Jesus wasn't the only rabbi drawing a crowd. Many popular religious figures gathered followings during those years of ebbing and flowing Messianic expectations. Surely one of these spiritual guides would be the savior and anointed one of God.

But this Jesus was different. While most prophetic figures demanded a more ardent approach to religious discipline, Jesus and his message were marvelously winsome and free. Even John the Baptist, intimately tied to Jesus (relative and harbinger…) had a pretty heavy message of repentance, and modeled for his disciples a lifestyle of stark simplicity and denial of the appetites. Fasting, for example, would have been a major part of the program.

There is value, of course, in fasting. Fasting is a way of bringing appetites into submission so that they don't rule us. Fasting is also a way to pique our senses toward God and put life in perspective. It's also a statement of earnest repentance and lamentation - grief over our flabby spiritual condition. John's disciples, taught to prepare for the coming of the Messiah, were participating in a strict spiritual regimen of preparation to live in a regular state of repentance and anticipation. Even the Pharisees, strict keepers of the law (fundamentalists) fasted, as did their disciples. Religious behaviors like fasting were their specialty.

But Jesus and his disciples weren't fasting. When the Pharisees and law teachers tried to pin him on this apparent lack of religious protocol, Jesus answered the question in classis Jesus style - with a question. "Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast when he's with them?" In other words, you might fast in preparation for the wedding (to fit into that dress of that tux) - to prepare for the day of feasting and celebration. But when the day comes, that's no time to fast. You don't fast at the wedding.

Most obviously, Jesus is making a self-revelatory pronouncement. "I'm the one you've all been waiting for. I'm the one you've been watching and praying and fasting to prepare for. Now, I'm here. This isn't the time for restraint. You're my bride (those who would become the church) and I'm the groom. And my appearance is one long wedding. Now's not the time to fast.

Jesus gave very similar messages when he was anointed with expensive perfume by a woman of ill repute. When people complained about the abhorrent waste of costly perfume and pointed out very religiously that the money could have gone to the poor instead, Jesus said, "The poor you will always have with you." Not to disparage generosity or the poor, Jesus just wouldn't do that. But his point is, "I'm here now. This is no small deal. Time for lavish outpourings of affection and celebration, not restraint. You have the rest of your lives to care for the poor, but I'm here now.

The days for fasting will come, says Jesus in verse 15, when the bridegroom is taken away. Then there will be lamenting and a need for keen spiritual acuity and anticipation of any next coming.

Ever so subtly, Jesus foreshadows his death, before getting onto bigger ideas than merely fasting.

Before we look at those bigger ideas, note that Jesus' other mention of fasting is in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6). He says, "When you fast, don't talk or look like you're suffering for God so that others will admire you for your serious spiritual fervor." He says similar things about tithing or giving and praying. If our motive for zealous religious practice is to gain the admiration of others, that's all the reward we're going to get. Jesus just isn't into religious gamesmanship, or dark and somber religious appearances. That's part of why he keeps getting the third degree from frowning religious types. Jesus was teasing and cajoling them incessantly with humor and sharp verbal blows. Out of his own joy, he struggled with their cold hard form of religion.

Bottom line - for heavy religious types, joy will forever be judged as a shallow way of life that indicates a thin spirituality. Jesus did not think or live that way. Real joy is not shallow or thin, but a product of the Holy Spirit's deepest work. More on that later.

Verse 36, to his disciples alone, "No one tears off a patch from a new garment and sews it onto an old one." It tears the new garment; new patch won't match the old garment. The color won't match (ever try to patch carpet? We don't realize how much fade there's been). Worse, put the patched garment in the wash and the patch will shrink away from the old fabric, look awful and even tear.

What's that about? Jesus is telling his disciples that the new thing he wants to do can't just be sewn into the old. That would mean tearing the new, and besides it's not a good fit. The Old Testament attentiveness to laws and religious behavior has to give way to something new; a new testament, a new promise, a new story, something with more and real hope than lawkeeping and religious zeal. Something truly transformative is coming, and you can't just patch it in.

He illustrates in another way (verse 37). No one pours new wine into old wineskins. Why? Old wineskins have already expanded and then settled in - tough and brittle. Pour in new wine and it's so dynamic that it will burst old skins. "No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins that are still elastic."

Then, (verse 39) Jesus laments for religious people who are never going to get it. "No one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, "The old is better." And that might be true with wine. The old might be better. But Jesus isn't talking about wine. He's sad, because some people will never give up the old for the new - the dynamic, transformative, life changing power that Christ comes to offer is so much better, but some people prefer their old religion. Sour, stiff rulekeeping, over love and joy and peace…"against such things there is no law" (Paul, Galatians 5)

As is to further illustrate, Jesus allows his disciples to pick grain and eat it on the Sabbath. For those who don't know, the Sabbath is a God-appointed day of rest. One of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8) Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

Why do you think God created the Sabbath concept? For our good - like all of the commandments - for our good. So that we could enjoy rest and the renewing, recuperative, relational benefits of a day devoted to the God who made us and loves us.

