Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – 2 Kings 6-10
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Mark 2:19-22
Jesus: Guests at the wedding can’t fast when the bridegroom is with them. It would be wrong to do anything but feast. When the bridegroom is snatched away from them, then the time will come to fast and mourn.
These are new things I’m teaching, and they can’t be reconciled with old habits. Nobody would ever use a piece of new cloth to patch an old garment because when the patch shrinks, it pulls away and makes the tear even worse. And nobody puts new, unfermented wine into old wineskins because if he does, the wine will burst the skins; they would lose both the wineskins and the wine. No, the only appropriate thing is to put new wine into new wineskins.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
Today we do some strange things to accommodate people’s diets, don’t we? I remember growing up, if someone invited you to dinner, you ate what was on the table and you at least pretended to like it no matter what it was or how it tasted. Consequently, as a preacher’s kid, my siblings and I sometimes ate some pretty bad food in our formative years, but learned to swallow it down, smile, and say thank you. Maybe that’s why I’m a bit overweight, now. I learned to like everything.
Now, we seem to accommodate everyone we invite to a party or a dinner. I can understand making sure we account for allergies that might send someone into an anaphylactic shock, but all the other stuff we do? This person doesn’t eat chicken, that one doesn’t eat meat, this one stopped eating anything with gluten, that one is on the Atkin’s diet and needs a special menu. And the crazy thing is that we sometimes go to great lengths to meet everyone’s needs at those parties or dinners.
I’m not saying it’s completely wrong to do so, but…
Maybe sometimes the best thing to do when we go to a feast is to feast. At least in Jesus day, those events didn’t happen every day and when they did, the host worked pretty hard to get everything ready for his guests. It wasn’t just a matter of going to the store and getting a bunch of pre-made appetizers and pre-cut meats and vegetables, or calling the caterer to cook up everything and get it on the table in time. In Jesus day, it meant killing and butchering the animals you were planning to eat. Harvesting and preparing the vegetables you planned to eat. Cooking for sometimes days ahead, then finishing the preparation for hours on the day of the feast. It was a difficult thing to do even with a small menu.
It’s not quite as hard today to throw a party with all the service industries that have sprung up to accommodate our needs, but I think it’s still pretty impolite to complain about the food, demand different menus, require accommodations for personal requests other than for life threatening allergies. But we are a pretty spoiled bunch of people today. Our selfishness gets the best of us because we don’t let Jesus help get rid of that selfish streak in us.
So being polite and enjoying yourself at someone’s party is the right thing to do. At least pretending the food is good and accepting it without complaint is the common sense action the Golden Rule teaches us. I think that’s part of what Jesus was telling the scribes that day.
Use some common sense. You don’t put new wine in old wineskins or they will burst. You don’t use unwashed cloth to patch a garment, it will tear. And you don’t mourn at a wedding because it’s a time for joy. Just because the scribes acting like Gloomy Gus in their synagogues as they read scripture doesn’t mean they were right. God didn’t create us to live in sorrow all the time. He created us to experience all the emotions within our framework and joy is the one He wants us to experience most. But that joy doesn’t come from happy situations, it comes from following the maker of all things.
While the maker of all things is with us, we should not be sorrowful. When we are in His presence, if our sins are forgiven, we can experience incredible, inexplicable joy. That’s what He wants for us and that’s what He gives us. It’s just common sense to follow Him. It’s just common sense to follow His advice about parties and patches and wineskins. It just common sense to ask for His forgiveness of our sins. It’s just common sense to enjoy the peace and freedom from guilt He brings when we follow His commands. It’s just common sense to listen to the Maker of the universe and do what He says to do.
That’s what Jesus is telling the scribes and us today. Just use a little common sense. When we do, the only answer we will find is to follow and obey Him for the rest of our lives.
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