What we are going to see in today’s passage in Mark is about Jesus vs the religious leaders. More specifically against the Pharisees who decided to condemn Jesus with their own standard of incorrect interpretation of the law of God.
First they criticized Jesus and His disciples for not fasting as John the Baptist’s disciples and Pharisees’ disciples often fasted
Jesus’ reply: While the bridegroom is with them, the attenders of the bridegroom cannot fast. Jesus is saying it is the wedding banquet, no one can fast, especially if you are the bride. Has the bridegroom come to you? Have you welcomed Him? Is the Messiah Jesus Christ your bridegroom?
Secondly, Jesus says no one sews new cloth on an old garment, and new wine in old wineskin. The new wine is the new Word. Have you become the new vessel that can contain the new Word. Have you become a person who can receive the new Word? As Jesus is asking the Pharisees today, may we also be able to answer these questions.
What is your standard of holiness and godliness? They are saying Jesus you are not doing the right thing because you are not fasting.
But the standard of holiness is not according to my own standard.
Is your relationship with God good or shaky or broken? What is the standard? Is it the apparent visible act, or your behaviour? Interpreting or understanding from Jesus’ answer, Jesus said 2 things about the bridegroom and about the cloth, and old wineskins.
- The most important is for us to have holiness and godliness, is to know and follow God / Messiah
Holiness and godliness begins from knowing who He is. Jesus is saying: Do you know Me? Knowing the Word (John 17:3). For us also, we need to ask ourselves: Do I know God? Do I really know who He is? Who is God to me?
- Jesus speaks of knowing the spiritual times (when the bridegroom is here)
When the bridegroom is here, you don’t have to fast, you celebrate with Him. Do you know the times? Have you met Jesus? Do you know the spiritual times? What are we supposed to do now?
When He leaves, only then you have to fast, seeking for Him to return and bring us home.
- When one tires to understand and apply the Word of God according to human traditions and formality, there will always be a misunderstanding
Are you applying the Word correctly? When we fit the Word according to our own understanding, there might be a misunderstanding of God’s will.
- Godliness / holiness comes when I contain the Word in me and give my efforts in living according to the Word, to let the Word be fulfilled in / through me
Holiness is receiving and containing that Word so that the Word can be fulfilled through me. But the Pharisees simply thought that righteousness and holiness is to follow the law according to their ways and regulations. Everything else was considered unlawful. According to Jesus’ Words, what determined righteousness and holiness was whether there is life. Mark 3:4.
What mattered to Jesus is whether life is being given. Sometimes if we are not careful, we may just become a religious practice, rather than faith that really seeks for and gives life. What is the reason for my Christianity? Is it just religious formality?
Let’s think briefly about the Pharisees. The Pharisees were developed from a group of sect called the Hasidim, which came about after the Babylonian captivity. They realized why they were taken into Babylon was because they forgot about Sabbath and the law of God, so let us make sure we keep the law conservatively and rigidly, and not be affected by modernization and external influences. The Hasidim is called later the Pharisees, and today they are back to being called Hasidim again.
Their focus was to keep the law according to oral tradition. One of the writings of oral tradition is the Talmud. The Talmud is the collection of rabbinic teachings of the law of God, teaching how to keep the law of God.
Jesus mentioned about Pharisees who prays out loud on the streets, to show people, to be recognized by people that they are godly. That is the human interpretation of God’s laws. When Jesus came He worked on the Sabbath. Example: The edges of the field were not harvested, a welfare system for the poor and needy to pluck grain and eat. Mark 2:23-28. Mark 3:1-6. The main point is about life, to preserve and give life.
Originally the Sabbath was a result of God’s creation work. The world of chaos, void, darkness was put into God’s order and God’s light. The result of that restored world, was Sabbath. The Sabbath is a result of God said + fulfillment of God’s Word = it was good. When God said there was light, there was light = it was good.
Are you in the state of Sabbath today? Has God spoken to you?
Are we right now in the condition and state of “God sees and it is good”?
There are 3 main completions of God’s work in the bible:
- Completion of creation of heavens and earth. Genesis 2:1. God completion of the physical world. There was Sabbath.
- Completion of salvation of Jesus on the cross. John 19:30. The work of salvation of our soul is complete.
- Completion of the History of Redemption, the fulfillment of the new heavens and new earth. Revelation 21:6. It is done.
God’s work is completed 3 times: Physical world -> salvation of soul -> complete consummation and restoration.
Each time, God presents us with Sabbath.
Reverend Abraham Park said, each time God spoke, God’s Word was presented to fallen mankind, and the Word of God is fulfilled. God saw and it was good.
What kind of faith are we keeping today? How are we applying the Word of God today? Is it just a form and observance? You and I are a form. What is inside of you? Our church is a form. Our practice, our Sunday services, are all forms. But what is inside? 2 Timothy 3:5
In order for our form, practise, services to have something, we need the power of God’s Word. In order for our prayers to have something, we need God’s Word.
As conclusion:
Mark 3:13-15. Every time Jesus goes up to the mountain, a new work begins.
The Old Testament is considered a story from mountain to mountain. Garden of Eden is considered a mount. From the Mount of the Garden of Eden, to Mount Ararat (Noah’s story), to Mount Moriah (Abraham’s faith’s peak), to Mount Sinai (Moses).
Jesus preaches the sermon on the mount (The beatitudes). The next time Jesus goes up the mount, He teaches us the Lord’s Day. Then the next time Jesus goes up the mount, he chose 12 disciples. The next time Jesus goes up the mountain, He shows His transfigured body. The last mountain Garden of Gethsemane is where Jesus goes through the final spiritual battle.
Why did Jesus choose the 12 disciples? To be with him and to go out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. These 2 things are closely related to the topic of Sabbath. Sabbath took place as soon as God created man to be with Him. It all began from the proclamation of God’s Word.
To preach “caruso” means to proclaim, announce, to let one know. It is not necessarily proclaiming through the bible, but through my daily life, my words, my actions.
Are we true disciples in whom the Word of God is living and active? Or are we like the Pharisees in whom the Word became religious formality? When the Word is not active, when the Word is not doing God’s work in me, we may attend church and serve in ministry but it is not different from work in the world. We get tired, we get sick, we seek people’s recognition, we need breaks from ministry because there is no joy in me if there is no Word alive in our lives of faith.
Let us re-evangelise ourselves. May the Word come into us, and may we become disciples of Jesus.
AMEN
