Genesis 40:1-23
The Dreams of Two Prisoners
40Some time after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker offended their lord the king of Egypt.2Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker,3and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined.4The captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he waited on them; and they continued for some time in custody.5One night they both dreamed—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison—each his own dream, and each dream with its own meaning.6When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled.7So he asked Pharaoh’s officers, who were with him in custody in his master’s house, ‘Why are your faces downcast today?’8They said to him, ‘We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.’ And Joseph said to them, ‘Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.’
9 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, ‘In my dream there was a vine before me,10and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms came out and the clusters ripened into grapes.11Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.’12Then Joseph said to him, ‘This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days;13within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office; and you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer.14But remember me when it is well with you; please do me the kindness to make mention of me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this place.15For in fact I was stolen out of the land of the Hebrews; and here also I have done nothing that they should have put me into the dungeon.’
16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favourable, he said to Joseph, ‘I also had a dream: there were three cake baskets on my head,17and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.’18And Joseph answered, ‘This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days;19within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a pole; and the birds will eat the flesh from you.’
20 On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast for all his servants, and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants.21He restored the chief cupbearer to his cupbearing, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand;22but the chief baker he hanged, just as Joseph had interpreted to them.23Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
The author gives Joseph the ability to interpret dreams through his trust in God who enlightens him. Joseph’s God is the God of reality who reveals the facts of the future: there’s nothing ambiguous or ariy-fairy about the interpretations he gives to Joseph: this one will get his job back; this one will die. God’s wisdom is immenently practical. The reader, who has dismissed Joseph’s dreams about himself as childish self-aggrandisement, now is jolted into asking whether perhaps they too are facts of the future. The stupidity of the libretto of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” is to say, “any dream will do.” That’s romantic nonsense. Only dreams of God’s wisdom are verified by events.
Mark 2:13-22
Jesus Calls Levi
13 Jesus* went out again beside the lake; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them.14As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.
15 And as he sat at dinner* in Levi’s* house, many tax-collectors and sinners were also sitting* with Jesus and his disciples—for there were many who followed him.16When the scribes of* the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax-collectors, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat* with tax-collectors and sinners?’17When Jesus heard this, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’<!– 18 –>
The Question about Fasting
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people* came and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’19Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.20The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.
21 ‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.22And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.’*
Mark continues his story of the human being who is the bodily presence of God’s goodness. Jesus has been depicted crossing the lines of social and religious taboo with regard to sick people: here he crosses the the line that divides “righteous” from “sinners.” Pharisees know that the righteous can fall into sin; but if they do, they will repent and put things right. “Sinners” in Jesus society are those who are habitually lax in observance or hardened in wrongdoing. Levi, a sinner who has turned to Jesus, finds that his house become a house of God where other sinners are welcomed. Jesus points out that just as sick need a healer so sinners need the goodness of God. Churches may ask themselves if they are houses for sinners still.
Jesus defends his failure to fast by suggesting that while he, the bridgroom is present, his people will feast. The Messiah was known as the Bridegroom of Israel. And that with the advent of a new time -the time of God’s goodness in the world-new rules/ customs are appropriate. The freshness of a festive time should characterise the life of any community that bears Jesus’ name.
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