The Words of Jesus #19

Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

Jesus must have given a lot of people whiplash. For one thing, he didn’t seem to be very religious. That is not to say that he was not a law-abiding person, or that he was profane or irreligious. It was just that he wasn’t religious in the accepted sense. For one thing, he consorted with the wrong kind of people. And he was under near constant criticism from the more religious people of the time. And it was not just a matter of who Jesus consorted with.

And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink? And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.

Luke 5:33–35

You don’t fast in a time of celebration. Fasting is a sign of mourning, and the time would come when Jesus’ disciples would mourn. But the bottom line was that Jesus brought something entirely new. The Pharisees had a religious system their fathers had built in response to God’s revelation. It was full of customs and practices of essentially human invention. It had been around for a long time and had become a habit as well as a religion. Jesus was something entirely new.