For Insiders and New Wineskins Only-Mark 4:9-12; 2:13-22

To Get Jesus Right (1/6/19) we need to See Jesus More Clearly (1/13/19), because like the disciples we can Miss Jesus Three Times (1/20/19). Today we consider why the secret of the kingdom of God is given only to insiders and new wineskin.

“He told them, ‘The secret (mystery) of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables'” (Mark 4:11). “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins” (Mark 2:22).

When I became a Christian I expected Christian life to get easier and more familiar with time. Then I’d be on cruise control and life would go smoothly like a soft gentle breeze. But boy was I wrong! I’m not complaining because God has been too good to me. Yet my life had not a few rather unpleasant unexpected turns–all due to my own sins and contributed to by the sins of others. There are so many moving parts and much unfamiliarity today which I didn’t expect when I first became a Christian in 1980.

A gift that cannot be attained humanly. Jesus says that the secret mystery of the kingdom of God is only given to insiders (Mk 4:11) and new wineskins (Mk 2:22). The knowledge of the mystery of the kingdom of God is a gift from God and not a human achievement. The secret or mystery (Gk. mysterion) means a knowledge of God that cannot be attained by natural means (Dan 2:27-28). Hence the mystery is given, not attained or discovered entirely by one’s own quest and search. What is this secret mystery?

The secret of the kingdom of God is Christ. The irony is that although Jesus is the fulfillment of the mystery, people do not see it. It’s an oxymoron–an open secret. Though Jesus tells the truth about himself they do not believe (Jn 8:45). The secret is that the kingdom of God has come in the person and words and works of Jesus (Mk 1:15). That is a secret because God has chosen to reveal himself indirectly and in a veiled way. The incarnate Word is not obvious. Only faith could recognize the Son of God in the lowly figure of Jesus of Nazareth. The secret of the kingdom of God is the secret of the person of Jesus.

Who knows the mystery? The author (Mk 1:1). God, obviously (Mk 1:11; 9:7). The disciples, gradually (Mk 8:29). The Roman centurion, surprisingly (Mk 15:39). And interestingly the demons because they belong to the spiritual realm (Mk 1:24, 34; 3:11; 5:7; 9:20).

Jesus constantly challenges religious practices gone stale, their original meaning long forgotten and now become simply public ritual. Are we stifling new life by old forms (however beloved they may be to us)? Jesus, as the bridegroom (Mk 2:19), was bringing in fresh spiritual life, that could not be contained within the old rigid forms (Judaism, Torah, traditions) but would need fresh forms. This is the problem facing the church in many parts of the world today. Some accommodation and adjustments must be made or there will be splits and divisions, as sadly has happened too often with great loss to both sides. Jesus never condemned fasting. He fasted himself. But formal and compulsory fasting would not fit the freedom and spontaneity of the new life which he brought.

Jesus is something completely new that can’t be merged together with the old. Jesus—who is the new patch and the new wine—can’t be fitted in to the existing ways of thinking and living. If people try to do that they’ll have the worst of both worlds, just like new wine in old skins will result in broken skins and wasted wine (Mk 2:22) and the new cloth will tear the old (Mk 2:21). The new patch and the new wine are incompatible with the old cloth and wineskins. Jesus is not an attachment, addition or appendage to the status quo. Jesus cannot be integrated into or contained by preexisting structures (not even Judaism, Torah and the synagogue). If the attempt is made to combine them, the new substances will destroy the old. At the time, Jesus’ powerful kingdom-ministry couldn’t be fitted into the ways of thinking that his fellow first-century Galileans already had. They needed to think differently, to think bigger, to get new wineskins for the new wine he had to offer. Most people, especially the older religious leaders, are threatened by that kind of challenge. When God is doing new things, we should join the party, not grumble because the new wine is threatening to burst our poor old habitual familiar systems and traditions. A good deal of day-to-day Christian wisdom consists in sorting out the new from the old. So the question is not whether the disciples/Christians will make room for Jesus in their already full agendas and lives. The question is whether we will forsake business as usual and join the wedding celebration; whether we will become entirely new receptacles for the expanding fermentation of Jesus and the gospel in our lives.

Why is the kingdom of God a secret mystery and why do only insiders and new wineskins grasp it? Christian life as expressed by Mark has characteristics which we either do not like or do not expect. What are they?

1st, disruptive. No one likes disruption but God’s coming is disruptive. It’s a world torn open by God. The heavens are torn apart at Jesus’ baptism (Mk 1:10) and the curtain of the Temple is torn in two at his death (Mk 15:38). This is God’s powerful incursion into the world. This is Mark’s answer to the impassioned cry of Isaiah (Isa 63:15–64:4).

The appearing of the kingdom of God in Jesus ruptures and fractures the status quo, just as new wine bursts old wineskins (Mk 2:21-22). Illusions of stability and authority—the authority of Rome (12:13–17) and the authority of the Jewish religious establishment (11:27–12:12)—are stripped away. The cries of the demons are informative: “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” (Mk 1:24). The answer is yes: in the coming of Jesus, God began a decisive campaign against the powers of evil that oppress humanity. But the campaign is waged in a mysterious way that no one expected, culminating in the cross. Is Jesus disrupting your life?

