Today,
we can detect an expression of grievance in the Pharisees and in some
disciples of the Baptist who, quite shocked, ask the Lord why his
disciples do not fast. Jesus answers them with another upsetting
question: «How can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom
is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they
cannot fast. But the day will come when the bridegroom will be taken
from them and on that day they will fast» (Mk 2:19-20).
Jesus
introduces Himself as the bridegroom in love with Mankind, which He
invites, not to a dinner but to a feast, similar to a wedding
banquet, because He has announced to Mankind the Good News of
salvation. Jesus Christ was using the old epitome of the prophets and
psalms that presented Yahweh-God as a spouse deeply in love with his
wife, the faithful people. Hosea, the prophet, today, refers to it:
«I will espouse you to me forever: I will espouse you in right
and in justice, in love and in mercy» (Hos 2:21).
The
Lord meant that the Kingdom of God was a new reality. It was like a
wedding feast. The philosophy of Moses' Law was no longer applicable.
The newness of the Kingdom He was preaching was like a new wine. When
Jesus tells them that «no one puts new wine into old wineskins,
for the wine would burst the skins and then both the wine and the
skins would be lost. But new wine, new skins!» (Mk
2:22), the people understand him perfectly well because Jesus country
was full of vineyards.
Today, many of our
fellow citizens do not know what a “skin” is. They have
never seen one. The skins were containers made of animal skins that,
sewn, greased and rubbed with glue, were employed to contain wine.
When the wine was new it was so strong that it could burst the old
skins. Countrymen knew it quite well.
The Pharisees and their
disciples were like old skins that could unstitch and crack out of so
much abuse. They were used to their routine. They could not assume
the “newness” of the preaching of that young man from
Nazareth.
