Fasting and Feasting
Notes
Transcript
Or… Gassy Christians!
Matthew 9:14-17
There is a time for fasting and a time for feasting. Jesus then quickly dives into the objection behind the objection: why are things changing? Jesus brings radical "newness", such that it will break all the old paradigms. We hold on the the "old way" at risk of bursting. We must hold our customs and patterns of behavior loosely, reevaluating and allowing the Holy Spirit to challenge and reform every aspect of church, worship, family, devotion, life. Leave the old, chase after Jesus and be made new (and delicious).
Back to School
Back to School
Kids are all back to school and settling well into the new rhythms.
We give so much structure in elementary school, than a teeny bit of choice in middle school, a bit more in high school...
Then all of a sudden we tell kids “do whatever you want to do!” “The world is your oyster!” “Follow your dreams!”
And it’s more than a bit overwhelming. It’s alot. SO many options.
Logan, a bit overwhelming, yeah?
Sometimes I am jealous, ready to go back to school. There is clarity in that. Here is the assignment, here are clear parameters, do your assignment and get clear feedback. You did great, A+, YES!!! (I think that’s all teachers say, right?)
Life. Not so clear. Not so structured.
John vs. Jesus
John vs. Jesus
Jesus called Matthew, the tax collector, the publican… and he left everything to follow Jesus. He called all his friends together and threw a massive party at his house. A feast. Intimate, house crowded with people, lounging around the table, drinking and eating.
Already the Pharisees came calling and called out how terrible Jesus’ company is, hanging out with tax collectors and sinners. But he loves those people, those are Jesus’ kind of people, sinners like us.
They aren’t the only folks who are upset.
John the Baptist came preparing the way for Jesus. He came declaring that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand… and that all must repent. He came teaching baptism… and he wore camel hair shirt and ate honey and locusts.
It’s kind of crazy to me that John kept preaching and baptizing after he baptized Jesus. Seems like he could have said “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” and then gone home. Job done.
But he kept “preparing the way.” Kept baptizing. And there are still disciples of John, even in a small town like Capernaum.
And they’re upset.
We don’t know a lot about John the Baptist’s teaching. But I’m going to say the guy wearing a camel shirt and eating locusts and honey isn’t real big into “feasting.” More of an ascetic, a monk, likely a lot in common with the Qumran community of the Dead Sea scrolls.
And here we learn, John is into the fasting. Not shocking. Not surprising.
But John’s disciples are looking at Jesus’ disciples. They are in the room with Jesus, living it up. Drinking, eating, FEASTING with Jesus.
This is the guy John, our John, was talking about?
We picked the WRONG guy too follow! NO FAIR!
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
No fair!
And Jesus answers:
And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
I love this picture.
It’s a Matthew party… but Jesus says it’s a wedding party. And he’s the groom. Jesus says “I AM the party, and while I am here, it’s time to party!”
The party is on, these are all wedding guests, Jesus is the groom and the called out disciples of Jesus, the ekklesia, the church is his bride. A wedding feasts could go on several days normally, but Jesus doesn’t end it there. “As long as he is with them...” because he IS the party!
This metaphor is all the more powerful, because it echoes John’s own words:
The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.
This is the wedding party John was talking about, Jesus says. Now is the time to FEAST!
And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
Jesus is at least foreshadowing his crucifixion, when he will be “taken” from them. Fasting in mourning. But I don’t think it’s at all limited to that. He will be “taken up” in the clouds as well.
And he has the assumption that his followers will have fasting as a regular part of their spiritual life:
Then Jesus turns to the real issue. The underlying objection:
Why is everything changing?
Why is everything changing?
No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made.
Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”
Wine in Wineskins
Wine in Wineskins
I don’t have a whole lot of great associations with “new” wine. Try this at a restaurant. “I’ll take your very newest wine, thank you.” New is always better, right?
But Jesus isn’t focused on the delightful flavor here. It’s all about the gas.
As many of you know, my sister and her husband own a winery.
And also, I read an article on Wikepedia… so I’m kind of an expert.
During wine fermentation, yeast cells convert sugars present in grape juice into alcohol and carbon dioxide (CO2) as byproducts. This natural biochemical process releases CO2 gas, which is a key component of wine production.
They didn’t use barrels in Jesus’ day (at least the Bible never mentions barrels). Sometimes they find clay amphoras. But they have goats! Goatskin, cure it, sow a bag, oil it to waterproof and, voila! Wine. And the goatskin will stretch with the release of CO2 and not explode.
But you ever get a leather coat or something wet? What happens after awhile, especially after it dries out? Ruined. Crispy.
That’s why you never leave cows out in the rain! They dry up, can’t move. Weird.
This is all about the creation process. It’s the making. And in order to handle the new content, the container has to made new as well.
New content: new container.
So Jesus’ metaphor makes sense, but it’s not super clear how it answers John’s disciples’ question.
Because there’s a question behind the question.
Why is everything changing?
Why is everything changing?
Why is Jesus different? Why is all this different?
Why is different than John, why it different than Pharisees, than Sadducees, some will argue different than the Law and the Prophets, though mostly they just misunderstand the law and the prophets.
