Old Wine and Old Garments

I once heard of an African sect where everyone wears white clothes, taking the metaphor of white garments literally. We are tempted to place the letter into the things of the spirit. Jesus interpreted the law of Moses in the spirit and not the letter. In Mark 2:21-22 he taught about people attempting to combine the old with the new. We attempt to mingle the old way of the letter with the new, even in our interpretation of the new. Paul's cultural commentary about hair becomes church law, Old Testament letter of the law issues regarding things like Sabbaths and tithing become New Testament letter of the law rules instead of spiritual principles. We forget the example that circumcision of the heart no longer requires circumcision of the flesh. Do we also circumcise Christ's teachings by applying the letter when we should be learning to understand things in the spirit?

Pick Up Your Mat and Go Home

Have you wasted years of your life fretting over the consequences of bad decisions? Have you spent too much time lying on a mat of troubles, laid low by foolish mistakes? Have sin and corruption made you sick in body, mind and soul? Have good friends carried you to Jesus in prayer and laid your soul before him asking for healing? Know that Jesus has seen the faith of you and your friends. Others may question in their hearts if Jesus has the authority to forgive you. Know that Jesus heals and forgives. He said in regard to a paralyzed man in Mark 2:10 that he would prove that he had the authority to forgive sins. Know that Jesus tells you also to stand up, pick up your mat upon which you have laid in troubles and sickness for too long, and go home. You are forgiven! You are healed!

I Thought You were a Good Guy

I once overheard a man blurt out, "I thought you were a good guy!" after he found out that his friend enjoyed an occasional alcoholic drink. In Mark 2:15-17 we read that Jesus ate with such inferior "sinners" as defined by the Pharisees and their rules. Are we sometimes guilty of looking down our noses at others who believe differently to us. The scribes used the word sinners in a sense of outcasts, narrowly defined by their human standards, which they mistakenly thought were God's. The Scribes and Pharisees had a history of faithfulness to the law and were proud descendants of martyrs under Antiochus Ephiphanes. They viewed others as second-rate sinners by comparison. Do we ostracize people who don't have our proud church history or meet our fabricated standards? Next time we are tempted to do so, let's remember that Jesus ate with those that religious people had cast aside.