MARKAN MEDITATIONS

Meditations in the Gospel of St. Mark

St. Mark 2:18-22

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IN THIS question on fasting Jesus brings out the essential difference between the old and the new; between the old covenant given to Adam and continued in the law of Moses, and the new covenant in Christ. Here is a powerful declaration of the perfection of the Gospel of Jesus if we can but appreciate it.

Fasting was an important and essential element in the piety of the Pharisees. It was one of the means by which they believed they gained favour with God. It was a work they did in order to approve themselves before God. We see their attitude to fasting in the story Jesus told in St.Luke 18:9-14 of the Pharisee and the Tax-collector praying in the temple. One of the catalogue of good works this Pharisee named by which he believed he was certain of God's approval was that he fasted twice in the week. The disciples of John were those folk who, after John's assassination, kept up a tradition of what they felt was the teaching of John. They had lost the real teaching of John because John the baptist wanted all his disciples to become disciples of Christ. However these retained much of teaching on repentance and had added to it works in order to gain forgiveness. One of these works was fasting.

Both these systems included fasting as a work which helped the pious soul to win such righteousness which was felt would gain them God's favour and eventually eternal life in heaven. The way of salvation was the way of working personal righteousness by which they hoped eventually to be saved. Indeed such was the spiritual pride of the Pharisees that if they kept the outward rules of their system, which was more than even the law of Moses, they felt themselves certain of eternal life, and despised others who were not righteous in the same way as them. This is ever the way of natural religion, and like in the Jewish church, it has crept widely in the Christian churches and denominations of today. The basic teaching is that Christ is the Saviour but if we are to achieve eternal life, Christ only gives us the start, and help thereafter, but we must win eternal life ourselves, albeit with the help of his grace. Fasting is still believed to be a means of helping in this goal, specially amongst the most pious church people.

In contrast to the Pharisees and the disciples of John, the followers of Jesus were not encouraged or taught by Jesus to fast, and this was bone of contention raised by the people who asked Jesus why his disciples did not fast. Jesus points out the there is no need for fasting, that is doing works for salvation, when the bridegroom is present. By the bridegroom Jesus plainly is referring to himself as Saviour. It is impossible for his disciples to fast while he is with them, as they rely on him solely for salvation, and not on any works that they do. Verse 20 is difficult, but by it Jesus surely is referring to his death, when he would be brutally severed from all his disciples. Then they believed that the bridegroom had been removed forever, and then the only substitute would be to return a religion of works, and fasting would be part of this, and also an expression of mourning.

The fact is that fasting is still unnecessary in the way the Pharisees used it, because the bridegroom is still with us and will be with us forever, because Jesus rose from the dead, victorious for his people, having won eternal redemption for us by his perfect life and by his death which was a full satisfaction for all our sins.

Jesus then rubs the message home by two illustrations. The old garment and the old wineskin represent the old way of works for salvation. The new clothe and the new wine is the gospel. You can't mix works and the gospel, if you do everything is destroyed. The old garment gets torn and the old wineskin splits and the wine, the gospel, is lost.

There is a very important lesson here, which Paul continual emphasises specially in his letter to the Galatians, where works had returned to the religion of the Galatian believers. The lesson is that as soon as we include our own works in order to our gaining favour with God, we lose eternal life; we are again under the condemnation and curse of the law; and we dishonour Christ by suggesting his complete and perfect work for us, is not so, but needs adding to and supplementing. There could not be any greater blaspheme than adding works to Christ, but it is a blasphemy being taught all around us.

One further word. There is a place for fasting in the Christian faith, as long as it is never thought of as a religious work which increases our righteousness before God. We live in a very busy world. It is often very hard to find time to spend with the Lord in fellowship with him, and in nourishing our souls on his gospel. From time to time we may well find it beneficial to exclude a meal from the day, and in the time usually spent eating, we can give to fellowship with the Lord in prayer and in reading the Bible. This is helpful, but by no way essential, as long as we never imagine we are gaining some merit before God by the act of fasting.