Physician February 26
Mark 2:17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
By association, the religious authorities classify Jesus with those they have rejected, the unrighteous. This is in spite of His teaching and His miracles, which they have not comprehended and choose to ignore.
Jesus goes among those rejected by their religion, calling them to join Him in a new life. He speaks in a language someone aware of their own sin can hear.
Neither Jesus nor His followers spare themselves from walking in the world with those who have not yet accepted the call of God. They do not throw a message over the walls surrounding the Temple so that whoever is “out there” might catch it. They hand deliver the message, modeling love and acceptance, and invite them “in here,” into a relationship of the heart.
There is a sickness that is a sickness unto death. The mortal body that holds the soul suffers from “time and chance,” which will happen to all. Yet doctors still treat patients.
Jesus sees there is a sickness that takes the life before the body has died. This sickness is separation from God. He has come to restore life. Like the doctor, He treats the dying. He teaches the self-care that people have known from the beginning of time, that loving others is life to the self.
Note that Jesus is being their physician, not their accomplice or judge.
Only those who already are dead in spirit refuse treatment.
Fasting February 27
Mark 2:18 The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”
Matthew 9:14 makes clear that it is the disciples of John who ask why Jesus’ disciples do not fast.
But let us first look at the practice of fasting before answering the charge.
Jesus condemns the manner in which the Pharisees observe fasting, prayer, and tithing in Matthew 6, for they do it to look righteous in the eyes of men rather than God. Luke 18:11-12 shows a Pharisee justifying his holiness by these three acts, using them as tools rather than making them as offerings to God.
Isaiah comments on this inappropriate fasting centuries before (Isaiah 58). The people fast to be seen and rewarded for afflicting themselves. They seek to put God in their debt, for God to owe them a reward. Isaiah could have been describing the Pharisees of Jesus’ era.
Through Isaiah, God proceeds to describe the fast that He would have chosen for His people (Is. 58:6-7):
“To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are [d]cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him….”
There is a time for everything, and we do what is appropriate for the time.
The Bridegroom February 28
Mark 2:19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. 20 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days."
Jesus points out that His disciples have reason to celebrate while He, the bridegroom, is with them. They will have time for fasting when He is taken from them. Everything is to be appropriate to its season.
Why did Jesus use the bridegroom imagery? Look at Isaiah 62:5:
“For as a young man marries a virgin,
So shall your sons marry you;
And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
So shall your God rejoice over you.”
God is the bridegroom and Israel the bride in this parable. Jesus is making another “I AM” statement, equating Himself with God.
The outward forms of religion must conform not only to their inward sincerity, but also to the time. Although Jesus and His disciples sympathize with John the Baptist and his disciples because of the imprisonment, this does not change their mission.
John the Baptist has called himself the friend of the bridegroom, saying the bridegroom must increase while he, John, decreases (John 3:27-36). The things that have happened all serve a purpose. If the end purpose is the glory of God through the presence of the bridegroom, why fast and be sad?
We each choose how to respond to the events of any given moment. The ritual may aid us during the mind-numbing shock of an overwhelming event.
An honest response rather than a ritual allows us the freedom of expression appropriate for the moment of now.
The New and the Old March 1
Mark 2:21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”
The times are changing. The season for the religion of the Temple has passed. Now is the season for a new way of being.
Jesus offers two parables explaining the impossibility of combining His teaching with the teaching of the Pharisees, or of the Sadducees, or of any other doctrine.
Concerning the new patch on old cloth parable, the Pharisees’ idea of righteousness cannot be repaired with patches. The patch will shrink and pull on the older and weaker cloth where they are joined, creating a worse tear.
In the wine parable, new wine has not fermented, a process that creates expanding gas. Unlike a new leather bag, an old bag has no stretch, no way to expand to hold the greater volume. The bag is burst and the new wine pours out onto the ground.
Attempting to incorporate the character of God into the old religion that has drifted so far from knowledge of Him is not possible. The old religion cannot accommodate the new faith. Rigid legalism cannot contain a flexible grace based on love. The two are incompatible.
The new teachings of Jesus have the flexibility to encompass everyone while the old teachings of the Temple hold but a self-selected few.
Hearts that are solid stone are rigid, confined in a law without love and mercy. It is time for a new heart of flesh.
The Wedding Feast March 2
Mark 2:21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”
Following so closely the comments referring to Jesus as the Bridegroom, we might look at the garment and the wine from a wedding perspective.
Guests wear their best clothing to a wedding feast, as the wedding garment provided by the king in Matthew 22. A patched garment not only signals the garment’s weakness and age, but also is more easily torn.
