Truth and love, not rules and shame
Mark 2:18-22
18 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?”
19 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. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.
21 “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. 22 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, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”
It seems that what the Pharisees are essentially asking Jesus here is, “Why aren’t you and your disciples keeping up our religious traditions?”.
Throughout the gospels it appears that in many ways the Pharisaic religious leaders were impressed with Jesus’s teaching. They may have even been happy to make some of His ideas a part of their own religious traditions. However, they were also not impressed that Jesus and His disciples were not following their (non-scriptural) rules.
When we look at how Jesus lived and what He taught as a rabbi, it is clear that He came to fulfill the Law (the Scriptures), not abolish it. But in this passage, He is making a statement that He is not about to hang on to old religious traditions for the sake of it or to comply with the powers that be. He is ushering in a new Kingdom.
Jesus demonstrates in the gospels time and again that He is bringing a new Kingdom based on truth and love, not religious tradition and man-made rules.
What a beautiful picture Jesus shows us of a God, our King, who lifts our burdens and leads us with love rather than loading us up with rules to follow and then heaping shame when we fail to keep them.
Thank you, Jesus, that Your yoke is easy and Your burden is light. I am so grateful to live under Your Kingship in a Kingdom built on truth and love. Help me to follow Your lead and demonstrate truth and love, not rules and shame, to those around me.
Written by Shelley Witt