I'm still behind the power curve on writing. Monday Morning With Jesus is still waiting. However, priorities are what they are, and a daily piece takes precedence, so here we go.
The last verses of Luke Chapter 5 break down into two pieces. This may be a short installment today, which might also help catch up. Let's look at the first piece.
33And they said to Him, "The disciples of John often fast and offer prayers, the disciples of the Pharisees also do the same, but Yours eat and drink."
34And Jesus said to them, "You cannot make the attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you?
35 "But the days will come; and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days."
Luke 5:33–35 (NASB95)
If you've never fasted for anything, it really is pretty incredible. Go check out some books on it, including one on spiritual disciplines. I'm not going to recommend a specific book on that because I think the Spirit leads to the one that each person needs. There is a wide variety to choose from.
Here, the Pharisees complain to Jesus that His followers don't fast as those of John or theirs do. That's a little funny too. As we read from Luke Chapters 4 to 5, it seems like not a long time has passed. We only have four disciples at this point. But, recall, travel at this time is by foot. Any distances traveled by Jesus at this point are done over days or weeks, so a sufficient amount of time could have passed to give people a chance to notice this fact. Second, one of the things fasting is done for is in preparation for something. Jesus is "the Something" John's followers were fasting for. John was the harbinger of Christ's arrival.
24Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.
25They asked him, and said to him, "Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?"
26John answered them saying, "I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know.
27 "It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie."
John 1:24–27 (NASB95)
John knew what he was doing. His followers knew what they were doing. Jesus knew what He was doing. The Pharisees had no clue.
Third, Jesus is here now. The people that follow Him are to learn from Him. Jesus uses the analogy of the wedding party with the bride and groom because they've all attended weddings, a happy time of celebration in which all rejoice and feast. Even the Pharisees understand the incongruous nature of suggesting people fast at a wedding. It doesn't make any sense, nor does it for those following Jesus while He is yet alive to fast, which is Jesus' point.
The second half of today's scripture also contains a parable to the Pharisees. This one pairs with the wedding party allegory and feasting. Wine is served at a wedding. However, the garment allegory is also there, comparing old to new. In both cases, the new thing cannot be grafted onto the old without damaging the old. I take this parable to explain how God's Spirit enters the world.
36And He was also telling them a parable: "No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.
37 "And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined.
38 "But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.
39 "And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, 'The old is good enough.' "
Luke 5:36–39 (NASB95)
In times past, the Spirit of God moved in the world of its own. God spoke directly to the prophets; He sat in the Holy of Holies in a cloud. He wrote on the stone tablets with a finger of fire. His voice moved in the wind. These things God did directly. With Jesus, God descended to the world, but instead of possessing an adult, an "old wine bottle with new wine," He was born into the world in a new vessel, a baby like "new wine in a new bottle." Jesus had to be the vessel for God for many reasons, not the least of which it was the only way for His being to be with us in the flesh.
The interesting part to me is that this allegory speaks about God and Jesus coming to Earth, but it also speaks about the Old and New Testament. For any wine connoisseur, the older the vintage of the wine, the more full-bodied it tastes. Typically, wine that was just bottled is not consumed. It has to age first; the longer, the better. That old wine is almost always better than the younger wine. Here, we can also see Jesus likening the Old Testament to what Jesus knew would become the New Testament. God's Word doesn't change. People change. Anyone who says the way we understood scripture before, traditional interpretation if you will, should change with the times should be avoided. Let me say that again. If someone says we need to disregard old conventions and understandings about the Bible, they are wrong. God's Word doesn't change. Satan tries to get people to believe His Word changes to lead them astray. In Jesus' life and teachings, as told to us through the New Testament, we have the New Wine in the New Wine Bottle/Skin. But that "New Wine" points back to the old vintage that is the seasoned and full-bodied flavor we crave. We would do well to look to that vintage of venerable quality that still holds the flavor of righteousness the world so desperately needs right now.