...shrinking and changing my heart...

“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?’ 19 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. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.

21 ‘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. 22 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 puts new wine into fresh wineskins’” Mark 2:18-22.

I love that Jesus identifies Himself as the bridegroom at the wedding feast, because at this point in His life, Jesus’ disciples, the wedding guests, don’t need to fast, but instead celebrate the presences of Jesus, the bridegroom! Fasting was appropriate in the time of waiting — as during John the Baptist’s ministry. But once the bridegroom is taken away from the guests, then there will be plenty of time to return to fasting! So fasting demands that  are engaged in discerning the times. Fasting will someday resume because the situation has changed. At that ominous time people will be trying to eliminate the bridegroom. And so too, when Jesus speaks of new cloth patches on old cloth garments, and new wine in old wineskins, He is speaking about the incompatibility of fasting while Jesus is still with them. Some things just don’t fit together. It’s all about discerning the times.

Then Mark concludes chapter 2 with these words:

“23 One sabbath Jesus was going through the cornfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?’ 25 And He said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? 26 He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.’ 27 Then Jesus said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; 28 so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath’” Mark 2:23-28.

Jesus and those becoming His enemies share more and more fundamental differences around forgiveness association with sinners, and fasting. Now Mark adds another: Sabbath observance.

The Pharisees correctly assume that it is Jesus’ business to instruct His disciples on appropriate Sabbath behavior. Jesus defends the disciples’ right to do what they are doing. He does not, however, get caught up in picky disputes about exactly what is work and what is not. Instead, He steps back from the immediate objection and makes a series of provocative points about legalism and freedom, His own royal sovereignty, the divine purpose for the Sabbath, and His own authority to regulate appropriate Sabbath activity.

So today, it may seem a bit of a reach to see Jesus as the bridegroom. But if one of the biblical images of eternity is understood as a Royal Banquet, then perhaps I can understand Jesus as the Bridegroom. On a spiritual level, I can see in myself a heart that is like a new patch of cloth. In order to be sewn into the heart of Jesus, I must shrink myself and pray for an increase of the heart of Christ sewn into my daily life. As well, so must I change my old self so that the new wine of Jesus may live in me. So, I am in prayer that what needs to be shrunk or made new in me may be done through the merciful grace of God.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.