Thurs.’s Devo - The Question of Fasting

Read Luke 5:33-39 The Pharasees are watching every move that Jesus makes and they notice that he doesn’t require his disciples to fast like John’s do and like the law teaches so they ask him why. Jesus’ answer was that his disciples had the bridegroom with them and it was not the right time. When the bridegroom is taken, then they will fast. He was the bridegroom and in the bridal traditions everyone feasted as long as the bridegroom was in the room. Jesus had entered the room and it was time to feast on every word that came from his mouth. Isaiah 58 says that God’s fast is to loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke. Was that not a perfect description of what Jesus was doing and training his disciples to do? So, they were fasting. Then he gave them a parable to explain it. It was about patching an old shirt with new material. Once that new material got wet it would shrink and the patch would not fit. Jesus did not come to just be another patch to the old covenant, he came to be a whole new covenant. He was the fulfillment of the old. They had to have a new way of thinking to be able to receive what God was doing now because he was about to cancel how they sacrificed and went about worship. He was the new wine of the second parable that had to be put in new hearts. The teachers of the law were described in verse 39 as being the ones who had drank the old wine and had no desire to even taste the new because they think the old is better. “Tradition!” Can’t you just hear the fiddler on the roof? First they had to rightly recognize the bridegroom, then they would understand the answer to their question and the meanings of the parables. Lord, help us to trade in our traditions for the new wine. Show us what we are holding on to that is like an old patch.