Notes to the Lord:Feast and Fasting

 Mark 2

The disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees made a practice of fasting. Some people confronted Jesus: “Why do the followers of John and the Pharisees take on the discipline of fasting, but your followers don’t?”

Lord Jesus--This is a really funny question in some ways.  Really it is something like...your disciples first are the wrong kind of people...street people, people who don't know Torah and shouldn't because of the way they have lived.  But to top it off, your group of riffraff are having entirely too much fun learning about God.  

I wonder if that is the way that I sound sometimes from the outside looking in?  Hope not.  There is reason for celebration and laughing.  The King of Glory has come and we have been invited to the party.  There is hope and light, there is good news of changed lives that need to be celebrated like a prodigal come home from the far country.

For some of these people that Jesus brought to his table, this may have been the first time when they had experienced acceptance without a hidden agenda.  If there is one thing that the church needs to be good at, I need to be good at, is acceptance without agenda.  The more that I think about it the more that I realize that my agenda runs deep.  Sometimes, I don't even hear clearly the needs that surround me.  They come at me so fast and I end up living part of my life stuck on fast forward.  

 [2.19-20] Jesus said, “When you’re celebrating a wedding, you don’t skimp on the cake and wine. You feast. Later you may need to pull in your belt, but not now. As long as the bride and groom are with you, you have a good time. No one throws cold water on a friendly bonfire. This is Kingdom Come!"

I look at these young faces laughing in a iconic, almost a perfect moment of their lives. Worries of Monday morning job stress and how are we going to make the mortgage payment are far from their minds. They should be. At a celebration, it is time to celebrate the moment.  

Lord Jesus--There are times for celebrating and for getting a hold of the simple fact that your kingdom is here on earth right now, as your people bring it into being with your grace and resurrection life within us.

Remind me of that line today Lord Jesus..."This is Kingdom Come!"  I need to hear it in the push and pull of  this life.

Peterson, Eugene H. (2006-06-15). The Message Remix 2.0: The Bible In contemporary Language (p. 1794). NavPress. Kindle Edition.