Joyful Feasting in the Savior’s Presence (Mark 2:18-22)
Joyful Feasting in the Savior’s Presence
Mark 2:18-22
Introduction
How shall we live in the presence of Jesus?
Many Christians have mistakenly, perhaps unintentionally, come to equate frowning solemnity with holiness. We too quickly mistake godliness as the dour seriousness which makes us look as though we’re sucking on a lemon drop. Laughter amounts to sin, because life is heavy and holiness is important. In the case of others, they write off joy and happiness because they mistakenly equate it with frivolity, levity, and a thorough unseriousness. Whatever the case, it leads to the kind church in which a mother who whacks their daughter in the pew because she smiled in church.
How far from the teaching of Jesus in this word! “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?” Imagine a groomsman who sits at the head table. Is it appropriate that he should sit sulking behind an empty plate, snapping at everyone else like the perfect party pooper? Such a thing would be inappropriate, considering the circumstances.
Jesus means to teach us how to act appropriately in his presence. Here is the principle: if we love him, we will rejoice when he is near and mourn when he is far. We will feast when he is near, we will fast when he is far. Jesus is here, so now is the time for feasting. How inappropriate would it be to act as thought he were far away.
Now, before we enlarge on that principle, we need to transport ourselves back into this story and understand it on its own terms in its own context. When Jesus arrived, he brought with him a completely new reality—something utterly different than the old reality. In short, Jesus’ arrival told the world, things are gonna change now. That is part of what Mark has been communicating since the very first verse. In his opening citation he quotes Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3. (We will be going back to the OT a lot, so keep a finger there.)
Now as we turn back to Malachi 3, we need to remember that God established a relationship with his special people Israel through his promises to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Jacob’s 12 sons. Once that family grew into an entire nation, God then administrated those promises to the forefathers through the covenant he made with Israel at Sinai. The New Testament calls this covenant the “Old” Covenant, or sometimes “the Law.” That law was incomplete by design. It told Israel what God required, but it never provided them with the ability to do it. It could never change their sinful hearts. So, Sinai was doomed to fail from the start. It was designed to fail. It was intended to be a placeholder, a guardian, a teacher and a pointer to something better, something new, something that would change the heart and empower Israel to keep the law. As such, the entire time of the Old Testament was characterized by anticipation—waiting for the day when the heart would be changed.
Malachi 3:1 speaks a of a day when Yahweh will come to his people, and his way will be prepared by a messenger that he will send before him. When the Lord comes, he will be like a smelter and a fuller—he will purify the people with fire and with soap. He will smelt out the dross and scrub out the stains particularly from the priesthood. When he does, “they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord” (Mal 3:3-4). Not only will he judge those who do not repent, but he will make their worship acceptable to him. How does he do that? By changing their hearts. Malachi 4:2 says that there will be those who “fear my name” and on them “the son of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.” 4:6 – “the hearts of the fathers” will be turned “to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.” The hearts of the people will be changed.
In Isaiah 40, you see much the same thing. The opening statement of that chapter is “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” The comfort of the people means the forgiveness of their sins! And the way of the Lord then is prepared by repentance (vv3-4), the glory of the Lord comes to reveal itself through the word of God. And when it does, they behold their God (v9) under the ruling arm of God (v10) bringing reward and recompense. In other words, he came bringing forgiveness and salvation and cleansing and heart-change.
This is that “new covenant” that Jeremiah promised that was “not like the covenant I made with their fathers on that day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke thought I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer 31:31-33). Ezekiel said it in those well-known promises: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezk 36:25-27).
In other words, when Jesus showed up, it meant everything was going to change. Jesus has come to make that a reality. As we’ve noted throughout the unfolding story of Mark, he has geniusly crafted the story to show precisely that reality. The Messiah is preceded by a forerunner like Elijah who prepares the way of the people by confession and repentance. He heralds to arrival of the kingdom of God, and casts down the old kingdom of Satan by casting out demons and healing disease. He cleanses defilement under the Law. He forgives sins. In other words, the New Covenant is here. Jesus coming means that something radically new is here. The old is coming to a close and the new is starting to bear fruit.
It would be inappropriate to take expressions of worship appropriate to anticipating Christ’s presence when Christ is standing right there. Under the law, Israel anticipated Christ: waiting, hoping, seeking, awaiting the changing of the heart, fasting over their yet-to-be-finally-atoned-for sin. But under grace, Israel should rejoice: the waiting is over, what was hoped for is received, sins are fully and finally forgiven, hearts are changed. Thus, it is time for rejoicing, not mourning. It is time for feasting in the presence of Jesus, rather than mourning because he is not yet here. In other words, if we love him, we will feast when he is near and fast when he is far.
As Mark continually portrays, the people of Israel did not understand this. They could not understand what Jesus’ presence meant. They did not see or hear or know or understand. They misunderstood the newness of the new covenant.
I. The Question of Fasting (1:18)
We begin with a parenthetical statement: “Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting.” This is an ongoing, habitual, repetitive activity. Mark is sparse on details. He assumes his audience is familiar with this fasting. What is clear is that John is not talking about mere obedience to the OT law, because there was only one prescribed fast in the OT at the Day of Atonement. All the other examples of fasting were done by individuals and unique points in their lives, usually at points of dire spiritual need. But whatever the fast, it was almost always accompanied with weeping, mourning, sadness, gloom, repentance, or dire need.
By the time Jesus was born, fasting had developed into a badge of religious devotion. Jesus excoriated the Pharisees on a number of occasions for their hypocritical fasting habits. Matthew 6:16: “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.” Or Jesus parable of the Pharisee standing in the temple: “I fast twice a week” (Luke 18:12). In fact, history tells us this was true—the Pharisee’s oral traditions required fasting every Monday and Thursday. Fasting had become a mark of self-righteousness, one way the Pharisees had come to “trust in themselves that they were righteous, and treat others with contempt” (Luke 18:9).
This was, of course, nothing new. As we’ve already said, Israel has yet to change their hearts. All the way back in Isaiah 58, Yahweh rebuked his people for their hypocritical fasting. READ AND EXPLAIN. To be acceptable, fasting must be paired with obedience, righteousness, and a change of heart. It was to go deeper than the externals to the inner person of the heart.
Therefore, the Lord calls his people to fasting as a form of repentance! Joel 1:14, “Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.” Joel 2:12-13, “Yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.” So, fasting was an acceptable form of worship, but only if it was an expression of heart-felt repentance.
But the Pharisees were engaged in fasting for unbelieving, self-righteous purposes. But, we must be very careful to note, so did the disciples of John. That is a big clue. Remember: John’s ministry was characterized by a call to repentance and confession of sin. It would only be natural that it would be accompanied by fasting—outward displays of mourning over sin and asking for forgiveness. Yet there was a key difference between how the Pharisees and John’s disciples fasted. The disciples of John were believing while the disciples of the Pharisees were not. Yet, what they had in common was that old posture of anticipation. Both had yet to realize what the presence of Jesus meant.
So, they see that Jesus is not leading his disciples into the same kind of fasting and they are confused. “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Shouldn’t you be making these expressions of piety, repentance, contrition, and petition for forgiveness?
What have they failed to understand? Jesus forgives sins! That was the paralytic. And sinners are coming to him and feasting with him. The time of mourning and sadness and waiting and fasting is over! The time of forgiveness and joy and feasting is here! The presence of Jesus means the forgiveness of sins—and how inappropriate would it be to be filled with gloom and ask God for forgiveness in the physical presence of the Savior himself. Which is what Jesus says next…
II. The Joy of Jesus’ Presence (1:19-20)
Jesus responds with a simple question that expects a “no” answer, properly translated: “Wedding guests don’t fast while the bridegroom is with them, do they?” Then he answers his own question: “As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.” Nobody fasts at a wedding. It would be wrong, inappropriate, out of order, improper decorum.
