18. Criticism of Free Forgiveness for Sin
19. Criticism for Association with Sinners
20. Criticism of Attitude Toward Fasting
21. Criticism for Working on the Sabbath

These passages illustrate another theme of Jesus’ that will become clearer as we get into his specific teachings. This theme is the internalization of authority: Doing things not because of law or tradition, but because they make sense and serve human needs.

All of us do certain things without knowing why. Often times the reason for our behavior has long been obsolete, but the behavior itself remains. One example is of the woman who, every time she cooked a pot roast, cut two inches off the end before putting it in the pan. When asked why, she said she did it because her mother did it. She did not know that her mother did it only because the pan she owned was two inches too small for the roast!

One of Jesus’ insights about his own religion was that it had become hidebound to tradition and had ceased to be a vital, living force that evolved in response to current needs. In Jesus’ view, the promise of the Jewish religion was its insight regarding the oneness of Reality (“the Lord our God, the Lord is One”), and the ability of people to establish a personal and autonomous relationship with that Reality (“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, mind, heart and strength”). Rather than encourage this relationship, the priestly class actually obstructed it by demanding adherence to rigid codes of conduct that had nothing to do with God, but everything to do with securing the priests’ place in society.

So what specifically are the laws and customs that Jesus challenged? First, he challenged the accepted notion that only God has the authority to forgive sins. As the intermediaries between God and the people, you can see how the Pharisees might have been threatened by such a teaching. If people have the authority to forgive sins – that is, if they can be direct vehicles of God’s loving and forgiving spirit -- doesn’t that undermine the authority of the priests?

Jesus also challenged the accepted cultural mores that sinners are unworthy of the attentions of the righteous, and that fasting and resting on the Sabbath are inviolable. Of these, the passage on fasting may be the most difficult to understand. What is all this about “sons of the bridechamber” not fasting when they are with the “bridegroom”? One possible interpretation: The symbolic purpose of fasting is to cleanse the spirit. Jesus' point may have been that when you are in right relationship to God (the bridegroom) the spirit is already pure. It’s when God’s spirit is absent in your own life that you’d better worry about fasting.

Again, for Jesus a relationship with God is vital, alive, personal, and relevant to the moment. It does not require an intermediary and it is not gained by following archaic customs. It is living art; not paint-by-numbers.

22. Culmination of Criticism of Jesus
23. Attitude of Jesus Toward Criticism

One gets the sense that the Pharisees were survivors – they were pretty quick to sniff out and deal with threats to their authority. It is still early on in Jesus’ ministry and they have already decided that this guy has got to go.

Jesus is obviously aware of his impact on the status quo. He knows he is a threat, he understands why, and, importantly, he has compassion for those who fear him. He knows that change is hard for people, particularly when the old ways seem to be working so well, as in a sense they certainly were for those in charge.

All of us know this. Change comes slowly if at all. Often times we only change when we hit rock bottom and see no other way out. Even then it is more a surrender than a real decision to change. Out of surrendering comes acceptance and perhaps the vision of a new possibility, if there is one. But the vision can not be seen until the act of surrendering is complete.

Totally surrendering what does not work can give us the opportunity to gain a new “wineskin.” But a new wineskin is not the new wine – or the new teaching, or the new way of seeing -- itself. What is the new teaching? Jesus gives his fullest description in the next section: Definition of Standards of Righteousness.