The Attitude and Latitude of Christ’s Kingdom

By Jared C. Wilson

Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and

said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,

but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding

guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bride-

groom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom

is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece

of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it,

the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into

old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed,

and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.” — Mark 2:18-22

It is possible that John’s disciples were fasting because he had either already been imprisoned or executed. They likely fasted out of mourning. The disciples of the Pharisees likely fasted out of tradition, which became an idol for many of them (see Luke 18:12). One kind of fasting (grief, expectation) was legitimate, the other not. But Jesus’ disciples weren’t going with the flow of the traditions mainly because they had nothing to grieve (yet) and no merit to glory in. They had Messiah, and having Messiah means having fullness of joy (John 15:11).

Jesus goes on to connect the man-made traditions and ceremonies to outdated structures not suitable for the new wine of the gospel. This joy is growing, going forth into the world and bearing fruit. It cannot be grafted onto brittle, inflexible institutions. The gospel is not just for Jews, but for Greeks as well. It is for the unclean, the ungodly, and the outcasts. All that came before is fulfilled now in Christ. The light by nature cannot be confined to the shadows. It must spill out, shine forth.

There is a time to fast (Ecclesiastes 3), but those united to Christ are not to be typefied by grief but by joy, even in hardship (Hab. 3:17-18, Rom. 12:12, Phil. 4:4, 1 Thess. 5:16, 1 Pet. 4:13). This means that joy must run deep. And if joy runs deep, it will overflow and run wide.

When we have this deep joy, we navigate seasons of suffering and brokenness with both the firmness of faith and the flexibility of it. We are able to confidently say, “This day” — with all its troubles — “is the day the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24) Because we know that the joy is so deep, it will buoy our souls for all eternity.

Article excerpt taken from The Gospel Coalition (U.S. Edition).

Read the full resource here:

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-attitude-and-latitude-of-christs-kingdom/