Wedding traditions then were different than ours. After the ceremony, they newlywed couple would open their house friends and family who wanted to visit them and would feast with them every day as a way of celebrating their union. The logistics for such a lengthy celebration were complicated, so they often had close friends who would help them. They were called “sons of the bridal chamber.” They would stay with the new couple to help them with food and hosting and all that came with it. Jesus is saying, it would be wrong, wouldn’t it, if those sons of the bridal chamber didn’t eat with their own friends and share with them in their joy?
I can’t help but wonder if Isaiah 61 is in the back of Jesus’ mind here. READ AND EXPLAIN. He comes with garments of salvation, and he decks himself like he’s getting married! And that is a time of celebration and plenty and rejoicing.
You can see what Jesus is saying. “Yahweh is here. Yahweh is forgiving sins. Yahweh is clothing in righteousness. He is the bridegroom. And I am that bridegroom. And I am forgiving sins and feasting, for this is what is new. It would be wrong to drag expressions of mourning over sin in the very presence of the one who forgives. This is a time for feasting, not fasting.”
What does this mean for us? We need to remember that we are the body of Christ, and that Christ is present with us now in a unique way. Surely it is right to come ready to confess our sins. But as you do, do you confess anticipating forgiveness? Hoping he will forgive? Or do you live, even as you repent, under the smile of his steadfast love and mercy, under the bright, shining day of the New Covenant? In other words, we must confess our sins not in the hopes that they might be forgiven one day, but because they have already been forgiven. We are not forgiven for our many deeds of righteousness—Jesus doesn’t forgive our sins because we feel bad enough about them first. He forgives them because he is the bridegroom! Our worship of him should not be characterized by a somber, self-flagellating, morose, sour-faced, sulky and sullen Christianity. Often, those who do so fixate on their own filthy rags in the hopes that they will be good enough that God might forgive them. But the New Covenant is here! Jesus forgives sins! He eats with tax collectors and sinners. It is a time for feasting, not fasting.
And yet there is a tension for us, isn’t there? Jesus continues: “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.” He speaks of his coming death and this strange time in between his comings. This is an odd time, isn’t it? On the one hand, Jesus says, “I will be with you, even to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20). And so he is, by his Spirit. For the Spirit of Christ to be in us is for Christ to be in us. On the other hand, you have 1 Peter 1:8: “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Thou you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.” Oh for the physical presence of Jesus! He is with us! But he is not with us fully yet!
Christians are therefore strange creatures! We rejoice and feast and give thanks like the friends of the bridegroom! We laugh and rejoice and enjoy the presence of Jesus for we know he is with us. And yet, we also mourn over our remaining sin, repent of it every day, wait and hope and anticipate the day he will return, and, yes, fast as we wait. We are sorrowful yet always rejoicing. Feasting in his presence while we fast for its fullness.
III. The New and the Old (1:21-22)
Yet, when Jesus is speaking, he is physically present. And so, for the people in this story, you don’t mix feasting and fasting together. You don’t mix anticipation with arrival. That’s the point of Jesus two illustrations. You can’t take the Pharisee’s practice of fasting and use it as an acceptable way to worship God because Jesus is standing in front of you. If you try, you destroy both the significance of fasting and the significance of feasting.
Think about clothing. Have you ever shrunk something in the wash? What used to be roomy now feels like spandex. Things shrank then too. You don’t take new cloth that hasn’t been washed yet and so hasn’t shrunk yet and use it to patch a garment that is old. It took around 400 hours of labor to make a garment (minimum wage, that’s almost $5,000), so patching was economical and necessary. So you made sure to shrink the cloth patch before sewing it onto the garment. Otherwise, you will ruin both the patch and the garment.
Or think about wine. Wine must ferment, and as it does, it lets off gasses. They would often ferment wine in leather bags made from the hides of animals. Young animals were preferred because their skin was more elastic. As the gasses would be released during fermentation, the bag would expand. If the bag was brittle and already stretched out, it would burst and ruin the skin and the new wine.
