do everything with their cell phones. I have not made that shift and only have a cell phone for emergency use.

            No change has ever been as radical as the change in thinking which came when Jesus appeared on earth. When Jesus first came, some, especially the Jewish leaders, had a great deal of difficulty accepting that a shift was taking place. Sometimes I wonder if we have successfully made that shift. Mark 2:1-3:6 helps us think about the change which Jesus preaching about God's kingdom has brought.

I.                What is Mark’s Point?

In writing the gospels, the writers did not write everything that happened to Jesus. Although what they wrote is a historical account, it is not a detailed account written just to give the details. As they wrote, they chose to record those things that communicated some teaching. Each gospel writer was writing with a specific audience in mind and with a specific message to communicate. What is Mark’s point in Mark 2:1-3:6? Why is this a text unit?

A.              Escalating Conflict

There are already hints in Mark 1 that there was a conflict brewing between Jesus and the religious leaders. When we read in 1:22 that Jesus taught, “…not as the scribes...” we can guess that trouble was on the horizon. One of the things that happens in Mark 2:1-3:6 is that Mark mentions how the conflict escalates to the point at which Jesus' life was in danger.

            In Mark 2:6, 7, we read that the teachers of the law were “questioning in their hearts, 'Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy!'” This is the first hint of conflict, but it is not outward, it is simply in their hearts. The next level of conflict is revealed in 2:16 where we read that the teachers of the law, “…said to his disciples…” At this point, they were not bold enough to address Jesus, but they were getting agitated enough to talk to the disciples. In 2:24, they became bolder and actually confronted Jesus about the supposed transgressions of his disciples. Then in 3:2 we have a sense that their anger and suspicion is growing as we read that “They watched him … so that they might accuse him.” Finally, in 3:6, the conflict has escalated to the point where they even collaborated with their enemies in order to plot, “…how to destroy him.”

            Besides the passion story itself, there are two sections in Mark which speak about the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders. This is one of them and it seems quite deliberate that Mark wrote these stories in the way he did to reveal this growing conflict. Mark presents a rapid deterioration and although Jesus did not provoke them to anger, he did not hide from faithfulness to his call. Why did the person and work of Jesus provoke the Jewish religious leaders?

B.              New Wineskins

The answer is that what Jesus was teaching and living was radically different from what the Jewish leaders were teaching and living. The significant change in the way of God's kingdom threatened their way and they reacted against Him.

1.              Chiasm

            There is a particular way of writing Scripture, which, if we understand it, helps us come to a clearer understanding of what certain texts are saying. The literary device is called a chiasm. The way it works is something like this. An idea is given, a second idea is given, then a third idea is given. Then the second idea is repeated and then the first idea is repeated. There are varieties to this pattern, but one thing that this literary device does is function like a funnel. A funnel brings everything to the center and this literary device draws our attention to the center in order to understand that the main idea which is being presented is at the center of the text. The middle is the heart and interpretive center of the passage. This style of writing was very common in the literature of the Jewish people and we find it quite often in the Psalms and also in other writings. In our culture, we are not really familiar with this way of writing and so we need to have it pointed out to us, but the Jewish people who read this would have immediately seen that this was happening and would immediately have perceived that the main point of the passage was at the center of the passage. In this section, there are five stories and it is the center one which is the main point of this section.

2.              A New Way

            So the main idea of this passage is what is stated in Mark 2:21-22. We have already seen that this passage presents an escalating conflict between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. A moment ago I asked, “Why was there a conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders?” The answer is found in these two verses. The religious leaders were steeped in the “traditions of the elders.” Although what they taught and lived was based on the Old Testament, it had had so many layers of ideas added to it that at this point it was already beyond what God had intended in the first place. The Jewish leaders were the teachers and keepers of the traditions of the elders. As Jesus began to teach and demonstrate the power of God they began to realize that what He was teaching was contrary to what they were teaching.

            In this statement, Jesus was saying that their teaching and his teaching were incompatible. He speaks of clothing and points out that if you have an older piece of clothing and you want to patch it you don’t use new material to patch it. With the fabrics we have today, this is less of a problem, but at that time, it was well understood that a new piece if material would shrink and tear the older part of the garment and you would have a bigger problem. An old piece of clothing with a patch made of new material was incompatible. In a similar way, if you put new grape juice which had not yet fermented, into an old container, it would ferment and stretch the old container beyond its breaking point. The containers for wine were skin containers and an old one would already have stretched and the new wine would cause it to expand beyond the breaking point and you would lose both the container and the wine. In other words, an old container and new wine are incompatible.

            What Jesus was saying in this section is that He was bringing a new way of thinking. His teaching was compatible with the teaching of God in the Old Testament and a fulfillment of it, but it was not compatible with what the religious leaders were teaching. That is the explanation for why the spiritual leaders had a growing conflict with Jesus. They were not ready for the change which Jesus was bringing. Their worldview and that of Jesus just did not fit together.

