Wednesday Bible Study: What Jesus asked, Part 5

 

At our next stop, the people, in a pair of their own questions, asked, "What of the old religion?"  Of course they didn't ask it directly, but in questioning Jesus's actions...

Mat 9:9  As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him.
Mat 9:10  And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.
Mat 9:11  And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

Mat 9:14  Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"

Here's the thing:  The old religion under the Pharisees had devolved into two things:  Putting up at least a pretense of holiness, and adherence to ritual.  But Jesus's question went to the heart of what He was trying to accomplish:

Mat 9:15  And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 

Now let's tear this down. The religious leaders had made religion a "me" thing, instead of a God thing.  Their desire in religion was to follow the rules, and look better than the next guy doing it.  But Jesus answered their first question by showing them what GOD had in mind for faith:

Mat 9:12  But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
Mat 9:13  Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." 

Jesus took this from the book of the prophet Hosea...

Hos 6:5  Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light.
Hos 6:6  For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

The goal from now on was to bring sinners to repentance. But while the evil were admonished in this, the righteous didn't get the application, which led the Disciples of John to ask basically the same thing.  The Pharisees were given an Old Testament answer that told them, "You should be smart enough to KNOW this answer, and be DOING it."  The sincere seekers of knowledge got an explanation...

Mat 9:15  And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
Mat 9:16  No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made.
Mat 9:17  Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved."

This time, I put Jesus's whole answer, because it all goes together.  Point at a time:

Jesus is the Bridegroom, and He is creating the Bride- His Church.

The old religion had become a worn garment, an old wineskin.  A new faith was required.

Trying to serve God the old way was only going to drive man farther from God.

To preserve one's soul, he would have to put himself in the NEW wineskin.

There is a point where even a church becomes to legalistic, too overburdened with ' dos and don'ts', and in effect you worship the rule, the tradition, the ritual, instead of God.  Let me take you to someone who knew the difference:

2Sa 6:14  And David danced before the LORD with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod.
2Sa 6:15  So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting and with the sound of the horn.
2Sa 6:16  As the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart...

2Sa 6:20  And David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, "How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants' female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!"
2Sa 6:21  And David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the LORD--and I will make merry before the LORD.
2Sa 6:22  I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes. But by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor."

Every time I see a Catholic friend on FB post a article about playing the right music at church, or the "right attitude of the hands while praying", I think of this.  And I think of another time Jesus spoke to the leaders...

Mat 23:23  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

Jesus's new Church was to be a church of application, not ritual; a faith aimed at God, not at man.