Reflecting God’s Devotions for Holy Living – Saturday, 11 January
2014 “From Feasting to Fasting to Feasting” Scripture Luke 5: Jesus Calls Levi
27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi,
sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And he got up,
left everything, and followed him.
29 Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and
there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting at the table[a]
with them. 30 The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his
disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
31 Jesus answered, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those
who are sick; 32 I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to
repentance.”
The Question about Fasting
33 Then they said to him, “John’s disciples, like the disciples
of the Pharisees, frequently fast and pray, but your disciples eat and drink.”
34 Jesus said to them, “You cannot make wedding guests fast while the
bridegroom is with them, can you? 35 The days will come when the bridegroom
will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” 36 He
also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it
on an old garment; otherwise the new will be torn, and the piece from the new
will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins;
otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins
will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no
one after drinking old wine desires new wine, but says, ‘The old is good.’”[b]
Footnotes:
a. Luke 5:29 Gk reclining
b. Luke 5:39 Other ancient authorities read better; others lack
verse 39
“From Feasting to Fasting to Feasting” by H. Ray Dunning
In Jesus’ day fasting in Judaism was a sign of waiting; of
mourning that the long anticipated kingdom of God had not yet come. It was a
sign of repentance in preparation for its coming. The Jews were offended that
Jesus and His followers did not participate but spent their time feasting and
celebrating.
What they did not understand was that in Jesus the kingdom had
already begun and there was no longer a need to fast for its coming. The
appropriate behavior was to have a party. Jesus compared it to a wedding feast,
a typical Jewish image for the new age. As N. T. Wright put it, “the last thing
you do at a wedding is abstain from food and drink.”* But what about the
fasting (mourning) when the bridegroom is taken? It will last for three days
and three nights and then the celebration resumes with greater enthusiasm.
Feasting becomes the order of the day: on the lake shore a breakfast of broiled
fish, on the road to Emmaus broken bread and the regular feast of the Eucharist
celebrating the establishment of the kingdom and anticipating its consummation
in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Celebrate it!
*N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone (Louisville, KY: John Knox,
2004), 65
Hymn for Today:
“Rejoice The Lord is King” by Charles Wesley
1. Rejoice, the Lord is King:
Your Lord and King adore!
Rejoice, give thanks and sing,
And triumph evermore.
Lift up your heart,
Lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
2. Jesus, the Savior, reigns,
The God of truth and love;
When He has purged our stains,
He took his seat above;
Lift up your heart,
Lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
3. His kingdom cannot fail,
He rules o'er earth and heav'n;
The keys of death and hell
Are to our Jesus giv'n:
Lift up your heart,
Lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
4. Rejoice in glorious hope!
Our Lord and judge shall come
And take His servants up
To their eternal home:
Lift up your heart,
Lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
Thought for Today:
“Let us have simcha and exult, and give kavod (glory) to him
because has come the Yom HaChuppah, the Yom Nisu’im of the SEH (Lamb, SHEMOT
12:3; YESHAYAH 53:7 Moshiach), and His Kallah (Bride) has made herself ready.” (Revelation
19:7).
Prayer Needs:
Developing Christian leaders in Kazakhstan.
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