Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?

 

 After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office.  And He said to him, "Follow Me."  So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.  Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house.  And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them.  And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, "Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

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."  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 5:27-39 

 

Yesterday we read that it happened when Christ was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."  Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed."  Immediately the leprosy left him.  And He charged him to tell no one, "But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded."  However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.  So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.  Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem.  And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.  Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him.  And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.  When He saw their faith, He said to him, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."  And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies?  Who can forgive sins but God alone?"  But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts?  Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Rise up and walk'?  But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins: -- He said to the man who was paralyzed, "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."  Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.  And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen strange things today!"

 

 After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office.  And He said to him, "Follow Me."  So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.  Levi (also known as Matthew) answers Christ's call, "Follow Me," and -- like the fishermen in yesterday's reading (see above), leaves his occupation to become a disciples.  My study Bible comments that from the beginning of His ministry, Christ has been a friend of tax collectors and sinners, which is one of the Pharisees' complaints against Him a little further along in today's reading.  Similarly again to Peter, James, and John, who were previously followers of the ministry of John the Baptist, Levi might also have been one of the tax collectors that Luke tells us were prepared for Christ by John the Baptist (see Luke 3:12).  

 

Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house.  And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them.  And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, "Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."  My study Bible comments that this feast expresses Matthew's joy and gratitude.  It says that the guest register is a stirring demonstration of the fruit of Jesus' love and forgiveness.  

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."  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."   My study Bible notes that Jesus' earthly life is a time of joyous blessings.  But, He indicates, there will come a time when His followers will practice the fast.  In calling Himself the Bridegroom, however, Jesus indicates His role as Messiah, and so the time that He is together with His disciples is one of joy and feasting.  After His Passion, the Jewish tradition of fasting would be transfigured in Christianity, a time of remembrance and participation in His Passion, a tool for self-control in discipleship, and a preparation for the Wedding Feast.

 

"And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.'"  My study Bible remarks that this saying is included only in Luke's account.  It is illustrative of several things; notably the difficulty with which the Jews would accept the new covenant, the inner resistance a person faces in turning from a sinful way of life, and the general stubbornness of the human heart.  

Over the course of the past few readings, Luke's Gospel has been concerned with the issue of sin and discipleship in Christ's new ministry.  There was first of all the episode in which Jesus told Peter, James, and John to lower their nets for an extraordinary catch of fish, and Peter responded in his astonishment and recognition of Christ's holiness, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!"  (in Monday's reading).  In yesterday's reading, Jesus both forgave a paralyzed man his sins, and then healed him of paralysis -- because of the faith of the man's friends who brought him before Christ (see the text of Tuesday's reading, above).  In today's reading, Jesus calls as disciple, and then keeps company, with people understood in the society as notorious sinners.  It is in this context that the Pharisees begin to question Him.  Tax collectors worked for Rome, often using their power of their office to collect more than was their due from their fellow Jews.   As Christ and His disciples share a feast with Matthew and those who come to his house, the question of fasting arises as well.  We should understand that the Jews typically fasted twice a week, on Monday and Thursday.  Moreover there were regular public fasts which were observed, such as the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:31-34) and in times of mourning (Zechariah 7:5; 8:19), and also occasionally proclamations of fasts would be made.  In today's reading, Jesus makes clear that He is the Bridegroom who is with His people, hence the feast -- but that the days will come when they will fast.  Since we have already observed Jesus' forgiveness of sins (in yesterday's reading), we may begin to get a sense of what it means to be the Christ, the Bridegroom.  In the context of Christ's ministry, forgiveness is possible through the encounter with Christ, through repentance and the renewal possible via faith.  This is the new wine of the New Covenant being introduced.  We may be struck by Peter's sudden awareness of his sinfulness in Monday's reading, a recognition before Christ of the truth of his life and a need for discipleship.  In yesterday's reading, the faith of the paralyzed man's friends and the forgiveness of his sins by Christ are both linked to his healing from his ailment -- and both are made possible through that faith.  Here in today's reading, Jesus sits at what might be called a preview of the Wedding Feast to come at the end of the age, when Christ returns for His Bride, the Church.  We can see the response of the Pharisees as they are both perplexed and concerned at this expression of His ministry, and also their questioning of why He and His disciples do not fast.  The life and ministry of Christ, as noted above, would transfigure the entire notion of the fast, and produce a different kind of fasting in Christianity.  In the Orthodox tradition, fasting is often called a "bright sadness," because in it one looks forward to the wedding feast.  In the Christian tradition of fasting, we fast for the reasons noted by my study Bible.  We fast in preparation for the times of feasting.  We fast in discipleship in order to learn our own capacity for choice and for self-control and to develop our own power of detachment.  We also fast in participation and remembrance of Christ's Passion (on Wednesdays, and more commonly on Fridays) and His own refusal of temptation in the wilderness (during Lent).  Fasting practices differ from place to place.  But they are meant to be times of controlled abstinence from certain things, such as particular foods, or a limited time of eating altogether (possibly even for part of a day), and also of abstinence from sinful behavior, such as backbiting and gossiping, things we know might harm our discipleship and our communities.  In short, fasting is a time to "remember God," to make space for an awareness, like St. Peter, of our reverence for Him and what He asks of us.  It is not a question of how well we follow rules, but a question of simply renewing and dedicating ourselves to our faith.  We do the best we can, and it helps us to learn that we are not simply compelled by our appetites and passions in life, as we make choices for that discipline.  The fasting practices of the Church become tools for helping us to break addictive behaviors, and to rely on more deeply on Christ and our faith.  They help us to remember humility, and to remember those who of necessity must make do with less -- as times of fasting are also times that call upon us for charitable activities as well.  In the modern "developing" world of greater abundance than in the past, fasting is often misunderstood, forgotten and discarded.  But it might be wise in our modern context to learn its practice, and its benefits to us -- to remember that it's not about the rules, but about our own struggle for ourselves and our souls.  We have a forgiving, loving Savior -- but He calls upon us to take up our own crosses, to practice discipleship, to remember who we are and grow in that remembrance and discipleship.  We are called to know ourselves, and to come to repentance for things we need to change.  Fasting becomes a practice for learning that we can discard old habits and practices that aren't really good for us.  Our Bridegroom will be with us again.  But let us remember His words about how attached we may grow to the old wine, while He offers us the new wine of His Kingdom and His covenant.