A Changed Life

Mark 2: 18- 22
8 May 2011, Mothers’ Day

When I began this series on the gospel according to Mark, I knew that there would be times when I would encounter more obscure passages. Well this morning is one of them. And as I sat at my desk early last week, I thought to myself, “Of all the times of the year, to hit a strange passage on mother’s day is horrible.” I proceeded to reread the passage, and then it all made sense to me.
Let’s read the passage. It is found in Mark chapter two, beginning at verse 18. “Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting: and people came and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and they will fast on that day.
“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one put new wine into fresh wineskins (Mark 2:28- 22).”
Do you see how well this passage fits with mother’s day? I didn’t think so. Let me unpack what I think Jesus is telling us and I’m positive that it will make sense.
Let me begin with the context of what Jesus said. He was approached by John the Baptist disciples along with others who followed the ways of the Pharisees. Part of their rituals was fasting twice a week. The idea of fasting was to help make prayer clearer. Once the body is hungry, it becomes more attuned to the higher desire of God’s presence. The idea to refrain from eating in order to pray better was to hasten the day when God would once again look with favour upon Israel. It was like tightening one’s belt in the hopes that God would finally notice and return.
This is still a practice amongst Christians as individuals or even churches seek a greater sense of direction for decisions that must be made.
But Jesus makes the remark that one does not fast when someone important is around. If a wedding is happening, one does not tell the guest, “Sorry people, but today happens to be my fasting day, so there will be no food and no drinks at the reception.” Can you imagine going to such a wedding reception? What would we think of the host?
Jesus is making the claim that He is present and as such, no fasting is necessary. He is revealing that He is God, present in the world. Why fast anymore? Why behave as if He was not there, as if He were hiding?
This makes sense doesn’t it? If the guest you have been waiting for so long shows up, you rejoice. Now that I have two children who live on their own, I know more what I put my mother through when I left home. I know what it is like to wait for children to come for a visit – or even telephone. It is great! When they are there, I want to take full advantage of their presence. I want to pamper them some – to make sure they come back!
When they come, I don’t say, “Sorry guys, I’m on a diet of lettuce, fresh water and tofu, that’s all we’re going to eat. And by the way, we’re saving on electricity so there is only power for three hours a day, between, seven and ten in the morning.” That would be silly.
Jesus says, “I am here with you, rejoice, don’t be sad. Don’t live as if I am away. Life can be different now that I am here.”
Those of you who are mothers, tell me: would you say that your life changed at the birth of your children? Did your life continue to change as they grew up? What kinds of things changed for you? Would any of you say that given all those changes, you wish you had no children?
Children change people, in more way than one. A mother is changed physically, mentally, emotionally and I would say even spiritually by their children. They see life differently by this life what was formed inside them. Even grown children remain children in a mother’s heart. These are all things that are difficult to put into words, but I think you understand what I am saying.
That is exactly what Jesus is saying. Now that His kingdom has arrived, now that He lives with us and in us through his Spirit, life is different. Although we rarely patch clothes anymore, in the old days, people did. Natural fabric that has been washed many times will not shrink much compared to band new natural fabric. I remember having pants with patches on the knees growing up. Most of those were the iron on patches. They never stayed that long because that fabric did not respond to the washes the same way the rest of the pants did.
We don’t make wine in wineskins anymore either. But from what I read, new wine worked within the skin. New skin was flexible and could withstand the fermentation process. Old skins, because of the acidity of the wine and having been stretched already, have become brittle and cannot take the fermentation process a second time.
So, the gist of it is this: The old is for the old, the new is for the new. One does not stay the same in the face of change. Something new happens. As a new mother learns the responsibilities of raising a child, there are things that become different in her life. Bed-time might come earlier. Household tasks become more frequent. The social life becomes less important. Even work may take less of a place in a mother’s life. As a child discovers life, so do mothers begin to see life from a child’s perspective.
With Jesus in our life, the same happens. We begin to see life from God’s perspective. Every human being is loveable. Every human being deserves respect, whether they belong to our group of friend or whether they share the same ideas.
With Jesus in our midst, we know that we are a people who can always have hope, because God is with us, no matter what. We never have to worry whether we are loveable or not because we are. Jesus has proven it to us. We don’t have to wonder what is life all about. Life is about love: being loved by God and others and loving others as God loves us. As Jesus said, it is about doing unto others what we wish was done for us.
I don’t have to ask the question whether mothers live for their children or not. I know the answer and I think that you do too.
What Jesus said is this: Because He is with us, we don’t live according to the old or former practices we may have followed before we knew Him. Everything in life is now new. There is new joy, there is new purpose, there is new hope, there is new perspective, there is new perseverance in face of adversity, there is new freedom, there is new generosity, there is new peace, there is new self control and the list goes on.
Living with Jesus, knowing that He is in our midst is very much like a mother discovering the joys of motherhood. It requires work but the reward are great. It involves change but that change is worth the whole word then some.
To be a mother is a great journey, teaching, guiding and then watching one’s children fly on their own. To be a follower of Jesus is to follow a master who has shown us what it means to live fully and to be in the presence of a loving, caring and True God. May the thought of motherhood inspire us to dedicate our lives to in following Jesus who is in our midst and offers to live within us if we but allow Him in.