The old garment is beyond repair and not comparable to the new cloak of righteousness offered by the Bridegroom’s Father.
Likewise, the old wine is a vintage past its prime, and it has stretched its sacks to their limit. The new wine is the joyous spirit of the wedding, fresh with living flavor, and cannot be held by dry, stiff sacks.
The doctrine that has become the covering of Israel in the time since the return of the captives from Babylon is a patchwork of laws. The cloak of righteousness that Jesus offers fits easily and gently, more an embrace than a strait jacket.
Jesus calls for a new heart, not patches on the old one. The new heart is to be open to love of the Father and all of the Father’s children.
Law and Necessity March 3
Mark 2:23 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
25 But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: 26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?”
27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”
Jesus and His disciples are hungry as they walk through a field of grain on a Sabbath day. Travelers, they have no store of food, no barn filled with grain. They pick grains as they walk and eat them. The law classifies this as work and therefore forbidden on the Sabbath.
When challenged for breaking the law by the Pharisees, Jesus reminds them of 1 Sam. 21:1-9. David and his followers are in need of food lest they perish. The priest at Nob allows them to eat the old showbread that has been replaced by new showbread in the Most Holy Place. Only priests were allowed to eat this bread, but necessity allows the bread to go to David.
Jesus cites necessity as God’s first allowance for breaking the Sabbath law.
Law and Mercy March 4
Mark 3:1 And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. 3 And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.” 4 Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent. 5 And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.
The story gives Jesus’ second justification for violation of the Sabbath laws: mercy. Jesus has been filled with the Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is within Him.
God and the Spirit are One with Jesus. The first fruit of the Spirit is love (Gal. 5:22). To love is to desire what is best for the beloved.
The Pharisees believe that disease is a punishment from God for sin. Therefore, when Jesus heals someone, He must be working against the intention of God. In the Pharisee’s mind, Jesus is Satan.
The book of Job tells us that disease and misfortune do not come from God. Given the opportunity, God would remove all that troubles us. Living in a world of free choice comes with the consequences of others’ decisions. And in a fallen world, the conditions for dis-ease are ever with us.
Jesus will chastise heartlessness and shame it by His own actions. He heals the withered hand, freeing the man from that bondage. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Next day
Mark 2:17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
By association, the religious authorities classify Jesus with those they have rejected, the unrighteous. This is in spite of His teaching and His miracles, which they have not comprehended and choose to ignore.
Jesus goes among those rejected by their religion, calling them to join Him in a new life. He speaks in a language someone aware of their own sin can hear.
Neither Jesus nor His followers spare themselves from walking in the world with those who have not yet accepted the call of God. They do not throw a message over the walls surrounding the Temple so that whoever is “out there” might catch it. They hand deliver the message, modeling love and acceptance, and invite them “in here,” into a relationship of the heart.
There is a sickness that is a sickness unto death. The mortal body that holds the soul suffers from “time and chance,” which will happen to all. Yet doctors still treat patients.
Jesus sees there is a sickness that takes the life before the body has died. This sickness is separation from God. He has come to restore life. Like the doctor, He treats the dying. He teaches the self-care that people have known from the beginning of time, that loving others is life to the self.
Note that Jesus is being their physician, not their accomplice or judge.
Only those who already are dead in spirit refuse treatment.
Fasting February 27
Mark 2:18 The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”
Matthew 9:14 makes clear that it is the disciples of John who ask why Jesus’ disciples do not fast.
But let us first look at the practice of fasting before answering the charge.
Jesus condemns the manner in which the Pharisees observe fasting, prayer, and tithing in Matthew 6, for they do it to look righteous in the eyes of men rather than God. Luke 18:11-12 shows a Pharisee justifying his holiness by these three acts, using them as tools rather than making them as offerings to God.
Isaiah comments on this inappropriate fasting centuries before (Isaiah 58). The people fast to be seen and rewarded for afflicting themselves. They seek to put God in their debt, for God to owe them a reward. Isaiah could have been describing the Pharisees of Jesus’ era.
Through Isaiah, God proceeds to describe the fast that He would have chosen for His people (Is. 58:6-7):
“To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are [d]cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him….”
There is a time for everything, and we do what is appropriate for the time.
The Bridegroom February 28
Mark 2:19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. 20 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days."
Jesus points out that His disciples have reason to celebrate while He, the bridegroom, is with them. They will have time for fasting when He is taken from them. Everything is to be appropriate to its season.
