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, I think I’ve let the metaphors Jesus uses in this passage distract me from the message Jesus is giving in verse 34. As I sit and think about the disciples of John the Baptist (JTB) and the Pharisees vs. Jesus’s disciples, there is one huge difference I’ve never considered. JTB’s and the Pharisees’ disciples were seemingly focused on themselves and learning. They were serving JTB or the Pharisees, they were studying, and they were soaking in you and the growth you had for them. It makes me wonder what happened to them after JTB died. Or what eventually happened to the Pharisees’ disciples. Did they go out into the world. Did JTB’s disciples become part of The Way? Did the Pharisees’ disciples become part of the persecutors of those in The Way? For all of them, time in fasting would be a way to connect with the unembodied you. Your Spirit.

But as for Jesus’s disciples, they were being prepared for something different. They would definitely have a job to do after Jesus was gone (ascended). They would be responsible for The Way. They would be responsible for building the new paradigm. Selling the new wine, as it were. Come to think of it, I knew of a church in my small town called “New Wine Church.” And after you ascended, they would need to spend some contemplative time in prayer and fasting to connect to you, but while Jesus was with them they had you/him there with them. No fasting required.

As for me, as I sit here now, I have to wonder why Luke took the time to preserve this story for us. Was it to underscore the importance of fasting for us who do not have the embodied God/Jesus with us? Maybe so. Maybe this is my reminder that I need to take these times with you. It occurs to me that the Gospels never depict the disciples as getting alone and praying, but they are continually telling us about how Jesus does it (and maybe meeting with Elijah, Moses, and/or others while he’s doing it). They had Jesus. Jesus was you.

Father, I have a full day of vacation left here. I want to be about doing what you want me to do with it. I need to connect with you. I need to connect with my wife. I need to disconnect from work, which has been very hard to disconnect from this week because of one emergency after another. But here I am. Show me what you have for me. Help me to gladly sink into a time of connection that my spirit/soul needs with you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen