Into Fresh Wineskins
Piety
But Samuel said: “Does the LORD so delight in burnt
offerings and sacrifices
as in obedience to the command of the LORD? Obedience is
better than sacrifice, and submission than the fat of rams. For a sin like
divination is rebellion, and presumption is the crime of idolatry. Because you
have rejected the command of the LORD, he, too, has rejected you as ruler.”
1 Samuel 15:22-23
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If
he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets
worse. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine
will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new
wine is poured into fresh wineskins.” Mark 2:21-22
Study
The Second Week of Ordinary Time started by offering beautiful
readings from the Prophet Isaiah: "I will make you a light to the
nations..."
Then, in the Gospel, John the Baptist and his followers see
Jesus as he walks toward them. John says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes
away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after
me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’”
As an opposite of the beholding of the Lamb of God, this
week’s readings from the First Book of Samuel, tell us of God's rejection of
Saul as king. Then, Samuel anoints the youngest of Jesse's sons, the shepherd
boy David, as the king. Instead of beholding the Lamb of God, they see the
temporal king. As we begin Mark's Gospel, the Pharisees ask Jesus why his
disciples don't fast. He challenges them to have a completely open mind and
heart to his teaching because he will be pouring "new wine…into fresh
wineskins.” Beholding Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath brings new freedom.[i]
We heard John 1:29 in our Gospel yesterday when John Baptist
said: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Today, the Pharisees encountered Jesus without any "proper beholding." They were just taking a look and did not like what they saw. Let’s look at a couple of authentic John 1:29 moments.
A man said that he met a former friend before Mass. We stepped
aside to a quiet corner. He looked me straight in the eye and got right to the
point: "Dean, I've come to tell you how deeply sorry I am for the sins I
have committed against you. I ask you to forgive me." Dean later wrote,
“Bam—just like that! I knew by the earnestness of his words and the piercing
intensity in his eyes that he spoke from the depths of his being and meant
every word. This awkward but immensely powerful moment was the fruition of a
long, complicated process of stocktaking. On that day, in that place, without
forewarning, a John 1:29 moment arrived, ‘The Lamb of God’ took away his
resentment and mine.”
“Beholding” is
different than “taking a look.” Beholding has the connotation of taking an
in-depth, lengthy, contemplative look at something.
"Who takes away," sin expresses the idea of the
pardoning or forgiveness of sin, and the removal of guilt because Jesus was
destined to be sacrificed like a spotless lamb as a sin offering to God.
In fact, in both Jewish apocalyptic judgment and the Book of
Revelation, it is a conquering lamb who destroys evil in the world (The
Testament of Joseph 19:8; Enoch 90:38, Rev. 14:1). Jesus took away sin not by
the violent destruction of evil, but by voluntarily laying down his life on the
Cross; although the Biblical picture is that to "take away" is
parallel to "destroy."
The Lamb of God will take away resentments.
Hebrews 12:15 says, “see to it that….no bitter root grows up
to cause trouble.” Ask Jesus daily to take away your anger, resentment, and
bitterness.
Here’s another John 1:29 moment that did not go as well. A man said, “I had an excellent friend called
Bob. But he and his wife moved to another country. A little while later, my
wife, Charlotte, had to have a very severe operation. Bob and his wife never
got in touch with us. I know they knew about it. I was very hurt because they
never called to see her or ever inquire about how she was. So, I dropped the
relationship. Over the years, I met Bob a few times and he always tried to
reconcile, but I didn’t accept it. I wasn’t satisfied with his explanation. I
was prideful. I shrugged him off. A few years later, he died of cancer. I feel
so sad. I never got to see him. I never got to forgive him. It pains me so
much. My advice is: don’t wait.”
Action
Welcome John 1:29 moments when they come.
Notice the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world —
“takes away” sin and temptation not “Oh, God, make it go away!” God won’t take
away carrying our crosses or take away our daily responsibilities. Taking-away
does not replace the need for discernment regarding what activities or things
we might want to change according to the virtue of prudence.
God won’t even take away temptations if we don’t want them
taken away. Consider James 1:14-15, where St. Paul says that “each person is tempted
when they are dragged away by their evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire
has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives
birth to death.”
We should not delay in Beholding the Lamb of God and asking
him to take away temptations. Then, our
fresh wineskins can hold the new wine Jesus offers.
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