These are not appropriate. Fasting ruins a wedding. Unshrunk cloth ruins a garment. New wine ruins an old wineskin. So also fasting ruins forgiveness. You can’t anticipate something and have it at the same time. In the very proper sense of the phrase, you cannot have your cake and eat it too. You cannot have your forgiveness and hope for it too. To try and combine it ruins the forgiveness and wastes the hope!
I know our context down here in Rosemount, so I must apply this to Roman Catholicism. In many ways, the Roman Catholic system takes Old Covenant forms of worship—priesthood, continual sacrifice in the mass, etc.—and try to slap it down over New Covenant realities. Roman Catholics participate in a system which promises forgiveness on the basis of certain conditions which the worshipper must meet. But, just like the old covenant, the Church of Rome cannot change the heart of the worshiper! And all the while, Jesus has inaugurated the New Covenant, offers forgiveness freely and forever right now such that we rest from our works. They are taking that unshrunk cloth and attaching it to a garment—taking the new wine and pouring it into old wineskins.
Consequently, Roman Catholicism still practices fasting two days a week based on the wrong teaching of a 2nd century document the Didache which changed the Pharisee’s fast of Mondays and Thursdays to Wednesdays and Fridays. It is precisely the same thing. It is religious externalism without repentant faith in the Savior who is here. It is self-trust, self-righteousness, and it ruins the new wine of the gospel. Roman Catholicism misses the reality that Jesus has brought in something completely new and calls us to be part of it, to rejoice, to feast, and to be happy as those sinners justified by faith alone apart from works.
There is one other question that I’d like to briefly address before we close: is it ever appropriate for the NT believer to fast? The basic answer is, if you want to, go for it, so long as it is an expression of faith. Consider the following.
1. Fasting is never commanded in the NT. That should make perfect sense. If fasting in the OT was almost always connected with mourning, sadness, and anticipation of forgiveness, then it would be inappropriate for Christians to be wrapped up in continual fasting. That’s Jesus’ whole point. The bridegroom is with us, so we should be dominated by joy that our sins have been forgiven, not sorrow that we are waiting for that.
2. That being said, fasting is certainly permissible for the NT believer, especially during times of trial, spiritual distress, crucial decisions, or seasons of unique repentance. This is because, in a very real sense, we still do anticipate his coming. Only this time, we anticipate his second coming. By fasting now, we remind ourselves that we live in the in-between and that Jesus work of redemption is not yet brought to consummation. Jesus is with us, but we have not yet fully experienced his redemption in every dimension of life. We still sin, so we still need forgiveness. Thus, fasting is, in this sense, still compatible with NT faith. It is practiced by the NT church in Acts on several occasions.
3. Jesus is not impressed by fasting. The bible never records an instance where Jesus is impressed by fasting. In fact, more often than not, it scolds those who fast. Jesus is, however, impressed by faith. He marvels at great faith, commands that we believe, and rewards faith richly. So, if you do fast, let it be an expression of trust in Jesus rather than an expression of your desire to get something from God by an act of extraordinary piety and devotion.
4. Christians are to be characterized by joy because their sins are forgiven. Thus, while fasting is permissible, feasting is normative. We must rejoice that our sins are forgiven, and any season of fasting in relationship to repentance should always be moving forward toward the goal of resolution and restored feasting.
5. Leave room for the consciences of others. We must not lay down a law which exceeds that of the NT itself. And the NT never commands fasting, so we cannot either. Exactly how you flesh that out a practice of fasting in your life is up to your own conscience. If you believe that you should fast and that is an act of faith which you believe to be pleasing to the Lord, then do so. But refrain from imposing the dictates of your conscience upon the consciences of others.
Conclusion
The Christian is happiest in the presence of his Savior. And we have precisely that. He is here. Where else would we want to be? And when he is near, let us feast. Let us rejoice and be glad for all our days.
And do you feel that Jesus is far? Don’t lose heart. It does not change what Jesus has done for you. In fact, God intends those times to prove our love for him—to show us that we do in fact love him. Because the greatest trial of the bride is the absence of her bridegroom. So wait. Trust. Hope. Look forward to the day when he will restore communion with you, whether in this life or the next.