The Disciples Of John The Baptist Asked Jesus About The Nature Of The

The disciples of John the Baptist asked Jesus about the nature of the gospel. Was it just a patch to fix out worn-out Judaism or was it a totally new way of living?

Matthew 9:14-17 "Then the disciples of John came to Him saying :Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?" And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. No-one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled; and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.".

John the Baptist initiated a prophetic reform movement with Judaism. Later on in Matthew John is called "the greatest of those born of women", (Matthew 11:11-13) so powerful was His message, influence and character. Thus John the Baptist was the finest product of Judaism as Judaism. On the other hand Jesus was not a reformer within Judaism but its fulfillment and end. He fulfilled the Law, ended the system of sacrifice and initiated a new and living way through His flesh. Jesus was new, and Jesus was different.

John's disciples sensed something different about Jesus and expressed this by questioning a practice - or the lack of it - the complete lack of asceticism and fasting among Jesus' disciples. This contrasted with the tried and true ways of John, the Pharisees and virtually all religions. Serious disciples of Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism etc were tough on themselves - but the followers of Jesus went to parties, drank wine, were friends of sinners and did not fast at all. They did not act like religious disciples. This was definitely questionable. Just not "serious enough".

At times Jesus even encouraged this levity and laxity by saying to the exhausted and worn-out followers of strict and strenuous Pharisees things such as: "Come to me , all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart (not strict and haughty)and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Jesus told ordinary daily folk that Christianity would be easy on them, a light burden, not a heavy impossible chore.

Such an easy faith offends the serious-minded, those who think spiritual advances should be deserved, sweated for, strenuously attained along an eight-fold path or seven steps to Christian maturity or through thirty day fasts. But Jesus said it would be easy, that he alone was the path and that His disciples were not required to fast as part of their training under Him at all - and in fact there is no record of them ever doing so.

The new faith was a new wine, a new life, an easy effervescent way of living. And it wasn't a "patch" sewn on the old faith, a mending of Judaism that had fallen into disrepair with corrupt and wicked High Priests and hypocrites abounding. The Jesus way not a continuation of the old but is a brand new way of meeting God who is now freely available to men and women through Christ. Why then are Christians worn out and weary with "trying to be a Christian"? Maybe many of these exhausted saints are trying to live the new faith by the old rules. Maybe they are fasting, striving, obeying, keeping the 613 laws of the Torah, keeping the additional oral laws of the Pharisees, watching every thought, renewing their minds, going to counselors, reading commentaries and Christian books. Running in circles. This is all obsolete as far as peace with God goes (though I still read commentaries and certainly obey God!!)

Peace with God does NOT come through our activities even through church attendance, tithing or any other good work. Peace with God comes the easy way by humbly accepting that we cannot make it ourselves and simply trusting and resting in what Jesus has done on our behalf.

Christian faith is like the party-filled life of the disciples, its FUN! Its an easy trusting walk with Jesus. Jesus taught His disciples to live well but He never laid burdens on them about going to the Temple or this or that action or performance. Jesus lets them eat all things, and does not say "No meat on Fridays" or "Fast in Lent" or whatever. Such performance based burdens are absolutely not there.

How come we end up on the treadmill of church committees and performance? Often because we seek human validation in times of doubt and uncertainty and someone says "this X and Y is what you must be doing.." and we fall for it. Or because we get in our heads that the Church mediates God to us and approval by Christian leaders equals approval by God and since they are happy when we run around lots in church and carry out their programs that must mean God is happy too. Or maybe we just feel we are significant and happy when we are wanted and busy and we merge that with our theology. Whatever the reason we can end up worn out, burned out and disillusioned with our true spiritual progress.

The old wineskins, the old religious structures of feasts and fasts, priests, temples and tithes, are simply no longer part of our necessary spiritual disciplines. Born-again believers are Spirit-filled beings who live in love, by faith, living a joyous, free easy life in community. The yoke is easy, the burden is light, when we rediscover salvation by faith alone and the wonderful availability of God in Christ.

