New wine, new skins

 "LORD THATI MAY SEE."

A SHORT COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF THE DAY.

Gospel

Mark 2:18-22

'Why do your disciples not fast?'

1.      One day when John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting,

2.      some people came to Jesus and said to him,

3.      ‘Why is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,

4.      but your disciples do not?’

5.      Jesus replied, ‘Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of fasting while the bridegroom is still with them?

6.      As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they could not think of fasting.

7.      But the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them,

8.      and then, on that day, they will fast.

9.      No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak;

10. if he does, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old,

11. and the tear gets worse.

12. And nobody puts new wine into old wineskins;

13. if he does, the wine will burst the skins,

14. and the wine is lost and the skins too.

15. No! New wine, fresh skins!’

 

For centuries the Jews had been anxiously looking forward to the coming of the Messiah. Now at last, he has burst onto the scene. It is a time for rejoicing, not fasting. To be with Jesus is always a time for happiness and joy. The disciples were enjoying the company of the Lord. They could not think of fasting.

But ominously Jesus says the time will come when they do not have him. That is a bereavement they will never get over. Then they will fast and indeed fast from everything in this world, apart from the essentials for living, longing to be once again with the Lord Jesus. Now, they don’t long for him to come back, but for them to go to him.

After coming to know Jesus life changes radically. We cannot mix the old life with the new. In the old life we lived for our own goals, whatever they may have been. Now Jesus captivates us. He is our life. He is our bridegroom. The Christian life is to live for Jesus, or it is nothing. There are no half way houses.