September 12 Time to Eat

Luke 5:33-35 They said to him, “John's disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.” 34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”
 
AS in so many conversations with the religious establishment, Jesus clarifies the discrepancies between common practices and God’s truth. God had not commanded fasting as a common practice. His law instructs the Jews to fast only on the Day of Atonement each year. It is a special time of repentance and worship to remove the sin from Israel. It was not wrong to fast. But it was not required in common worship and teaching experiences.
    Our Lord used the marriage metaphor to point to the need for his disciples to “eat” of all he has to teach while he is with them. No one fasts at a wedding feast. Jesus the bridegroom of the church, wants his disciples to feast on his words.
    The gospel of John emphasizes Jesus feeding his truth to the world as it records Jesus teaching he is the Bread of Life. John 6:35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.  And Luke records Jesus teaching us to remember his broken body as we eat our daily bread. Luke 22:19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 
    The disciples feasted personally with Jesus under his teaching. Today, i the Spirit’s power, we can feast daily on Jesus’ nourishing words. We can also take time to fast from our daily food to consider our Lord’s suffering and his salvation. By God’s grace we can feast with the Bridegroom forever.
 
Prayer: Thank you, Father, for feeding to me the eternal Bread of Life through the Son and the Spirit. Amen.