MARK 2:18-22 MEDITATION - Part 2
FASTING THE LAW AND THE PHARISEES
Fasting, the Law and the Pharisees
Let us start with the Pharisees, how they approach fasting and how they approach the law in general. What we notice, first of all, is that the Pharisee relates to fasting outside the framework of any sort of personal relationship. It is, in fact, an instrumentalisation, using fasting as a means to an end, for their own convenience. It is an I-It relationship, to use the terms of Martin Buber; it is a dehumanizing, a depersonalizing approach. The Pharisee sees something that is good, fasting, part of the Law; he accepts it, welcomes it and applies it to his life with a degree of success. As his success grows, however, so does his self-satisfaction, a sense of achievement. He sees himself as being good, righteous, he is chuffed with himself. He has done this in his own strength and he is proud of his achievement. The problem with this is that fasting and the Law in general were devised to bring man closer to God and make us aware that the law does not give us the ability of being and doing what it prescribes. The law should lead us, therefore to humility.
For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar (Psalm 138: 6).
Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way (Psalm 25:8, 9).
Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility towards one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).
In reality, by relying on his own strength, the legalistic approach of the Pharisee is actually driving him further away from God, further from that vital relationship, which was the essential aim of fasting and the law. It is a short step from being self-satisfied, seeing oneself as good and righteous to seeing those who do not do the same as being somewhat inferior. Hence, in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican (Luke 9-14), the Pharisee can thank God that he is not like others: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men” (v. 11). So, what happens here is that the legalistic approach actually places obstacles in the way we relate not only to God but also to others. It brings separation on two different levels. Relationships occupy a secondary role if any at all in this approach. The way we relate to God influences the way we relate to others and to self.
The Pharisee has the illusion of drawing closer to God when, in reality the opposite is true. Therefore, this approach also constitutes an obstacle to self-knowledge. Do we fall into the same trap as the Pharisees? He is the separated one. This is the meaning of the word ‘Pharisee’. Separated from healthy relationships, separated from true self-knowledge and separated from God. The words “I am not like other men” establish an insurmountable obstacle in his relations with others. In verse 12 of this parable fasting twice a week justifies his superiority, but to himself alone. Man can justify to himself anything and the opposite of anything! In the parable it was the publican who went home justified before God, not the Pharisee. It was the publican, not the Pharisee who had a genuine relationship with God. This legalistic approach to fasting and to the law traps the Pharisee in a prison from which he is unable to escape. This is the image of the unsaved man, the man living under the Old Covenant:
we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me (Romans 7: 14-17).
When we have this I-It relationship with the law we create within us a split personality, a separation within, an unhealthy relationship with self, a prison that leads to a lack of inner freedom and eventually despair. This legalistic approach makes people morally blind “I am not like other men”. It creates a critical sense, envy and a sour and hostile spirit and this is projected onto all relationships, hence the hostility of the Pharisees towards Christ and his disciples. Hence the harsh and critical spirit of those who have adopted a legalistic rather than a relational approach to faith in general. Much of the effort we put into our evangelisation is unfruitful because what comes across to the unbeliever is this holier-than-thou attitude of which perhaps we ourselves are unaware. The Pharisees are unable to relate to Christ in any meaningful way as happens in our spiritual life when we choose the legalistic rather than the personal, relational way. We either despair, become self-righteous or hostile towards that which is truly good and wholesome. The whole point of the gift of the Holy Spirit in baptism is to set us free from this self-destroying legalism. “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezekiel 36:27).
Unlike Paul in Romans 7, many who attempt to fulfil the law in their own strength rather than in the Spirit, many who have this legalistic approach to faith, either lose their faith or become similar to the Pharisees.
The Pharisees, in our episode, have a highly critical, uncompassionate, unlovable spirit. They did not fast for the Lord but for themselves, to put themselves in the limelight and demonstrate their superiority. They might well ask themselves the same question the Lord asked in Zechariah 7:5:
“Say to all the people of the land and the priests, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?”. Or was it for yourselves?
The focus on the Lord is detached from their fasts. Their fasts were self-serving rather than God-serving. The relationship for which these fasts were prescribed is relegated to the background, if at all present. Everything is depersonalised. This is the inherent danger in the legalistic approach to faith. The relational aspect is no longer there; the raison d’être of fasting has gone and we are left with the sterile application of a prescribed law. The I-Thou relationship with God that the law was meant to encourage has turned into an I-it relationship with a traditional practice, a sterile, depersonalised relationship. The new wine of the New Covenant brought by Christ cannot fit into these old wineskins, into this legalistic mindset. Their heart is not in the observance of the law. There is no life in this, just a sterile burden, the heavy weight of which becomes oppressive. It is precisely from this burden that Christ sets us free. He gives us rest from this interminable struggle. Christ calls us to himself, as he called all his banquetting friends in this passage, saying “Come to me, all you who are weary and overburdened , and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Pharisaic legalism is precisely the burden from which Jesus sets us free and gives us the rest so sorely needed.
Their practice of fasting and following numerous rules and traditions was an occasion to draw attention to their piety and give vent to their sour, critical, hostile spirit, which is incompatible with the real spirit of fasting and repentance as Isaiah says:
“‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? (Isaiah 58:3-7)
The genuine approach to fasting and to the law in general is relational and in direct opposition to the dehumanising legalistic approach of the Pharisees. New wine cannot be put into old wineskins.
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Mark 2:18-22 Text and Questions
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