Why is all changing?
And if they think everything is changing now… they don’t even know. Buckle up, folks!
Temple? Oh that’s going away.
Priesthood, whole new thing, everyone’s in it, and everyone is the temple, too!
Feasts of Israel
Feasts of Israel
Feasts in Jesus’ Day:
Purim - Celebrating Queen Esther (and cousin Mordecai) saving the Jewish people from the Persian King Xerxes.
Passover, Unleavened Bread - deliverance from slavery in Egypt, and deliverance from the 10th plague. Jesus fulfills this as the Passover Lamb.
Pentecost & Firstfruits - 50 days after Passover, the end of the grain harvest and the first fruits of offering to God.
Trumpets -Day of solemn remembrance of God’s provision for his people through the Sinai covenant.
Tabernacles - 1 week with a pilgrimage. All the agricultural work done, they camp out in tents or shelters made from palm fronds and willow branches, camping like they did in the wilderness when God made the covenant with Israel through Moses.
Dedication (aka Hannukah) - remembering God delivering Maccabee revolution and reconsecration of the temple after it was defiled.
Not to mention wedding feasts, and “just because” feasts.
This Matthew party is an “I found Jesus” feast!
Fasts in Jesus’ Day:
Day of Atonement - yom kippur - A festival that, ironically, involves fasting. All food and drink, including water, bathing, perfume, etc… and the impurities of Israel are sent away on the scapegoat (given to Azazel).
Yet, considered the happiest day of the year.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread, ironically following the feast of Passover, 7 days of unleavened bread. Crackers.
At Mount Sinai God gave the people an incredible gift, the law, guidance on how to be His people, how to be His nation. Laws about how to live, how to dress, how to worship, how to live in community together.
Laws about how to feast. Laws about how to fast. Laws about how to get married.
There are the major “feasts” of Israel. Feasts like Passover that are literal feasts. But some are fasts, like the Day of Atonement, 24 hours without food or even water.
A time to feast, a time to fast.
So John’s disciples, even they who are ready and primed for the Messiah to come… they are wondering why everything is changing. In particular, John taught and modeled an asceticism, a minimalism.
He wore camel’s hair and ate locusts and wild honey. Not such an amazing feast! Not a great party.
It isn’t that we can’t keep and celebrate all those feasts, bask in the meaning, especially seeing the fulfillment of those feasts.
But the law was a tutor, Jesus says, a tutor to prepare us for Jesus. A guide… but we have a new guide that leads us in the course of righteousness… more perfectly, more carefully, more fully… and more freely.
Bursting at the Seams
Bursting at the Seams
Jesus is leading his disciples through a whole new thing. And when he leaves, the “new thing” isn’t over, it isn’t done.
Jesus gives us the “helper” the “guide” the Holy Spirit.
And it is terrifying to many who have been doing things the “old way” for so long. They knew the old way, they loved the old way, it was predictable and dependable.
But the Holy Spirit is doing new and crazy things all over the place. The Holy Spirit is wind and fire. Healing and casting out demons, and breaking open prisons, and leading Christians to new countries and new peoples… Changing the world.
Bursting at the seams!
The rules are out the window, the Judaizers are FREAKING out!
This is new wine. And God gives new wineskins to match.
This is new traditions and rituals, sure.
This is new structure, new buildings, new temple, new priesthood. This is the new ekklesia, the new called out, the Church, big C.
But most of all, this is new people… people made new, for there’s no other way they could contain the power and glory of the Holy Spirit dwelling in them.
They’d explode!
Jesus gives just a hint of the new revolution to come. The Kingdom of Heaven, it turns so many “old ways” upside down.
And here’s the thing. It’s easy to look at those Pharisees, and John disciples, and laugh at them. But the Holy Spirit is still pouring new wine into new wineskins.
Decade by decade, generation by generation, church by church, denomination by denomination, perhaps.
Always preserving the timeless truths of God and His gospel… and submitting literally everything about ourselves, our faith and practice, our worship, holding all of it to the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Because I want the new wine of the Holy Spirit, I don’t want to be the old wineskin. And he is making all things new, behold you are a new creation, can he remake you again and again? Yes, he can!
There is very little handed down from on high about how we structure our gathering together and worship together. We worship. The Spirit is here. We proclaim His Word. How and where and how long? A million different expressions, across different cultures and times.
But most of all, are you ready for the new wine? Are you ready for what the Holy Spirit wants to do next in you? The next step, the next new thing, or old thing, or whatever He wants to do thing?
Are you ready for it? The answer is likely “no”… but he makes us ready, he makes us new.
This is the radical new-ness Christ calls us too. There is beauty in these traditions, but He has given us the Holy Spirit within, to lead us through seasons of feasting and fasting as appropriate.
Jesus brings radical "newness", such that it will break all the old paradigms. We hold on the the "old way" at risk of bursting.
We must hold our customs and patterns of behavior loosely, reevaluating and allowing the Holy Spirit to challenge and reform every aspect of church, worship, family, devotion, life. Leave the old, chase after Jesus and be made new (and delicious).