Daily Bread 2010 - Luke 5
Daily Bread 2010 – Luke 5
Jesus Questioned About Fasting
33They 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."
34Jesus answered, "Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast."
36He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.' "
Change is often difficult for people. We prefer to have thing the way we have grown accustomed to liking them. I remember when praise music came onto the scene in the 70’s and 80’s there were what we called “worship wars”. Those who liked traditional hymns had a hard time with guitars and drums in the church and what sounded like “rock music”. Over time the church has come to accept the difference in generations and realize each generation has a different “heart language”. Thus it is not important whether a guitar or organ accompanies the music but whether one is truly worshipping God!
Jesus ran into the Pharisees and teachers who thought they knew everything and weren’t ready for the new wine. They mixed up their rituals with what the rituals were supposed to bring. Any forms we have in the church are only useful if they can contain the new wine of the Gospel. Jesus wasn’t saying praying and fasting were bad, but the Pharisees were mistaking the wineskin for the wine. Spiritual disciplines are forms and containers, which can help hold and protect the new wine of the Gospel but they must never be mistaken for the relationship God wants us to have with Jesus.
Where is God calling you to get rid of an old wineskin, so that the new wine can be held and enjoyed? How are the spiritual disciplines acting as a new wineskin for you, or how are they more like the old wineskins? You might try a new one in order to experience God’s grace in a new way.
Prayer: Thank you Jesus that you are the New Wine which fills our hearts with love and grace. Help us to get rid of old wineskins/patterns/dead rituals that don’t help us keep a hold of your love in Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Jesus Questioned About Fasting
33They 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."
34Jesus answered, "Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast."
36He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.' "
Change is often difficult for people. We prefer to have thing the way we have grown accustomed to liking them. I remember when praise music came onto the scene in the 70’s and 80’s there were what we called “worship wars”. Those who liked traditional hymns had a hard time with guitars and drums in the church and what sounded like “rock music”. Over time the church has come to accept the difference in generations and realize each generation has a different “heart language”. Thus it is not important whether a guitar or organ accompanies the music but whether one is truly worshipping God!
Jesus ran into the Pharisees and teachers who thought they knew everything and weren’t ready for the new wine. They mixed up their rituals with what the rituals were supposed to bring. Any forms we have in the church are only useful if they can contain the new wine of the Gospel. Jesus wasn’t saying praying and fasting were bad, but the Pharisees were mistaking the wineskin for the wine. Spiritual disciplines are forms and containers, which can help hold and protect the new wine of the Gospel but they must never be mistaken for the relationship God wants us to have with Jesus.
Where is God calling you to get rid of an old wineskin, so that the new wine can be held and enjoyed? How are the spiritual disciplines acting as a new wineskin for you, or how are they more like the old wineskins? You might try a new one in order to experience God’s grace in a new way.
Prayer: Thank you Jesus that you are the New Wine which fills our hearts with love and grace. Help us to get rid of old wineskins/patterns/dead rituals that don’t help us keep a hold of your love in Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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