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Then He went out by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them. As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him. Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi's house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, "How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard it, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."
The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?" And 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."
- Mark 2:13-22
Yesterday, we read that Jesus had again entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them. Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you." And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, "Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, "Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise, take up your bed and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins" -- He said to the paralytic, "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this!"
Then He went out by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them. As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him. Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi's house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, "How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard it, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." Levi is also Matthew, the Evangelist (see Matthew 9:9-13). Jewish tax collectors were assigned by Roman overlords to specific areas. These men, backed by the Roman military, were then free to also extract extra revenues for their own profit. In addition to collaboration with the Romans, their corruption and fraud meant other Jews hated them and considered them unclean (Matthew 11:19). So, it's really quite startling, to say the least, that Jesus would choose a tax collector as disciple, and it's offensive to the Pharisees that He dines with them also. But Jesus' response is simple and also startlingly clear: He goes where there is need of healing, of physician. He makes it clear that repentance is a kind of healing medicine, correcting ailments and afflictions.
The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?" And 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." My study bible says that Jews typically fasted twice a week (see Luke 18:12), on Monday and Thursday. Public fasts were observed regularly or occasionally proclaimed, particularly on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:31-34) and in times of mourning (Zechariah 7:5; 8:19). However, the time of the Messiah is a wedding feast -- a time of joy, gladness, and celebration. Jesus is proclaiming that day here, and declaring Himself to be Messiah/Bridegroom. For Christians, fasting would become a time of preparation for the Wedding Feast. My study bible suggests that the old garment and old wineskins are the Old Covenant and the Law -- imperfect and temporary. The new wineskins are the New Covenant and those in Christ. It says, "The new wine is the Holy Spirit dwelling within renewed people, who cannot be constrained by the old precepts of the Law."
Today's reading gives us a focus on change; how Christ's coming into the world changes the focus and the prescription. We have observed earlier in Mark's Gospel how all things are framed in a focus of healing. A right-relationship to God creates a healing, sets right, is a correction to the Fall. Jesus begins His ministry with preaching in the synagogues, but the preaching has an immediate effect: "unclean spirits" are cast out of ailing human beings, and all kinds of healings take place. In today's reading we take this a step further, so that we can see truly the power of this ministry. Sin is a form of sickness, an ailment that needs healing. Repentance is a cure, it's the medicine for the ailment. But repentance why and for whom? This is the real question. Jesus' identity as Christ or Messiah is the clue we have to just how and why repentance works: it's to turn us back to the author of our creation. It returns us to the perspective of the One who truly knows who we are and can set us on the right path to true identity: who we are and who we need to be, how we can live a "healthy" life in the sense that we return to the state which is "whole" for us. We return to our true selves in Him. He is the Physician who corrects the ailment of fallenness. Yesterday's reading was about the paralytic let down through the roof, brought to Christ by His friends, and we commented on how Tradition sees paralysis as a metaphor for sin. We can be "stuck" in sin, unable to move forward. We may be so used to one way of thinking or another that keeps us "stuck" in one place, that we can't really see how to change to go forward and into a more whole or healed place. This is Christ's place as Physician, to help us to be set aright, to heal what ails us and give us the prescription for health, the medicine we need. Repentance is a turning back to the One who has given us life, the real Physician we need. In this way the new garments, new wineskins, with room to stretch into and to grow and expand are the appropriate ones for this startling ministry. We may think of a new garment as one that shrinks, but what it does is come to fit us properly, to show true identity, who we really are. Each one is an image created and given by Christ, living in Christ, and it's to that image that we return in real health. This becomes the true "picture" of health, the icon within us, to which we seek restoration by the Physician. You can't get there without an understanding of health, a concept which seeks to redeem. But we must cooperate, we must accept. We take the medicine, even at the times when we don't know what "health" really looks like. We exchange the old for the new in this sense. Can we accept who we are in Him, in His sight?