So the lawkeepers call Jesus out. Why are you doing unlawful things on the Sabbath? I honestly think Jesus is playing with them. He mentions a loophole from 1 Samuel 21:6, when David's army feasts on bread that is supposedly off limits.

But then Jesus gets to the heart of it. "The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath."

A not-so-subtle self-revelation. You think the Sabbath is God's day? Yes, it is. It's my day. That kind of statement got Jesus in trouble, often.

Verse 6, another such instance. This time he's teaching on the Sabbath and a man with a shriveled hand comes - he either comes himself or he's a setup. What will Jesus do with this afflicted man? Again, he asks a question. "Which is lawful on the Sabbath? Doing good or doing evil? Saving a life or destroying a life?"

The religious types don't know what to say. So Jesus heals the man. And the lawkeepers are furious. The plotting to get rid of Jesus begins in earnest.

One more note on the Sabbath. From Mark 2:27, Jesus answers the rulekeepers by saying, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." This is a huge distinction and ultimately speaks to the heart of God and to the essence of Christian faith vs. crusty religion. In crusty religion, the laws exist for themselves and people exist for the laws. In good religion, and in Christ's way, God's laws and commands and hopes are born out of His love for us and what's best for us. Thou shalt not kill. Why? Because you break the law if you do? No, because God wants a good and civil world for His beloved children. Thou shalt not steal. Why? Because God doesn't want us to have good things? No, because He does want us to have good things like respect and honor and order and peace. And so it is with God's commandments - they're for us; not for them.

Religion always takes a turn for the worst when we forget that God is for us, and that even His high standards are laid out for our well-being. We were not made to be constrained but to be free and rich in community and laughter and joy. Sin did not merely offend God's sensibilities as if He were a pompous, whistle-happy referee who can't wait to slap a technical foul on us. He wants us to enjoy the game, and the rules are merely set up to make such things possible, and ultimately to prove that with us, they aren't sustainable.

We choose chaos and disorder and every kind of self-destructive whim - to our loss and to the loss of others. Yes, we offend God, the way any good parent gets out of joint watching a child self-destruct. Then here comes Jesus.

Oh, it's so important to figure out who Jesus was and is, so we can emulate Him. He wasn't a rebel rule breaker. He just understood what the rules were and weren't for. You can imagine that Jesus routinely honored the Sabbath, but he undoubtedly honored the Sabbath by stepping up, even more, His attentiveness to the Heavenly Father, if such a thing were even possible. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus says, "Don't think I've come to abolish the Law or the prophets. I've come not to abolish them, but to fulfill them." Then He gives examples. The Law says, "Don't murder." I say, "Don't even be angry." The Law says, "Don't commit adultery." I say, "Clean up even your eye and your heart." The Law says, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." I say, "don't resist or strike back. Shock people and be the big person."

Jesus isn't anti-law or anti-religious behavior. Jesus always sets a standard higher than the law, more integrative than merely behavioral. Jesus wants us to have new hearts, to be new people, to live in ways that make rulekeeping seem silly and thin and almost comical - at least you have to laugh so you don't cry. Legalism is so hard and hard and deadly - it's so not winsome and so not Christlike. And the best of Christianity is so much more about who we are than about who we aren't, and so much more about who we're becoming than about what rules we're keeping.

Some thoughts about religious stuff:

1. Religious behaviors and disciplines are good for us to the degree that they're good for us. There are times when we as good-intentioned, hard working Christians actually harm ourselves and others by practicing a religion so ardent that we harm relationships that are God-ordained; we can even harm our own joy and health.

2. Religious disciplines are given to foster relational objectives, not to replace them. Prayer and fasting and Sabbath are intended to draw us close to God, but the wrong kind of zeal threatens the relationship. For example, I can talk to God and fast and suffer for God all day every day in rigid solitude, but if His intention is for me to know community and peace and joy and the richness of good food and drink and a divine friendship, I can actually thwart God and turn Him into something He's not - a harsh idol of my own making. Do I really know God's voice and am I adept at trusting His heart and living in His best will for my life? That's all so much better than self-flagellation.

3. Religious disciplines are given to foster awareness and to increase capacity for good things (joy, peace, generosity, so much more). These disciplines are not an end in themselves. They were made for us, not us for them. Most of us need more discipline, but for the best reasons. I heartily endorse the best disciplines (prayer, solitude, fasting, tithing, meditation) and even the sacraments. But they were made for us, not us for them.

4. Religious disciplines can be seasonal. Some seasons may call for solitude and sacrifice, fasting and grieving. Other seasons may call for festivals and feasting, singing and dancing. And don't assume that because I'm in one season, everyone else has to be. The seasons of life make their demands on all of us.

5. Be careful to ask, "Where would Jesus land on this issue, this trend, this tone or spirit or religious movement?" Please dread the thought of living up with the Pharisees and cherish the thought of living up with Christ. If I'm someone who's tempted to sympathize with the Pharisees because of Jesus' harsh treatment, then I don't yet see the risks and dangers of their gospel, which is no gospel. I want Christ and to be like Christ.