Some Roads Don’t Get There Mark 2:18-22
In 1963 I was 14 years old. My friends and I could get a license to drive a 5 horsepower, or less scooter. Most of us got scooters and the license to drive them.
We began to go to a place between Flagstaff and Sedona, Ariz., called Oak Creek Canyon. We would go there almost daily in the summer. By 16 years of age, I had a car and spent lots of time there.
The road through Oak Creek is steep and filled with switchbacks. The road from the 1960’s, and the road today is the second road through Oak Creek Canyon.
When driving through you can see remnants of the old road that was abandoned in the 1920’s. It has caved in, in places and dropped off into the canyon in many places. If you tried to get from Sedona to Flagstaff or from Flagstaff to Sedona on that road, you couldn’t reach your destination.
You see, some roads don’t get there!
In Mark 2:18-22 Jesus is talking about a road that doesn’t get there and one road that does get there.
In verses 18-20 we find John the Baptist’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fasting. So, some folks ask Jesus why these other people are fasting, and His disciples aren’t.
In the law the Jews were to deny themselves on the Day of atonement. This was a fast. They would abstain from marital relations, food, alcohol, bathing and oils to anoint the body.
The fast was for the purpose of selfestablishing holiness by keeping of that law. By the time of Jesus, the Pharisees fasted every Tuesday and Thursday as a tradition out of the law in Leviticus.
Jesus explains He’s the bridegroom, and He’s with His followers now. If fact, He explains the time they were in was the wedding feast and no one can fast in the wedding feast. Think of it like this, “No one fasts at a wedding reception!”
Jesus goes so far as to say the Bridegroom, Jesus Himself will be taken away and then His followers will fast.
Jesus was taken away when He ascended to Heaven. By then a New Covenant was in place establishing holiness by what Jesus paid on the cross. His followers could fast then as a way to enhance prayer, but not to self-establish holiness by way of law keeping.
Remember this gospel starts out with the words, “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (Mark 1:1 NIV) The Greek word translated “beginning” is the same Greek word that translates the Hebrew word for “beginning” in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (NIV)
The gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God is a new beginning. Ephesians 2:15A puts it perfectly, “by abolishing in his flesh the law with it’s commandments and regulations.”
When Jesus died on the cross, He abolished the law with its commandments and regulations. He wiped out law keeping to self-establish holiness. That road of law keeping doesn’t get you to Holiness, in fact, it never did.
The first big point Jesus is making is there’s no more law keeping to selfestablish holiness. That road doesn’t get there!
In verse 21 Jesus talks about trying to patch a piece of clothing. In ancient times no one had polyester or polyester blends of cloth that didn’t shrink.
Most clothing was made of wool and shrunk when you washed it. Let’s say you had a nice tunic. You might wear a piece of clothing for years. When it was washed the first time it shrunk.
Let’s say you get a tear in your tunic. No one had a closet full of replacement clothes in ancient times, so you would patch your tunic and keep wearing it.
If you take your tunic and “patch” it with a new piece of cloth that had never been washed, what will happen to your unshrunk patch the first time your tunic was washed? The patch will shrink and tear away from your tunic!
After such an unwise exercise your tunic could be torn beyond repair.
Why did Jesus tell this story here? He’s making an important point. What He’s coming to do won’t patch up the old legal system and make it work.
What He’s coming to do is so new and radical it will just rip away from the old Legal system and rip the whole thing making it useless!
Jesus is starting over with a new beginning!
He’s not coming to patch up the old legal system that’s a feckless attempt to self-establish holiness by law keeping.
Jesus isn’t coming to patch up an old road that won’t get you there!
Remember He came to abolish the law with its regulations and commandments that can’t self-establish holiness and right relationship with God. When Jesus died on the cross, He destroyed the law and replaced it with complete payment for sin. His payment establishes our holiness.
Next Jesus talks about not putting new wine in old wineskins, or you will burst the skins and the wine, and the skins would be lost.
New, unfermented wine was put in new wineskins. The skins were goat skins. They would be reasonably fresh, would lap over and be sewed together so they would be waterproof, or in this case wine proof.
When new wine that was unfermented was put in the skins, the wine skins were new enough to expand when the wine fermented. If you put new wine in wine skins that had been used before they would not expand and when the wine fermented, producing gases the skins wouldn’t expand and would burst.
New wine had to be put in new wine skins!
Remember the gospel of Jesus is a new beginning. That new beginning, or new wine can’t be put in old wine skins. The old wine skins amount to the law keeping to self-establish holiness! If you put the new wine in the old wine skins of law the old skins blow up.
What’s the new wine?
If you jump forward to Mark chapter 14 you find Jesus and His disciples in the upper room. He establishes the Lord’s supper at that dinner.
In verse 23 of Mark 14 Jesus took “the cup,” which was a cup of wine and gave it to His disciples telling them to drink from it. Then in verse 24 Jesus says this, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” (NIV) Then Jesus told the disciples He wouldn’t be drinking that “cup” again until He drank it with them in the Kingdom of God.”
What’s the new wine? It’s Jesus’ blood of the covenant that would be poured out for many! The new wine is Jesus’ blood that was given for us on the cross.
Romans 5:9, “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him.” (NIV)
To be justified means to be given legal right standing with God. We’re given legal right standing with God through the blood of Christ that was given for us on the cross!
What that means is sin sentenced us all to death, but Jesus substituted for us at our execution. His blood paid that price completely and we have right standing with God, holiness based on that blood of the new covenant that was given for us.
The standard is to trust that blood to save and secure Heaven for us, not some legal standard.
You can fast every Tuesday and Thursday for the rest of your life and be going down the road that won’t get you to the holiness of God.
You can decide you have to wear the right clothing to church ever Sunday for the rest of your life and still drive off the road to God’s holiness!
You can decide that never having a drink of alcohol for the rest of your life will save you for heaven. That’s just a patch on the law that will tear lose and be meaningless for your salvation and holiness!
You will drive off the road and end up in the canyon.
You can eat by Jewish dietary laws for the rest of your life thinking such a diet will render you holy before God. God’s new wine is what gets poured in your old wine skins and your legal standard will explode like the skins with new wine!
Have you come to Christ in faith? Yes! Have you sinned since then? Of course! We all have. Do you think you have to be good enough to go to Heaven? Do you think you have to be holy enough to be saved? Guess what. You’re not holy enough to be save and neither am I.
The new wine of Christ’s blood establishes holiness! Any standard other than Jesus’ blood is like trying to drive from Sedona to Flagstaff on the old road. You can’t get there. Some roads don’t get there.
Trust the new wine of Christ’s blood to establish your holiness! It’s the only road that will get you there.