Jesus Changed Everything

Okay, so there's this one part of the Bible that has always bothered me. I've never been able to figure out what on earth it's talking about. It's found in Mark 2:18-22. It doesn't make any sense! First, some people ask Jesus about fasting, and then Jesus answers by talking about new and old garments and wine. What does that have to do with the question?

Well, I was reading this a few weeks ago, and the Lord graciously gave me a little bit of wisdom, and it makes so much more sense now. I could be wrong, so bear with me. These people come up to Jesus and point out that John's disciples fast and the pharisees' disciples fast, so why don't His disciples fast? Jesus answers by telling them that you can't put an new piece of cloth on an old garment, if you do it will tear. And you can't put new wine into an old wineskin because the wineskin will be destroyed (I'm guessing this made more sense to the original audience than it does to me, because I know nothing about wineskins.)

John's and the pharisees' disciples were fasting in anticipation of the coming Messiah, so when Jesus actually came, the whole game changed. It would have been foolish for Jesus' disciples to fast in anticipation of Him. He was standing right there. They couldn't stick to the way they have always done things and expect it to work.

We no longer live in a time of anticipation, but a time of action. We can't do things the way they've always been done expect it all to work. We can't take the religion that we're comfortable with and add a little Jesus flavor to it. If we do, the whole thing falls apart. This parable teaches that if we try to have Jesus plus anything else it leads to destruction.

And the thing behind all of those fancy words is that it's really easy to type them out. It's also easy to read it and think, "that sounds really good." But when you really think about it, those are pretty empty words because if all we do is take one set of rules and replace them with a new set of words, we miss the entire point. We can't just say, "stop waiting and start acting," or "live a radical life for Christ," because there's nothing in any of us to be able to do that.

Following Christ is all about the heart, not actions, and this is where the beauty of Christ really shines through. Christ teaches this parable best through His actions. He didn't take us and just put new "things have changed" patches over our old tears. He knew that that wouldn't hold up. He didn't try to fix us, He made us new! He set the example of not putting a nice coat of Jesus on our old self, by actually remaking us, free of our bondage to sin. And in that example, He gave us the ability to drop religion and truly live a free life as a new creation.

How can we be recipients of such an amazing gift and not live differently?