“Room for something new”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Friday, February 23, 2024 Mark 2:13-22 (Forward, p. 25) CEV p. 1028
Here, in the latter part of today’s reading, Jesus uses two images that were very familiar to His audiences but are largely ‘lost’ on us today. Rather than storing wine, or allowing wine to ferment in wineskins, we habitually use glass bottles. That means that we don’t have to worry about the elasticity, or lack thereof, of a wineskin. And likewise with cloth: we now, with the development of Sanforized fabrics and similar technologies we now have preshrunk cloth to work with. There is no problem with shrinkage now and so this image is largely lost on us.
However, Jesus’ audience certainly would have ‘got it.’ They would have readily understood that certain things—or people—just don’t have the capacity—or the willingness—to accept or accommodate change or growth. And, interestingly, it isn’t a matter of age, at least if you take Jesus’ examples to heart. The stiff, inflexible wineskins were certainly old, but the offending piece of cloth used to patch a garment was new. That’s why it shrunk. And isn’t this true to life as we know it? Inflexibility, unwillingness to change or adapt, isn’t a prerogative of those who are more advanced in years. Younger people can be just as staid in their ways and thinking!
Interestingly, these adages about cloth patches and wineskins also apply rather vividly to what has just gone on in Jesus’ ministry. First off is His choice of Levi (known as Matthew elsewhere) as a disciple. As a hated tax collector, he would normally be the very last person you would choose. Certainly, he would have raised eyebrows, evoked comments from the other disciples. Stationed in the bustling lakeside community of Capernaum, he probably was well known by the other disciples as the one who nickeled and dimed them, who gouged them on behalf of their Roman overlords. In fact, he may have been the person to whom the fisherman owed money for his financing of their fishing fleet. And to say that he would have instantly raised the antagonism of Simon the Zealot, another disciple, would be a gross understatement! But Jesus was apparently not focused on any such thing. He only saw the man, Levi, and saw his worth, and his potential, and so with each and all of us!
And then there is the community reaction. Not only did some people present find fault with Jesus’ choice of Levi, they also questioned Jesus’ chumminess with all sorts of low-life’s and undesirables. The Pharisees among His critics were sticklers for ritual cleanliness and strict adherence to the Law at least as far as they personally were concerned. And how did they do this? By removing themselves, distancing themselves, from contact with any questionable sorts. This left those people simply to ‘stew in their own juice,’ but as far as the Pharisees were concerned, that was their problem. The Pharisees were focused only on themselves, and not on the needs of the wider population. They were basically selfish. They were quite happy, willing, to ‘write them off.’ To Jesus, however, this was counter to the will of God and the love of God. There were hurting and needy people out there, people in need of a physician, and so Jesus went out to help them. And so, too, it should be with us.
However, all this might be something quite new for us. Like wine in a new wineskin or a new patch on cloth, it may stretch our perceptions, either of ourselves or of others. We may not see ourselves as people that God wants to use in new and incredibly surprising ways, just as He choose to do with Levi. And we may not see the ‘needy’ around us—by the way, they may not be ‘needy’ in ways that we immediately recognize—as people that God cares for and wants us to reach out to. God is continually doing a new thing. May we have the eyes to see it, and the wills to embrace it. Amen.
Forward notes: “When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’” (verse 16).
“Again and again, Jesus’s actions challenge us to rethink our attitudes toward the marginalized or excluded in our society. Do we have the courage to sit with those deemed unworthy by our culture or our biases? Can we see the divine in all people, regardless of background or identity?
“Jesus’s abundant love made people uncomfortable because it was outside the rules. We don’t heal on the Sabbath. We don’t consort with ‘those people.’ We have rules. We follow the rules. If we live into Jesus’s love for all, how will this challenge us? How will it change us? Who will we become? Like the Pharisees in the readings, we are frightened by this
approach. The mindset of scarcity produces fear and division. And doesn’t that speak to us as a church right now? What is comfortable to us is scarcity. We are scared of abundance for all people because our worldview might shift, and our own sense of self and others might be transformed. Let us strive to be like Jesus, who was willing to set at the table with all people. Even us.”
Moving Forward: “Who do you need to invite to the table?”