Day 13: Have you found your "one thing"? (Mark 2:18-22)
Today’s Passage: Mark 2:18-22
Jack Palance, who played the character Curly in the 1991 movie City Slickers, memorialized for a generation the idea that each of us must find our “one thing”. You can watch a 3-minute clip here.
Beyond entertaining, crusty old Curly has indeed put his finger on the challenge for us as humans.
Consider Jesus’ remarks today. What starts as a seemingly simple question (Why are his disciples not fasting) ends with a rather cryptic answer.
First, as a reminder, this episode is part of the ongoing conflict with religious authorities.
Second, Jesus himself has fasted when he was in the desert (see Matthew 4:1-2).
Third, John’s disciples and the Pharisees mayhave been fasting for completely different reasons. While Mark’s Gospel is not overly concerned with chronology, if you parallel Mark’s with Matthew’s you will note that by this point in Jesus’ ministry, John the Baptist is in jail.
Which brings us to Jesus being asked this question and His answer. People have wrestled with both Jesus’ reference to the bridal feast and these parables of wineskins and patches.
My sense is Jesus is trying to get us to understand THE ONE THING.
In the Old Testament the bridegroom is an image of God (Ho. 2:19; Is. 54:4; 62:4). The New Testament authors similarly. John the Baptist refers to Jesus in this manner in Jn. 3:29 as well as St. Paul in 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:31-32.
The language of Jesus referring to himself as God probably shocks them; it should.
He follows it up immediately with patches and wineskins.
Before I get to the ONE THING, let me observe that some have used this passage to justify abandoning substantial portions of the Bible. They claim that Jesus is revealing new ways. It is true that there are many Old Testament rituals we no longer follow.
Yet to abandon the Scripture is to misunderstand Jesus. Jesus does not discard the Bible.
He himself has an extremely high view of the Bible (after all He is its Author). He himself completely trusted the Scriptures. Look at Matthew 5:17, or Luke 24:44-46, or John 5:39.
When we use this text to justify news ways that deviate from the God’s design for the human race, we are unfortunately making Jesus, and His teaching, into a twisted reflection of ourselves.
So, back now to the ONE THING. What is Jesus saying?
Jesus is saying something very straightforward.
He has already connected Himself to the Old Testament image of God as bridegroom. Now He notes that He and His Gospel are the “new cloth” and the “new wine”.
Jesus is not discarding the Old Testament. He is fulfilling it fully.
Jesus and the Gospel is so new, and so completely fulfills all of God’s designs, that all the human ideas- past, present, and future, find their meaning in Jesus. You don’t “fill Jesus” into something. Jesus fills you. You don’t tack Jesus onto something. Jesus makes all things new.
Jesus, who is the Gospel, is THE ONE THING IN LIFE.