II.             The Way of God’s Kingdom

Jesus' message of the kingdom brought a new way of thinking. Throughout the passage that new way of thinking is being described through the teaching and ministry of Jesus. It is very important for us to understand the way of the kingdom of Jesus because we live in this new kingdom. What are the principles of the kingdom which Jesus was introducing? Jesus was preaching good news, gospel. What is that gospel? As we examine these stories, we will learn three important aspects of the gospel message and as we are reminded of them, we need to ask ourselves, “Have I made the change to the new kingdom?” Sometimes I wonder if the conflict the religious leaders had with Jesus is not also the conflict we have with the way of the kingdom. Is it possible that we share the worldview of the Jewish religious leaders? Have we made the shift in thinking to fully embrace the kingdom of Jesus?

A.              Forgiveness of Sins

The story at the beginning of Mark 2 is one that Sunday School teachers love to teach because it is so visual. As we read the story, we imagine the great crowd at the house in Capernaum. We can see the friends of the paralytic walk around the house and try desperately to find a way to get in, unsuccessfully. Although we have no adequate reference point to know how it would be possible for someone to “unroof the roof” it makes for a great story and feeds our imagination to think about how they could have done it. We love to read about the compassion of the four friends and their diligent efforts and feel affirmed about Jesus that he acts on behalf of the paralytic because of the faith of the four friends. These are all great parts of the story, but what the story is really about is revealed in the statement of Jesus in verse 5, “your sins are forgiven.” This is the event which triggers the questioning of the Jewish leaders. This is where the conflict is first mentioned. This is the new message of the kingdom which Jesus was bringing.

Jesus challenged their thinking by asking them, "Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’?" We discover in that statement what the kingdom of God is really all about and what is at the heart of what Jesus was teaching.

I have been reading the book, The Sunflower, by Simon Wiesenthal. In it he tells the story of what happened to him while a prisoner in a death camp. One day he and others were sent on a work assignment to a hospital where they were assigned to clean up garbage. While there, he was selected to go to the bedside of a dying Nazi soldier. The soldier wanted to talk to a Jew. The soldier told him a story about how he had been involved in killing a whole bunch of Jewish men, women and children in a horrible act of genocide. Now he felt guilty and confessed his wrongdoing and wanted Simon to forgive him on behalf of the Jewish people. Wiesenthal was not able to do so and the rest of the book discusses whether it is possible to forgive another who has not wronged you personally. The Jewish religious leaders were wrestling with a very similar problem.

It is not hard to say, “I forgive you.” If someone wrongs us and asks forgiveness, it is possible for us to say, “I forgive you.” It was the job of the priests at that time to say, “I forgive you” if someone confessed sin and offered the sacrifices which God had prescribed. What was hard for someone who was not a priest to say was that He could guarantee the forgiveness of another person who had not wronged him personally. It implied an authority that belonged only to God. Geddert says, “The issue is whether Jesus can know that the person is being forgiven by God and can pronounce the man forgiven apart from any of the prescribed ceremonies and sacrifices – apart even from an explicit confession on the part of the sinner.”

It was also not hard to say, “…be healed.” Many people have said, “be healed” and a few of them have actually been successful, but what was hard was to back that up with a guaranteed healing. Who but God has the authority to guarantee healing?

So the new thing was that Jesus was claiming the authority to guarantee forgiveness of sins and He demonstrated that He had that authority by healing the paralytic.

What a marvelous new message of the kingdom of God as brought by Jesus. This is still a key principle of the kingdom of Jesus. It means that we do not have to walk around with guilt in our hearts because there is a guaranteed way of forgiveness. It means that we don’t have to wait until we can go to the temple before we know that we have been forgiven. It means that every day, every hour, as soon as we have sinned, we can confess and begin again with a clean slate. As we remember that this guarantee of forgiveness is backed up by the death of Jesus on the cross, we know that we don’t have to confess hard enough or make restitution before we receive forgiveness. It also means that we can offer forgiveness to anyone who confesses their sins to God.

When we beat ourselves up because of our sins, when we fail to go quickly to God in confession, when we live with guilt as a way of punishing ourselves, or when we fail to announce the message of forgiveness to others, we have not caught the intent of the new thing which the kingdom of Jesus brings. It guarantees forgiveness on earth through Jesus. Are we living in this change?

B.              A Welcome for Sinners

Last week we noticed that Jesus called Andrew, Peter, James and John to be his disciples. Once again Jesus was at the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum is right on the shore on the north side of the lake. While walking along the shore, He came upon Levi, who was a tax collector, and invited him to join the group of disciples. Whether there were already others or not we don’t know. In Mark 3:13 we learn that there were 12 whom he identified as disciples. But the calling of Levi is mentioned because of his background and it becomes the opportunity for Jesus to introduce another of the principles of the Kingdom of God and another of the new things which the religious leaders had a problem with.