Why did Jesus use the bridegroom imagery? Look at Isaiah 62:5:
“For as a young man marries a virgin,
So shall your sons marry you;
And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
So shall your God rejoice over you.”
God is the bridegroom and Israel the bride in this parable. Jesus is making another “I AM” statement, equating Himself with God.
The outward forms of religion must conform not only to their inward sincerity, but also to the time. Although Jesus and His disciples sympathize with John the Baptist and his disciples because of the imprisonment, this does not change their mission.
John the Baptist has called himself the friend of the bridegroom, saying the bridegroom must increase while he, John, decreases (John 3:27-36). The things that have happened all serve a purpose. If the end purpose is the glory of God through the presence of the bridegroom, why fast and be sad?
We each choose how to respond to the events of any given moment. The ritual may aid us during the mind-numbing shock of an overwhelming event.
An honest response rather than a ritual allows us the freedom of expression appropriate for the moment of now.
The New and the Old March 1
Mark 2:21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”
The times are changing. The season for the religion of the Temple has passed. Now is the season for a new way of being.
Jesus offers two parables explaining the impossibility of combining His teaching with the teaching of the Pharisees, or of the Sadducees, or of any other doctrine.
Concerning the new patch on old cloth parable, the Pharisees’ idea of righteousness cannot be repaired with patches. The patch will shrink and pull on the older and weaker cloth where they are joined, creating a worse tear.
In the wine parable, new wine has not fermented, a process that creates expanding gas. Unlike a new leather bag, an old bag has no stretch, no way to expand to hold the greater volume. The bag is burst and the new wine pours out onto the ground.
Attempting to incorporate the character of God into the old religion that has drifted so far from knowledge of Him is not possible. The old religion cannot accommodate the new faith. Rigid legalism cannot contain a flexible grace based on love. The two are incompatible.
The new teachings of Jesus have the flexibility to encompass everyone while the old teachings of the Temple hold but a self-selected few.
Hearts that are solid stone are rigid, confined in a law without love and mercy. It is time for a new heart of flesh.
The Wedding Feast March 2
Mark 2:21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”
Following so closely the comments referring to Jesus as the Bridegroom, we might look at the garment and the wine from a wedding perspective.
Guests wear their best clothing to a wedding feast, as the wedding garment provided by the king in Matthew 22. A patched garment not only signals the garment’s weakness and age, but also is more easily torn.
The old garment is beyond repair and not comparable to the new cloak of righteousness offered by the Bridegroom’s Father.
Likewise, the old wine is a vintage past its prime, and it has stretched its sacks to their limit. The new wine is the joyous spirit of the wedding, fresh with living flavor, and cannot be held by dry, stiff sacks.
The doctrine that has become the covering of Israel in the time since the return of the captives from Babylon is a patchwork of laws. The cloak of righteousness that Jesus offers fits easily and gently, more an embrace than a strait jacket.
Jesus calls for a new heart, not patches on the old one. The new heart is to be open to love of the Father and all of the Father’s children.
Law and Necessity March 3
Mark 2:23 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
25 But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: 26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?”
27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”
Jesus and His disciples are hungry as they walk through a field of grain on a Sabbath day. Travelers, they have no store of food, no barn filled with grain. They pick grains as they walk and eat them. The law classifies this as work and therefore forbidden on the Sabbath.
When challenged for breaking the law by the Pharisees, Jesus reminds them of 1 Sam. 21:1-9. David and his followers are in need of food lest they perish. The priest at Nob allows them to eat the old showbread that has been replaced by new showbread in the Most Holy Place. Only priests were allowed to eat this bread, but necessity allows the bread to go to David.
Jesus cites necessity as God’s first allowance for breaking the Sabbath law.
Law and Mercy March 4
Mark 3:1 And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. 3 And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.” 4 Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent. 5 And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.
The story gives Jesus’ second justification for violation of the Sabbath laws: mercy. Jesus has been filled with the Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is within Him.
God and the Spirit are One with Jesus. The first fruit of the Spirit is love (Gal. 5:22). To love is to desire what is best for the beloved.
The Pharisees believe that disease is a punishment from God for sin. Therefore, when Jesus heals someone, He must be working against the intention of God. In the Pharisee’s mind, Jesus is Satan.
The book of Job tells us that disease and misfortune do not come from God. Given the opportunity, God would remove all that troubles us. Living in a world of free choice comes with the consequences of others’ decisions. And in a fallen world, the conditions for dis-ease are ever with us.
Jesus will chastise heartlessness and shame it by His own actions. He heals the withered hand, freeing the man from that bondage. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Next day