| Once, a group asked Jesus why his disciples didn’t fast and pray like others did. I suspect I would have noticed enough to ask. Perhaps others like me would be curious why Jesus didn’t emphasize these common practices. I wasn’t ordained until I affirmed I was ready to “recommend fasting or abstinence, both by precept and example.” Lord knows I try! But I have a hard time getting Christians to show up to Bible study and prayer. Can you imagine how successful I’ve been with fasting? Jesus, of course, didn’t have an issue with fasting and prayer. At this point, he’d fasted in the desert for forty days. Plus, we’ve already seen in Luke that prayer is not foreign to Jesus. It’s not that Jesus didn’t teach his disciples to fast and pray like the disciples of the Pharisees. My impression is he taught them to fast and pray differently than the disciples of the Pharisees. Later, Jesus warns us to beware of the hypocrisy, the religious act, of the Pharisees. While some like me would be curious, other religious leaders wanted Jesus to own up to that question. How could he not emphasize prayer and fasting to his followers? What kind of teacher wouldn’t? The question of Jesus’ teaching about fasting and prayer doesn’t come out of thin air. It comes as Jesus is eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners. Those wanting to criticize Jesus complained to his disciples. Who eats with those kinds of people? In case it’s helpful, let me remind you they weren’t in the synagogue eating. Jesus was having a good time at Levi’s house. Levi was a tax collector who started following the Lord and hosted a dinner in response. I suspect those critical religious leaders wouldn’t have thought much of how Jesus and his disciples prayed and fast if it weren’t for the eating with sinners. Obviously, anyone who would do such a thing must not even know how to pray. Jesus went on to share a few parables. They seem to highlight a new thing of God happening. One must be careful mixing old and new things, apparently. Tear a piece of a new garment and you mess up that shirt and don’t really make the old one any better. Put new wine in old wineskins and you lose both. So, what might all this teach us? Others may have used prayer and fasting for less-than-holy purposes. Now, the kingdom of God was at hand. It was okay if the disciples of Jesus didn’t pray and fast like those of the Pharisees. That was the point. Jesus wasn’t interested in forming his disciples around the typical empty religious grounding. For many, what had become familiar had become a hindrance. No, it’s not that what is familiar to you will keep you from recognizing the nudge of the Holy Spirit. Again, Jesus prayed and fasted himself. But what you build around what is familiar can keep you from seeing God’s movement. That’s what happened to many who knew Jesus. The old was good. It was good enough. So, let’s pray for wisdom. Wisdom enough to recognize when we’ve let the old get in the way of God’s new. Trust enough in what God is doing to put new wine in new wineskins. Stay blessed…john |
John Fletcher
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