church

INI
Rogate
The Fifth Sunday after Easter
May 9, 2010
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

UNNATURAL PAIRS
Mark 2:18-22

Grace, mercy, and peace be with you from God the Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, Amen. Today's text is found in the second
chapter of Mark, beginning with the 18th verse, as follows:

"And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. And they came
and said to Him, 'Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but
Your disciples do not fast?' So Jesus said to them, 'Can the friends of the
bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the
bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the
bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.
No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece
pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. And no one puts new wine
into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is
spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new
wineskins.'" Here ends our text.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Whose grace is new to us every morning, Dear
Fellow Redeemed,

Some things just naturally go together. Like Mother’s Day and flowers, hot
dogs and mustard, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. You think of one, you
think of the other: they're a natural pair. On the other hand, there are certain
things that everyone recognizes do not belong together. Loud jokes at a funeral,
gasoline and an open flame, oil and water. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to
figure out that one is incompatible with the other.

Wouldn't it be nice if all the choices in life were that easy to make?
Unfortunately, it's not always so clear to people which things belong together
and which things don't. For example, marriage and commitment belong
together, but a heart-breakingly high divorce indicates that many couples
haven't learned that. Drinking and driving obviously do not belong together, but
accident statistics show a lot of people haven't figured that out yet. In the
sphere of Christianity, you'd be surprised how many people can't tell the
difference between the Gospel of Jesus Christ and legalism. Legalism is the idea
that you can please God and attain heaven by doing good deeds. This idea has
been around for a long time - in Jesus' day, it was the Pharisees who had a
corner on the legalism market. But as our Lord points out in this morning's text,
the Gospel and legalism cannot possibly go together, and as a Christian, it's
essential that you be able to tell the difference! That’s why our theme today is:

UNNATURAL PAIRS
I. Drummed-up sorrow doesn't belong with Christian joy.
II. Pharisaic legalism doesn't belong with Gospel freedom.

In the Jewish religion, fasting - that is, going without food - was originally
meant as a sign of sorrow over sin and repentance. The law of Moses had
required it for one day out of the year, the Day of Atonement. But over the
centuries, the self-righteous Jews had gradually imposed more and more days of
fasting. By the time of Christ, the strictest Jews went without food twice a
week, on Mondays and Thursdays. For most of them, fasting was no longer
connected with repentance. It had turned into simply another way to look good
in the eyes of others. Jesus warned His disciples, "Do not be like the hypocrites,
with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to
men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward." -- Mat 6:16.

As the account of our text opens, the disciples of the Pharisees and the
disciples of John had been fasting. Well, they happened to run into Jesus and
His disciples, who had just come from a big dinner at the house of Simon. You
dieters - have you ever had to pass up food when the people around you are
eating all they want? Irritating, isn't it? That’s why this rubbed the Pharisees the
wrong way. They said to Jesus, "Why do the disciples of John and of the
Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?" Look at us! We're acting sad and
going without food! Why aren't Your disciples doing likewise? In answer, Jesus
used the illustration of a wedding celebration. He asked them, "Can the friends
of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?"

-- Now there's one thing that hasn't changed! Think about the last time you
were a member of a wedding party: how many sad faces did you see? How many
members of the party were so depressed that they refused to eat anything at the
reception? Well, what a dumb idea! Obviously, a wedding is a time of joy, a
time when people put aside their troubles and celebrate with the bride and
groom. Sadness and a wedding -- that's certainly an unnatural pair!

Well, in the Bible, salvation is sometimes pictured as a wedding celebration, at
which Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom. As Christians, you and I are guests at this
feast of salvation. We are members of the bridal party, invited to share freely in
the joy of our Lord. What confuses me is how many believers there are who go
around with sad faces all the time! They act as if being a Christian is some kind
of huge burden they have to bear. They seem to think that if they don't work
their face into a constant frown, people will think they're not as pious and
devout as they should be.

On the one hand, sorrow - on the other, joy. That's an unnatural pair - two
things that just don't go together, at least not for us. Because drummed up
sorrow doesn't belong with Christian joy! Jesus said, "As long as they have the
bridegroom with them they cannot fast." For Jesus' disciples to mourn and fast
while Jesus was still with them wouldn't have made any sense. Worse, it would
have given a wrong impression - the impression that Jesus was not the Savior of
the world, like He said He was. A proper time to mourn was coming, Jesus said;
it would arrive on Good Friday, the day when He would give up His life on the
cross. But not even that sorrow would last! It would be completely
overshadowed by the triumphant victory of His resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Jesus told His disciples, "Most assuredly, I say to you that you...will be
sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy." -- John 16:20.

