By the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Bridgewater, Massachusetts, March 11,
2001
|
Deuteronomy 7:7-13 The blessings
of keeping the law
The Lord did not set his affection on
you and choose you because you were more numerous than
other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath
he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with
a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery,
from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Know therefore that the Lord your God
is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of
love to a thousand generations of those who love him and
keep his commands. But those who reject him he will
repay in their own person. He does not delay, but repays
in their own person those who reject him. Therefore,
take care to follow the commands, decrees, and laws I
give you today.
If you pay attention to these laws
and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God
will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to
your ancestors. He will love you and bless you and
increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your
womb, the crops of your land-your grain, new wine and
oil-the calves of your herds and the lambs of your
flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to
give you.
Mark 2:18-28 New wine in new bottles
Now John's disciples and the
Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked
Jesus, "How is it that John's disciples and the
disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are
not?"
Jesus answered, "How can the
guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?
They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the
time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from
them, and on that day they will fast.
"No one sews a patch of unshrunk
cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will
pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no
one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the
wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the
wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine is poured into
new wineskins."
One Sabbath Jesus was going through
the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they
began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to
him, "Look, why are they doing what is illegal on
the Sabbath?"
He answered, "Have you never
read what David did when he and his companions were
hungry and in need? 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." Then
he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for mankind,
not mankind for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord
even of the Sabbath."
True Christian Religion #784 The old and the new
The New Jerusalem, which is a new
religion, cannot come down from heaven all at once. It
can only descend as the false ideas of the old religion
are banished. For new things cannot enter where false
ideas have previously been implanted unless these are
uprooted. . . . As the Lord said,
"No one puts new wine into old bottles . . . ."
No one pours new wine into old
wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and
both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new
wine is poured into new wineskins. (Mark 2:22)
The Gospels give every indication
that the Pharisees and other religious leaders simply
did not understand Jesus. Yes, they were jealous of him;
yes, they considered him a threat; yes, they eventually
decided that he must be eliminated. But in the early
parts of his ministry from which today's reading from
the Gospel of Mark comes, one of their main reactions
seems to be confusion. Jesus and his followers didn't
play according to the rules, and they couldn't
understand why.
The ancient Jewish culture was, to
put it in the most positive light, a culture of laws,
and of obedience (or disobedience) to laws. In addition
to the hundreds of laws given directly in Scripture,
there were additional hundreds of laws added by their
religious leaders little by little over the centuries,
until it became practically a full-time job just to
learn them, let alone to obey them all. The Pharisees
were people who made it their business to learn and obey
all those laws. And they tended to look down upon those
who were not so assiduous. They had a certain sense of
assurance that they were the righteous ones, and that
others who did not keep the law as they did were not so
righteous in the sight of God.
The problem with Jesus, from their
perspective, was that he kept flagrantly breaking the
law. And they kept asking him why. But the answers he
gave did not fit into their legalistic worldview.
As our reading from Mark begins, the
Gospel writer notes that John's disciples and the
Pharisees were fasting. It was customary in those days
for practicing Jews to fast twice a week, on Mondays and
Thursdays. As with many other aspects of their religion,
something that was originally intended as a special
ritual of self-denial and humility before the Lord had
become a matter of rote legal observance. Whether
someone was inwardly in the spirit of fasting or not,
whenever Monday or Thursday rolled around, it was time
to fast. That's what their laws said, so that's what
they did if they considered themselves highly religious.
Jesus didn't follow that law. Perhaps
it was a Monday or a Thursday, or perhaps it was one of
their holy days set aside for fasting when a group of
people came and asked Jesus, "How is it that John's
disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are
fasting, but yours are not?" The answer Jesus gave
them had nothing to do with legalisms. In essence, he
said that when people are joyful--such as at a wedding
feast--they can't possibly fast. No, the time to fast is
when the joyous times are over--such as when the
bridegroom is taken away. In other words, fasting must
be driven by inner realities, not merely outward,
legal ones.
This was the context in which Jesus
made his well-known statement about putting new wine in
new bottles. And his words are immediately followed by
another example. "One Sabbath," we read,
"Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as
his disciples walked along, they began to pick some
heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, 'Look, why
are they doing what is illegal on the Sabbath?'"
Characteristically, the Pharisees
viewed the actions of Jesus' disciples through the
lenses of their law. Picking grain was considered work,
and this was not allowed on the Sabbath. Why, then, did
this supposed religious leader allow his followers to do
such illegal and irreligious things? If he was a true
teacher, he would never allow such things! They simply
didn't understand.
In response, Jesus quoted from their
own Scriptures an instance in which David the king, one
of the most celebrated figures in their cultural
history, violated the ritual law--in the Temple no
less--and yet was not considered guilty of any sin. The
story he referred to (which comes from 1 Samuel 21:1-6)
is one in which David's dire need overrode the
strictures of the ritual law. And having given this
example, Jesus told the Pharisees who were questioning
him, "The Sabbath was made for mankind, not mankind
for the Sabbath." In other words, laws are for the
benefit of people, and only useful insofar as they
improve the human condition.
But the Pharisees could not
understand this. It simply did not fit into their view
of things. As far as they were concerned, the law was
the law, and there was nothing higher. Anyone who broke
the law--no matter what the reason--was guilty of sin,
and must be punished. In the end, Jesus broke so many of
their laws that they condemned him to death--and
proceeded to put that death sentence into effect.
The Pharisees and other religious
leaders of the day were the personification of the
"old bottles" that Jesus was referring to.
They simply could not contain the "new wine"
that he offered. Their world was governed by laws, and
strict obedience to those laws. Jesus' world was
governed by love, which the law also served. For the
Pharisees, humans were created in order to obey the law.
