Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?” And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.” (Luke 5:33-35 ; Matthew 9:14-15 ; Mark 2:18-20)
In a previous study we learned that the people, especially the religious leaders constantly compared John the Baptist to Jesus and often tried to create a conflict between the disciples of both (see THE GOSPEL: One Teacher, Many Ministers). Now even John's disciples along with followers of the Pharisees are coming to Jesus to question Him, about fasting. The first time we read about fasting in the scripture is when ...all the children of Israel, that is, all the people, went up and came to the house of God and wept. They sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. So the children of Israel inquired of the Lord... (Judges 20:26-27) Fasting was never commanded by God, but it was accepted by God because the purpose of fasting is to take our eyes off of the things of this world and to focus completely on God. Fasting is not just from food, but from whatever may be distracting us or taking the place of God in our life.
Through prayer and fasting, our goal is to seek God's guidance in the decisions of life. For example King David prayed and fasted that God wouldn't allow his son to die that was conceived out of adultery; but after the child died, he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ "But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” (II Samuel 12:22-23) What a testimony as to why God referred to David as ...a man after His own heart. (I Samuel 13:14) He accepted the judgement of God, and then was confident that he shall go to him, be with his son again.
If we have any fears about anything, fasting is a good way to calm those fears. Again, when the children of Isreal needed guidance on how to deal with their enemies, Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord. (II Chronicles 20:3-4) When the children of Isreal came out of captivity the first time and returned to their homeland, Ezra ...proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer. (Ezra 8:21, 23)
Even husband and wives can use fasting to help their marriage relationship. Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. (I Corinthians 7:3-5)
By the time we get to our text, the problem with fasting was that the Jewish leaders, the Pharisees commanded fasting as one of the "religious acts" of the people, but their purpose for doing it was not sincere. God warned about this kind of fasting: Tell my people Israel of their sins! Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me. ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’ “I will tell you why!” I respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves." (Isaiah 58:2-3 NLT)
Jesus' response to the disciples of John and the Pharisees makes it very clear that there was no need to perform the "religious act", when the answer to their prayers was there. He had explained to them previously, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. [Isaiah 61:1-2]” Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:17-21, see THE GOSPEL: Rejected By His Own) When He died and ascended back to God the Father, then ...the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”
Jesus then proceeds to speak His first parable. A parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels. Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’” (Luke 5:36-39; Matthew 9:16-17; Mark 2:21-22) In other words, something "new" and better has come, Christ Jesus, the New Covenant (see HEBREWS: The New Covenant); but they are so steeped in the "old" way, obeying the "letter of the law" (Romans 7), that they prefer to stay under the Old Covenant.
Please, let us not be the same way! Please accept this free gift of salvation that God offers through His Son, Christ Jesus! There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)
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