³³ One day some people said to Jesus, “John the Baptist’s disciples fast and pray regularly, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why are your disciples always eating and drinking?”

³⁴ Jesus responded, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. ³⁵ But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

³⁶ Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment.

³⁷ “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. ³⁸ New wine must be stored in new wineskins. ³⁹ But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.”

Luke 5:33-39

Dear God, what is the role of fasting in my faith? I was having lunch with a friend three days ago, and he asked me when the last time I fasted was. I told him it was about 6 months. He was actually surprised it had been that recently. And I remember that day. I just woke up and as I started my morning it just felt like the right thing to do to fast that day. I had some big challenges at work that I wanted to bring to you at that level. I have the ever-present sorrows in my personal life I wanted to lift to you. So I took the day to fast and pray. And I think it was good. I’ve seen great success with that one specific challenge at work. And while I haven’t seen progress in my personal sorrow, I continue on with faith that you are working in ways I cannot see.

Interestingly, I just did a search for fasting in the New Testament and found only two references outside of the gospels. They were all in Acts and both involved selecting Paul and Barnabas for work.

• Acts 13:2-3
• Acts 14:23

I wonder why it wasn’t more a part of Paul’s instructions in his epistles. It seems like the kind of thing James would have told people to do. And John might have mentioned it too. Why did it kind of disappear?

Father, I know the point of this passage isn’t necessarily to get me to fast more. In fact, Jesus seems to be introducing a new standard while still saying that his disciples will resume the practice of fasting when he is gone. No, I think the point of this story is more about setting the tone for the difference between what Jesus is teaching us about who you are vs. the perception by the Jewish people up to that point. I’m not sure if I have things in my life that I’m doing that are foolish because they are no longer relevant. I don’t even think I can see those things on my own. So I guess my prayer is that the Holy Spirit will reveal to me the things I’ve made sacred that are irrelevant and the things that should be sacred that I’ve ignored or been reluctant to adopt. I guess I do have something else I need to lift to you before I stop this prayer. I am interviewing two people today and one person Monday for an open position where I work. Help me to see what you see and guide me to the right person. I have someone helping me in this process. Guide here as well.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen