Tuesday after Jubilate Sunday
Posted on April 23, 2024 by under
Scripture: St. Mark 2:18-22 (NKJV)
2:18 The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”
19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. 20 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”
Devotion
Natural man is dead in sin and is not capable of receiving the Gospel. He is like an old wineskin which cannot hold the new wine of the Gospel. The Pharisees were trapped in their old misunderstandings about the Law of Moses and, therefore, they could not understand the Gospel. So it is with everyone who tries to save himself by works; he cannot believe, because he is still trapped in his sin.
If a wineskin will not hold wine, it is thrown away. But that is not how God treats man. “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,” says the Lord to Ezekiel, “but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezek. 33:11). Sinful man cannot receive the Gospel, but God makes man new so that he can. This takes place through the preaching of the Word and the sacrament of Baptism, which St. Paul calls “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). In this way, salvation belongs wholly to the work and grace of God.
Collect: Almighty God, Who showest to them that be in error the light of Thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness: Grant unto all them that are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s Religion that they may eschew those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
