When I cling to old ways of doing things, I cut myself off from new ways of experiencing God

The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is when I cling to old ways of doing things, I cut myself off from new ways of experiencing God.

My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this:

• Leviticus 7 & 8:  Specifics and details about the consumption of the sacrifice meals, and the investiture of the priests. 
• Luke 5: Jesus speaks of “new wine,” and how new wine cannot be put into old wineskins, or they will break and fall apart. He is really speaking of new ways of doing things, and how the new ways cannot fit into the old ways of the law.
• Psalms 49: “In prosperity people lose their good sense and they become no better than dumb animals.”
• Proverbs 18: Many snippets of wisdom on a variety of topics, and brief commentary on the plight of the poor and the privilege of the rich.

In Luke, we see Jesus doing many things that ruffle the feathers of the Jewish spiritual and legal officials. He gathers four disciples; cures a man of a virulent skin disease (supposedly incurable) and tells him to present himself to the priest (which any priest would have recognized as the work of the Messiah); cures a paralytic (again, evidence of the work of the Messiah); eats with all manner of sinners; and does not encourage fasting among his followers.

When he is confronted by the Pharisees about why he hangs out with sinners, and why his followers do not fast, he tells them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to put it on an old cloak; otherwise, not only will the new one be torn, but the piece taken from the new will not match the old. And nobody puts new wine in old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and run to waste, and the skins will be ruined. No; new wine must be put in fresh skins. And nobody who has been drinking old wine wants new. ‘The old wine is good,’ he says.” (Luke 5: 37-39)

Jesus is saying that his new way of doing things is unpalatable to those invested in the old way of doing things, because they are set in their ways and they don’t really want change. They are comfortable in the old way of doing things. They’ve spent centuries manipulating the law to justify themselves and their ways of doing things, primarily making themselves financially comfortable at the expense of the poor.

Coincidentally, this message is embedded in Proverbs 18 where the verses talk about the differences between the rich and the poor: “The language of the poor is entreaty, the answer of the rich is harshness.” (Proverbs 18:23) One of the reasons Jesus’ ministry was so successful is precisely because he ministered to the poor and disenfranchised. Those living on top of society were offended by this. If Jesus elevated the poor, sick, and disenfranchised by forgiving them of their sins and providing for their needs, there was no longer a class barrier separating the members of high society from those upon whose backs they had stepped to elevate themselves. Jesus removed their status and claims of superiority with every act of kindness, healing, and forgiveness. To the people who were offended by this, the old way of doing things was good; the new way Jesus did things took away their status.

This message is underscored in Psalms 49, twice, in verses 12 and 20: “In prosperity people lose their good sense, they become no better than dumb animals.” The Pharisees were supposed to be helping the people. They were the keepers of the law and history of the people. However, they had come to abuse their positions and used the law to enrich themselves and create distance between themselves and all those on the bottom rungs of society.

Proverbs 18:11 states, “The wealth of the rich forms a stronghold, a high wall, as the rich supposes.” That provides us with the reason that the Pharisees were so hard-hearted about Jesus helping people who needed help. They saw their wealth as protection against all that ailed the people Jesus was helping. By removing the barriers between the rich and the poor, the healthy and the sick, the pious and the sinners, Jesus seemed to be removing the “stronghold” of the rich, which was all just an illusion, anyway. They were only fooling themselves, really.

When I read the chapters we are presented with today, I ask myself how I might be holding on to old ways of doing things, and resisting the new way of doing things that Jesus calls us to. In what ways do I deny the truth that I am mortal? In what ways do I pursue wealth as a stronghold against a fate that is inevitable to us all? How would reaching out to the poor, sick, and disenfranchised bring me closer to God and help me let go of the illusions that do not serve me? These are all very good questions for all of us, regardless of our station in life.

That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today?

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This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.”

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