Mark 2:18-22 -- Analog vs Digital

Digital living - A completely new way of doing life.

What Jesus offers you and I is life on a completely different wave-length than what the rest of the world operates on. Jesus did not come to patch up the old system. His interest is not in reforming the existing but transform into something completely different with no obvious need or connection to the former. There can be no concessions, no accommodations and no compromises with the old.
It is like trying to pick up a digital signal on an analog piece of equipment, it doesnt work. I once owned an old cell phone and the provider was going to a completely new and different signal type and so I had to replace my phone with one that could operate on the new type of signal.

Jesus says "you used to operate on an analog spirituality and I am offering you a high-definition, digital spirituality" the two ways of living are not remotely compatible.

The old ways where sinners were condemned and excluded are not part of the new ways where they are received and transformed.
There is no fasting where piety is distinguished by withholding and imposing limitations is not a feature to be valued in Jesus presence.
Life with him is marked by an intimate relationship, and time is marked by celebration.
What Jesus brings into a persons life is incompatible with the former ways of living.

How often we attempt to modify and adapt the things Jesus said to make them more palatable and implementable into 'regular-analog' life. When indeed what he calls each of us to demands different systems and values of living, with no connection or resemblance to the former ways of living.

To live a life of giving, to the poor, to the needy, and giving not only financially, but of our attentions and affections. Reaching out to the sick, the spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally sick to bring healing and hope. A life of celebration instead of overwhelm and grief. A life that extends grace instead of judgment. Where love is marked by sacrifice rather than investment. Where 'digital' people have stepped into the eternal resources of life. It is those eternal resources we have to offer, and we can offer them generously, without efficiency.

It is easier I suppose, when the demands that life brings us would seem to fit more conveniently into the former wineskins; in the analog world, where we know better what to expect, what the limitations are, and the lowered expectations are not only acceptable but prudent. And so, we must trust that the changes that Jesus proposes will actually accommodate the demands and stresses that life will bring. We have to trust him with not only the new wine but the new wineskin too, that the new digital system and the new equipment will still allow me to relate to the world I walk and live in.

Are you trying to live a digital life with analog equipment? Are you trying to use old ways of living with a new lifestyle? Is it making a mess? Don't give up on the digital, let him replace your analog way of living, trust him...High definition is coming...