It wasn’t long after Jesus called Peter that he was at his house eating. Was this a pattern? Here again, after calling Levi, we find that he was at Levi’s house eating. But the crowd here was quite a different crowd. It is likely that the crowd at Peter’s house was a crowd of religious people. Levi also invited his friends for dinner, but the text tells us that they were “tax collectors” and “sinners.” This was the point of contention for the religious leaders. Just after Jesus declared Divine authority to forgive sins, in the previous story, it is shocking, at least for the religious leaders, to hear that He was eating with sinners. Tax collectors were collaborators. They were Jews who had made friends with the Roman enemies. They had sold out to the occupying power. Worse than that, everyone knew that they were greedy and dishonest. When we read the story of Zacchaeus, we find a similar implication. How could anyone be together with them? The Pharisees, with their great concern about ritual purity would have considered such contacts as defiling. How could one who claimed to be God contaminate Himself in this way? The Scribes, with their political considerations would have considered such contact as inappropriate. Yet Jesus clearly did not consider contact with sinners as defiling or inappropriate.

And so Jesus answered their question by saying, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” That is gospel! That is good news! It is interesting that Mark records that Jesus did not say that he had come to “call the sinners to repentance” as in Luke 5. Although repentance is needed, Mark's focus was not on the need of the sinners to change, but rather on the offer of forgiveness. He is proclaiming the good news of the kingdom!

The change required by anyone who embraces the kingdom of Jesus is to remove the distinctions between clean and unclean. It means to open one’s heart to the outcast. It means to have a loving and welcoming attitude to all, even those who are morally or physically dirty. When we meet them with a “holier than thou” attitude, we are not doing things in the way of Jesus. When we meet them with compassion and an offer of forgiveness, we show His grace. One of the best stories I have ever heard about this radical value of the kingdom is the story told by Tony Campolo in the book, "The Kingdom of God is a Party." After a late evening of ministry in a city far away from home he was hungry and went to a diner for something to eat. He was surprised to find himself in a diner, which also happened to be frequented by prostitutes who had just completed their evenings work. As he sat eating his meal, he overheard one of them lament that she was having a birthday the next day, but that no one cared. She was deeply moved when he returned the next day in order to celebrate her birthday. He got it. He understood that we are called to go to the least and the lost and extend grace to them.

Have we got it? The Jewish religious leaders were unable to make this change. Are we? Are we prepared to move out of our “holy clusters” in order to live in relationship with people who are sinners? Are we prepared to relate to the world with grace on our lips? Are we prepared to offer grace on the basis of Christ’s gift, not on the basis of a person’s merit? Paul said in I Timothy 1:15, “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost.”

C.              Doing What Is Good

On the other side of the center of this passage, we have a few more stories which make another point about the new thing which Jesus’ kingdom brings, but which the Jewish religious leaders also did not get.

The main context of these two stories has to do with Sabbath keeping. Sabbath keeping was a highly regarded value by the Pharisees. They had defined and explained every detail of Sabbath keeping to a high degree. Now they caught Jesus’ disciples violating one of their principles of Sabbath keeping. Jesus came into conflict with them by telling them that there was a higher principle at play than Sabbath keeping when he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for humankind.” They had defined Sabbath keeping as a law to be kept in order to honor God. Jesus was telling them that Sabbath keeping was a gift of God given to bless people.

In the second story, Mark 3:1-6, that principle is further explained. When Jesus was being watched by them in the synagogue, he was aware that they were watching him critically. He confronted them with the question, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” What Jesus was doing was setting aside rigorous obedience to law and encouraging His followers to seek God for what is good. The Pharisees lived by the law and had extensive lists of laws. Jesus looked at a situation and asked, “What is good?” “What does God want?” and lived by that. The principle of the kingdom introduced here is that a radical change has taken place in the kingdom of Jesus. Instead of living by law, Jesus invites us, in the power of the Holy Spirit to live by what is good and what will save life. Sometimes it is hard to answer the question about what is good and what gives life, but Jesus has not left us to answer that question alone. He has given us His Spirit, the community of faith and His Word to help us answer that question. But the contrast between asking what is law and asking what is good is significant. The Pharisees couldn’t make that change and so came into such conflict with Jesus that they were ready to kill Him. By plotting to kill him they showed their belief that the Sabbath is OK for doing evil. What irony!!

Conclusion

The way of the Pharisees was incompatible with the way of Jesus. They were unable to make the shift. In this passage, we discover three principles regarding Jesus’ kingdom. It is a kingdom in which forgiveness is guaranteed on earth through Jesus. It is a kingdom in which grace is offered to all and sinners are welcomed. It is a kingdom in which the way of living in a relationship with God is not by law, but by seeking God’s will.

As I see what Mark is saying to us here, I wonder if I have made the shift. Some have sometimes asked whether as Christians we are more like the Pharisees or more like Jesus. At times I fear that I am quite comfortable to follow the "traditions of the elders." My prayer for myself and for all of us is that we will be able to make the shift to faithfully live by the values of the kingdom of Jesus.