How can the guest of the bridegroom fast?

Mark 2:18-22

The disagreement with the Pharisees that we saw yesterday is continuing today! The Pharisees concentrated on trying to live in a holy way. They did this by focusing on following rules, because they thought this would bring them closer to God. I wonder if this is how we have sometimes seen the Christian faith. As a bunch of rules, a list of ‘do nots’. Now here is Jesus showing up, talking about God, but not following the rules. Jesus is messing up their system and challenging their understanding.

Jesus asks, how can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? In this analogy Jesus is the bridegroom, and his presence changes things.

We don’t need to follow a bunch of rules to try to prove that we are holy or that we are loved by God. We ARE loved by God. Jesus shows us this time and time again – not because of anything we do or have done, but because of who God is.

For those who were listening this was a radically different way of faith. This was ‘new wine’ a fresh way of thinking and being could not be put in old wineskins (old ways of thinking). Like the Pharisees our thinking needs to be challenged – if we think that our relationship with God is based on what we do, believing certain things, our ability to keep rules, or what other people think of us. This cautions us that other people’s relationships with God are not based on what they do or don’t do. We are challenged and reminded, that Jesus’s presence has changed things.