Lenten Reader | Day 5

February 22nd, 2026

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”

Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Mark 2:18-28

New Wine

The pharisees were great at checking off the boxes. Fasting: check. No working on the Sabbath: check. Adhering to 600+ other laws and traditions: check+. The pharisees measured themselves by all that they did, and they were proud of it. The law that was supposed to humble them by revealing their sin was used as bragging rights through their misuse and abuse. This was the system they had known for generations.

But despite all the checks, they credited themselves. Their hearts were still lost in sin. The old system could not deliver souls or transform hearts and minds. The old system could not right the wrongs or make the guilty innocent.

Jesus and His disciples weren't checking off the boxes. He explained using parables that a new way was in the works. He made it clear that He had no intention of "patching up" the old system or "re-using" the old format. He, Himself, was and is the new, and only, Way. We get to walk in faith in Him under His grace. Transformed.

Yet, we still have to live out our human lives, and sometimes in our human tendency we want to “check off the boxes.” We like to measure ourselves to see how we are doing. Read Scripture: check. Pray: check. Church attendance: check. These are essential in our Christian lives, but when we view them as tasks to be completed or as a means to work our way to salvation, we have taken our focus off of God's grace and put it on our own strength. 

In the past, this led me to struggle with me-centered questions like, "How do I know my faith is strong enough despite all I tried to do?” Christ's work was and is enough. He bought us with His blood, and we are His. Reading Scripture, belonging to the church body, tithing, fasting, and praying are all humble acts of worship and opportunities to be in communion with our God who first loved us.

Olivia White