Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.
We’ve been looking at Mark’s gospel, his account of Jesus’ life.
After Jesus forgave and healed a paralytic, we find him down by the seashore, where he met a tax collector named Levi. “Follow me,” Jesus said. Levi followed and launched his new job with a party, inviting old friends and new (Mark 3:13-15).
This gave the Bible scholars a new reason to complain. “Jesus claims to be a righteous follower of God,” they said, “but look who he’s eating with. People who aren’t even interested in God or living a righteousness.”
Jesus replied, “A doctor is for the sick, not the healthy. I’m not calling righteous people, I’m calling sinners.”
Sinners? Levi the tax collector? Yes, he qualified. But the Bible scholars didn’t think they qualified. They knew they were righteous, and they wanted to teach Jesus how to be righteous. Like them, I have spent a lifetime studying how to be righteous. I wonder if Jesus is impressed.
Back in Mark’s story, we find someone asking Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples fast? Like John’s disciples and the Pharisees do.”
Jesus replied with picture stories.
First he said, when the bridegroom is with the wedding guests, it’s time for feasting, not fasting. But when the bridegroom is taken away, then my disciples will fast (Mark 3:20).
An odd picture of Jesus’ ministry. He’s like a groom at a wedding and expects to be taken away, leaving his disciples on their own?
Second, Jesus said, Don’t patch old clothes with new cloth, because it shrinks and destroys the garment. Don’t put new wine in old wineskins, because it ferments and bursts the skins (Mark 3:21-22).
Two comments.
1. Jesus was an entrepreneur, starting a new religion. The Bible scholars and Pharisees objected because they liked the old religion. But the tax collector was flexible. He was ready to party with the bridegroom, to drink the wine of a new teaching, to let Jesus patch his old garment.
2. There’s a puzzle in Jesus’ vision of newness. He predicted the party would end, the bridegroom would leave, and the disciples would resume fasting. Did Jesus have a clear plan for starting a new religion, or would it eventually look like the old religion, warmed over?
Stay tuned.
Let’s pray.
Our father, Jesus brought new wine. He rejected the wisdom of the Bible scholars and clergy. He welcomed tax collectors and commoners. But he predicted he’d go away, and his followers would resume the old spiritual disciplines.
O father, we have listened to Jesus’ 2,000-year-old gospel, followed his 2,000-year-old religion, and affirmed the 2,000-year-old traditions his disciples practiced and recorded in scripture. But we need new wisdom for today, and new life, and patches on our old garments, and new wine in our wineskins.
O Jesus, call us like you called the tax collector. Do your righteous work in our unrighteous lives. Free us from our petrified opinions. Free us from the mistakes of our tradition. Invite us to a new party, a new theology, a new way of life.
Amen.
I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.
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