18 January: Mark 2:18-22: Homily

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(Please read the Scripture passages first, before the homily.)

“Why do your disciples not fast?” was a question asked by other groups to Jesus.  I have been to many funerals.  Often the obituaries or the comments made concern food and how much the deceased person enjoyed meals with family and friends.  It seems that not-eating is a way the families often celebrate the death of a loved one.

Mark has given us several images of Jesus in the passage before us today.  Jesus liked to eat and he enjoyed spending time with his disciples.

Mark also showed us Jesus as the bridegroom.  Jesus was celebrating his wedding to the whole human race.  The disciples were like the best man, the maid of honor and the rest of the bridal party.  It was time for feasting.

Mark also showed Jesus as the tailor who knew how to work with cloth and a winemaker who knew the science of winemaking inside and out.

Can we picture Jesus as the groom marrying into our family?  Can we visualize Jesus bending over a sewing machine, perhaps making a suit or a dress for a wedding?  Can we see Jesus in the basement tending the newly crushed grapes carefully into a wine appropriate for a wedding?

Can we see Jesus knowing what to hang onto and what to discard, what part of the old can merge with the new?

Jesus came to renew the face of the earth.  He did not come to discard everything and start completely over again.  He did destroy sin, but sin is negative, non-life; Jesus primarily restored life.  He did not destroy creation, but re-created it, giving it new life.  He came to keep the old and the new, the old cloth, the new cloth, the old wineskin and the new wineskin.  He came to honor the older generation by marrying the younger generation, to feast with us, not fast with us.

Jesus’ presence tells us that God can come among us to enjoy creation and to move creation forward.  Perhaps we need to see better the beauty of a wedding, the precision of the tailor and the sweetness of the winemaker.  Perhaps we need to look at the sunrise and the sunset and both of the times between them and see God’s presence in our lives.  The question then becomes not why we do fast or not fast, but how better can we honor the constant presence of Jesus in our world.