Likewise, there is a proper place for sorrow in the life of a Christian. Paul said,
"Godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, not to be regretted." -- 2 Cor
7:10. When you look at the cross, you see the suffering that your sin inflicted on
Jesus, and it naturally makes you sad and repentant. But how can you stop
there, at the cross? Jesus didn't! He rose from grave and proclaimed victory over
sin, death and the devil. And the Bible promises that His victory is your victory,
as we read in Romans, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who
are in Christ Jesus."

Easter was three weeks ago. But if you're a Christian, then the Easter joy is
really for every day of your life! Think about it - what sorrow is there left in
your life that the open tomb of Easter has not conquered? Do the sins of your
past trouble you? Look up Romans 4:25 - the open tomb says you've been
declared not guilty. Are you worried about the details of this life - money, bills,
your future? Look up Ephesians 1:20-22 - the open tomb says that Jesus lives to
rule in your life and help you handle your problems. Are you saddened by the
thought of death? Look up John 14:19 - the open tomb says you're going to rise
to eternal life. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has given us the freedom to be happy
-- so let's use that freedom!

Drummed-up sorrow just doesn't belong in the presence of the Savior. Jesus
explained that to those fasting Pharisees. But He went on to probe a deeper
problem they had - the problem of legalism. They recognized Jesus as a skilled
teacher, but they thought He ought to bring His new teachings into line with
their old teachings. Theirs was a religion of do's and don'ts: do fast on Mondays
and Thursdays, don't have anything to do with Gentiles; do wear certain kinds
of clothes, don't eat certain kinds of food. It was a religion that said "if you look
good on the outside, then you are good." This was the legalism of the Pharisees.

On the one hand the Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ, on the other hand, the
law-oriented religion of the Pharisees. Now that's an unnatural pair if there ever
was one! Pharisaic legalism doesn't belong with Gospel freedom.

To illustrate, Jesus said, "No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old
garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made
worse. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine
bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined."
Meaning? You can't sew a little patch of Gospel on a garment made out of Law
and expect to wear it into heaven. You can't force the sweet wine of grace into
the cracked old wineskin of the Law, and think you can drink eternal life from
it. I'm sure that heaven and hell will both contain people who did a lot of good
works during their lifetimes. The difference is: the ones in heaven did them
because they were saved by Jesus, the ones in hell did them in order to try and
save themselves. That's exactly the difference between the Gospel and legalism.
The two definitely do not belong together! The Bible says plainly, "By the
works of the Law no flesh shall be justified."

You know what a plumb-line is. Well, a plumb-line’s only good for one thing –
it measures straightness. If you hang a plumb line from the top of a wall, it can
tell you that the wall is crooked. But obviously it can't straighten the wall out,
can it? That’s not its job! The Law is like a plumb line: it can show you your
sins, but it can't save you from them. That’s not its job. For that, you need the
pure Gospel. The Gospel is the Good News that Jesus has kept the Law
perfectly in your place, and that His death pays for all the times you've broken
it.

And what about all those Old Testament rules and regulations? How come you
and I aren't required to worship on Saturday, and sacrifice animals, and observe
Old Testament holidays like the Passover? It's because all these things were
designed to point God's Old Testament people toward the coming Savior. Once
Jesus arrived, they became unnecessary! As Jesus said, "New wine must be put
into new wineskins." God has done away with the Old Covenant and given us,
in Christ, the New Covenant of the Gospel. It's a covenant of Christian liberty,
where our actions are motivated by love for our Savior, and not by an urge to
save ourselves by keeping rules and regulations.

This is the Gospel freedom we enjoy, and this is one place where the old
Pharisaic legalism is completely unnatural. The Apostle Paul said, "Stand fast
therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be
entangled again with a yoke of bondage." -- Gal 5:1. Don't let anyone tell you
you've got to worship on Saturday, or skip meat on Fridays, or chalk up a
certain number of good deeds in order to get to heaven. If you have a
Spirit-worked faith in Jesus as your Savior from sin, then you've already got
everything you need to get you into heaven. As for good works - they're the
fruits of that faith. They'll come, as naturally as apples grow on apple trees.

Christian joy and Gospel freedom. These are two things that belong together in
our lives as believers. God grant us the wisdom to distinguish them from the
things that don't belong there, and to cultivate them till the end of our days!
AMEN.