For Jesus, the law was created in order to raise human
beings to a higher level--and any law that did not serve
that purpose was invalid.
Notice that in both cases, there is a
law. Jesus was not a lawless person. On the contrary, he
said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the
Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but
to fulfill them" (Matthew 5:17). The Pharisees
observed the letter of the law, but Jesus followed the
spirit of the law. This new, spiritual view of the law
did not fit in the old bottles of the Pharisees'
legalistic form of religion. That is why a new religion
had to be formed. That is why, from our perspective,
ancient Judaism gave way to Christianity. The new wine
of deeper, spiritual truth that Jesus offered needed the
new bottles of a different form of religious practice.
The story of the new wine in the new
bottles is about an old, legalistic religious
perspective giving way to a new, love-based religious
perspective. And the religious practices of the
Christians were quite different than those of the Jews
of that day. Gone was the strict legalism; in its place
was a spiritual enthusiasm and outreach to others based
on love for the Lord and love for their fellow human
beings. Until Christianity itself became corrupted, its
people spent their lives reaching out to others and
serving their spiritual and physical needs out of love.
All of this took place nearly two
thousand years ago. And as always, we have to ask,
"What does this have to do with our lives
today?"
On an individual level, we go through
the same transformations in our emotional and spiritual
lives as humanity goes through at the various turning
points in history. And the life of Jesus was the biggest
turning point of them all. The belief and teaching of
the Christian Church is that the life of Christ was the
event that turned around the spiritual history of the
world. From being a condemnatory, legalistic affair,
religion was transformed into something that gave
comfort, peace, understanding, and love to humankind.
This is also the change that takes
place in us as we mature in our spiritual life. I
remember all too well how, in my younger life, I
believed that the essence of religion was to live
properly according to the various teachings of the
church. In a sense, there is nothing wrong with this. We
are meant to live in a law-abiding way.
But when this becomes our primary way
of being virtuous and religious, our
"religion" tends to get off track. Speaking
for myself, at one point in my life I would have made a
pretty good Pharisee. Though I knew I wasn't perfect, I
thought I was pretty darn good--and I knew that
those other people weren't as "religious" as I
was. They couldn't be, because they weren't living in
the "right" way. They were breaking the rules.
I suspect many of us can recognize ourselves in this, at
some point in our lives.
However, another side of this is that
if we are sincere, and not hypocritical about our
religion, we tend to condemn not only others, but
ourselves. If we are honest about ourselves, we realize
that we don't always do a very good job of living
according to our own laws. We fall short in various
ways, and then we point the accusing finger at
ourselves, berating ourselves for being so weak and
foolish. And instead of being a source of comfort,
strength, and inner joy, our religion becomes a hard
taskmaster, always pointing out our faults, always
seeing where we fall short, and in the end making us
feel hopeless about ourselves.
Personally, I had to struggle with
this legalistic view of the church for many years before
my views of what religion was all about began to change.
I can't point to any one event that brought about this
change. Instead, I gradually began to realize the
meaning of the Lord's words, "The Sabbath was made
for mankind, not mankind for the Sabbath." I
gradually began to understand that the point of
religious and spiritual law is not so much to impose
proper behavior on us from the outside (though there are
times in our lives when we must relate to religion in
this way), but more to transform us from the inside, so
that our outward lives will be transformed along with
our souls. I gradually realized that the law is not an
end in itself, but rather is intended as a means toward
expressing God's love in the world and among human
beings.
This idea would not have fit into my
old concept of religion. The old me believed that if I
could just follow all the rules properly, I would be a
good person, and would be saved. Putting the law
subordinate to love would have seemed too slippery a
slope. After all, isn't love a subjective thing? If we
all just do what we feel like doing, won't we act just
as often in a selfish, thoughtless way as in a
thoughtful, caring way?
As long as we are thinking mostly
about our own well-being--physical or spiritual--this is
true. And looking back on it, I have to admit that my
primary concern in those days was my own salvation. Yes,
I wanted to do what was right; but I wanted to do it so
that I would be right--so that I would be saved
and wouldn't have to suffer as others do. And as long as
we are focused mostly on our own well-being, our love
cannot be trusted.
The real transformation comes when we
begin to think about others as much as we think about
ourselves, and especially when we begin to love God
above all. If our primary goal in life is the happiness
of others, then we have a love that can be trusted as a
law of its own because this is the love that comes from
God.
In fact, when our primary goal is to
give others happiness, we will eagerly search out the
laws of human existence so that we can use them in
improving the lot of others. Whether we focus on their
physical life or on their spiritual life, if we truly
love others, we will want to know how we can speak and
act toward them in ways that will give them comfort,
strength, joy, and meaning. Our very love will become a
force within us continually seeking to understand the
laws of life so that we can use them to show God's love
to others. The Apostle Paul expressed this beautifully
when he said:
Let no debt remain outstanding
except the continuing debt to love one another; for
those who love others have fulfilled the law. The
commandments, "Do not commit adultery,"
"Do not murder," "Do not steal,"
"Do not covet," and whatever other
commandment there may be, are summed up in this one
rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love
does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the
fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:8-10)
This is the new wine Jesus offered,
which burst the bottles of the Pharisees' old attitudes
toward the law. We, too, must give up whatever there is
of literalism and legalism in our view of religion and
the church. If we find ourselves thinking we are better
than others because we are more enlightened and more
law-abiding than they are, it is time to throw out those
old bottles and get new ones.
The point is not to be better and
more righteous than others. The point is to do the best
we can in showing others the love of God. Amen.
Music: Secret
Kisses
1999 Bruce DeBoer
Photo Courtesy of
Corel Gallery
|