2nd, urgent. No one likes to be pushed but God’s coming urgently thrusts/presses forward with or without you. Time is compressed. “The time is [all the prophesies are] fulfilled” (Mk 1:15). All human history hinges on this moment. Thus, everything happens fast. There is a tremendous sense of urgency. This urgent forward thrust of Mark’s narrative is powerfully conveyed in the opening scenes. In ch. 1 alone, Mark uses the word “immediately” 11 times. God’s campaign is unfolding at a breathless pace. It’s like watching a multimedia presentation in which slides flash across the screen so rapidly that there’s no time to absorb the details; and we ourselves are caught up in them. Mark’s Jesus has no time for leisurely discourses about the lilies of the field. This Gospel plunges us into the midst of a cosmic conflict careening forward; if we want to follow the story, we need to pick up the pace. Is your life urgently and passionately driven toward a goal (Phil 2:12-14)

3rd, inverse. We like things neat and tidy, but God’s invasion of the world is an inversion. God reverses the positions of insiders and outsiders. Those in positions of authority and privilege reject Jesus and his message. Even Jesus’ own disciples are slow to understand his teaching. Outsiders, however—people of low or despised positions—receive the gospel gladly. The lepers, the demon-possessed, the woman with the hemorrhage (5:25–34), the Syrophoenician woman (7:24–30), the little children (10:13–16), blind Bartimaeus (10:46–52), the nameless woman who anoints Jesus at Bethany “for burial” (14:3–9), the Gentile centurion at the cross (15:39) are the examples of faithful response to Jesus. “Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first” (Mk 10:31). This inversion is shocking except to those who are lulled by familiarity with the story and by their own expectations. Do you subconsciously think, “Yeah, I got this Jesus down pat”?

4th, counterintuitive: power expressed as powerlessness. No one likes to feel powerless, but Mark redefines the nature of power and the value of suffering. Jesus uses power to serve rather than to be served (Mk 10:45). Authentic power is paradoxically shown in the cross. Those who exercise power to dominate and to oppress others are the villains and pawns of evil forces: Herod (6:14–29), Pilate (15:1–15) and religious leaders. On the other hand, Jesus’ apparently powerless passion becomes the true expression of the power of God. Suffering is meaningful and necessary in the mysterious working of God’s will. This counterintuitive account of power and suffering functions in two very different ways. A suffering community finds encouragement and validation of their struggle (1 Pet 4:12–13). But those who occupy positions of power and privilege finds a stern challenge to their life of ease, like the rich man (10:17–22) who is called to surrender his privileges and follow Jesus on the way of the cross. Are you willing to consciously let go of your power, prestige, position, privileges, pedigree?

5th, unpredictable, hidden, reverse, surprise, eclipsing the old order is God’s manner of revelation. No one likes to not understand or to be shocked. Even the disciples find themselves repeatedly failing to understand the will of God. So there’s is no place for smugness or dogmatism in ethical matters. Those who think they have the rules firmly in hand are those who suffer from hardness of heart (3:1–6, 7:1–23), for Jesus eclipses the old order, which for Mark includes the Torah. Jesus in Mark’s Gospel declares—in dramatic contradiction to pharisaic traditions—that nothing external can defile a person, thus “declaring all foods clean” (7:1–23). Throughout the narrative, Jesus (i) disregards the Law’s purity codes, (ii) heals on the Sabbath, and (iii) challenges the authority of Israel’s religious leaders. Why? In Jesus the new order of God’s kingdom is present, and new wine cannot be put into old wineskins (2:21–22). Regarding the Sabbath observance “the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath” (Mk 2:28). The new reality eclipses the old rule-based norms, which are portrayed as rigid and sterile. For example, the Mark’s first cycle of controversy stories (2:1–3:6) shows Jesus healing a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath and challenging the Pharisees (Mk 3:4–6). This is the first indication in Mark’s Gospel that Jesus will meet a violent end. That end is portrayed as the result of a collision between God’s new order and the violent hardness of heart of those who are locked into the old order. Finally, the story’s lack of closure (Mk 16:8) should engender openness in the readers. If we embrace Mark’s narrative, we will learn not to take ourselves too seriously, but will be self-critical and receptive to unexpected manifestations of God’s love and power. Are you smug and dogmatic or receptive to the undexpected?

6th, Intense radical suffering discipleship. No one likes suffering. But Jesus provides a pattern for discipleship (Mk 10:42-45) with suffering and death at its core. Mark often concludes narrative units with questions or exhortations that aim beyond the characters in the story and address the reader directly (e.g., “Do you not yet understand?”; “Keep awake!”) Thus, we are live in a state of watchful readiness. Those who follow Jesus must “endure to the end” regardless of what consequences may come. In striking contrast to Matthew and John, Mark offers no comforting promises of Jesus’ presence with the community. “He has been raised; he is not here.” There will be consolation when the Son of Man comes in glory, but for the present there is only the sober call to take up the cross and follow (Mk 8:34). The strange ending of the Gospel works in the same way. What kind of a story is this whose message of joyous hope ends with the abrupt and enigmatic words, “And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (Mk 16:8)? This summons readers to supply the ending by taking up the cross and completing the Gospel of Mark in their own lives of discipleship. The Gospel of Mark cannot be “understood” from outside; it can be read rightly only through following Jesus in self-involving, self-sacrificial service like new wineskins.

Without continuous renewal as a new wineskin and an insider, the secret mystery of the kingdom of God is confusing and confounding. It may sound nice, but it is just a parable and a story that doesn’t change anything. As a result many remain indifferent outsiders, while others may convince themselves that they are insiders even if they are quite blind to or unmoved by the secrets of the kingdom. May God give us grace and the utmost desire to be an insider and a new wineskin…over and over and over and again and again!

Reference:

1. Hays, Richard B. The Moral Vision of the New Testament: community, cross, new creation: a contemporary introduction to New Testament ethics. Part One, 3. The Gospel of Mark: Taking Up the Cross. 1996. HarperCollins Publishers, NY.
2. Wright, N.T. Mark for Everyone. 2001, 2004. Westminister John Knox Press, Louisville, KY.
3. Edwards, James R. The Gospel according to Mark. The Pillar New Testament Commentary. 2002. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI.