And they said to him, "The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink." And Jesus said to them, "Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days." He also told them a parable: "No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, 'The old is good.'" (Luk 5:33-39 ESV)
How strange it would be if the disciples of Christ fasted while He was with them. We will not fast in Heaven nor can we fast when we are face to face with our Lord as these disciples were. The picture that Christ gives is of a wedding. We don’t go to a wedding in order to fast. Rather we go to a wedding in order to feast. There is a time for everything…a time for fasting and a time for feasting. And when our Lord is with us in such an intimate way it is certainly a time of feasting.
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. (Ecc 3:1-8 ESV)
Christ goes on to say that there will be a time when His disciples will fast. This will happen when the bridegroom, Jesus Himself, is taken from them. He is speaking here of being taken away from the disciples in the betrayal of Jesus, taken by the Jewish courts, and given over to the Roman courts…finally to die on the cross on Golgotha.
We know that this is not where the story ends, rather Christ rose again from the dead three days later. He rose in victory over sin and the grave. But shortly after this victorious proclamation He went on to sit at the right hand of His Father in Heaven, leaving us until His return. Therefore even now we fast, waiting for His return…but we fast with a lively hope, knowing that He will return and knowing that He’s already won the victory.
Even more than that, we don’t mourn as if we have been left alone. Christ does not leave us as orphans, but comes to dwell with us by His Holy Spirit…our great helper and comforter.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (Joh 14:16-18 ESV)
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