Yesterday we saw that: a) The gospel is NEW it is a new way of living, not just a “patching” of Judaism. b) That the gospel is EASY and light and does not involve strenuous asceticism such as the prolonged or frequent fasting of John’s disciples and the Pharisees. c) That the gospel is AVAILABLE to all kinds of people even “unspiritual” ones that do not follow strict religious practices. d) That salvation is by faith alone. e) That Christians can get on a religious treadmill of Christian activity and good works and become exhausted and disillusioned. Today we shall return to the question of asceticism verses the Holy Spirit, religion verses new wine, and look again at what it means to serve God in the newness of the Spirit, not the oldness of the letter. Lets start with Colossians 2:18-23 (NKJV): “Let no-one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things he has not seen, vainly puffed up in his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and held together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. Therefore if you died with Christ to the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourself to regulations – “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things that perish with the using – according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.” This passage is about as clear as you can get that the old ascetic practices of the major world religions are not ministers of Christ, but distractions to the real spiritual life. They appear to be wise and spiritual but in fact do not restrain the flesh. The Holy Spirit alone can do that (Galatians 5:16-23) and no “law” or observance can replace His ministry. (Galatians 5:18)

There seems to be a recurring desire to replace Christ’s salvation with our works and the Holy Spirit’s sanctification with our practices for holiness. We prefer the seeming certainty of “ten steps” to following the self-crucifying leadings of God. But the end of such substitutions is spiritual dryness and death and emotional (and sometimes physical) exhaustion. The goodness evaporates and God becomes a taskmaster and a terror. We have to trust the intangible, the promises of God, the work of Christ and the inward workings of the Holy Spirit.

The impossibility of achieving sanctification by human means dawned on me as I sat on the back steps one dismal day in 1984. I was fed up with my lack of spiritual progress and in a blue funk of a mood I asked God for a magic wand to fix myself up. God gently said (in an inner voice) “Where would you start?” I said “First I would change X, no, Y would have to be first, no Z..” and so on. I soon realized I did not know where to start or how to go about it. I admitted this to the Lord who replied “Then just leave it to the Holy Spirit.” I then realized that the Holy Spirit knew who I was, where to start, and who Christ was, and how to make me Christ-like and that He alone possessed the transforming power that I clearly lacked.

You and I are simply too ignorant and too powerless to transform ourselves into the likeness of Christ. We are often ignorant of large parts of ourselves, and we are ignorant of exactly who Christ, our goal, is. We do not know where to start or what order to progress in to become like Him or how to change this or that within ourselves. If you think of yourself as a “project” we lack all the knowledge needed! We cannot even begin! Since this applies to all people then no-one knows how to become Christ-like by spiritual practices, human therapies or asceticism. All such promises are deceptive. Only the Holy Spirit knows the way, which is hidden in God, in Christ. As Paul says “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3)

So asceticism and spiritual advice on a merely human level is simply not “new wine”. It is not the gospel that is easy and light. It separates people from the Head that is Christ. It gives us rules that are ineffective against the flesh. It attempts to substitute works for Christ and techniques for the Spirit. Neither does it take account of our weakness and ignorance, and it vastly underestimates the task of sanctification (which is a God-sized task given the complexity of any of us). Lastly it takes sincere Christians and frequently exhausts them, and even oppresses them.

Anger is a common response when people finally realize how long and how seriously they have been misled by well-intentioned Christian leaders with their various human techniques for sanctification. There are none. None at all. No twelve steps, ten days, or thirty suggestions can substitute for the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Dr. Such-and-So’s plan for peace and prosperity is probably well-intentioned and it may even help for a while, but it cannot make you like Christ. You need to simply allow God the Holy Spirit to work, in Christ, through the word of God, on a day-by-day ordinary basis in the midst of life and work.

Sure its good to have a daily quiet time, or go to church, or even fast now and then when the Lord leads. But when these become regulations, when they become sources of ‘virtue”, or when they are used mechanically to imitate and substitute for God’s work in your life, then they have moved from their proper place in the Christian life.

The Christian life is not a weird abnormal ascetic thing opposed to the goodness of God’s Creation. Life with Christ is light, easy, relaxed, even normal and natural as we find our true image and return to harmony with God and His created order. From time to time we may find ourselves in the midst of adventures or living simply, but nonetheless Christ is no tyrant and His yoke is easy and His new wine is ever good.