Holy Boldness

of the bridegroom created a moral imperative against fasting. However, Jesus also cryptically spoke of a time when the bridegroom would be taken away, a veiled reference to His death, resurrection, and ascension, which would signal a time of fasting.

Do you recognize the time in which you are living?

The people of God often do not recognize a change of seasons or a time of fulfillment. This is a critical error, for our activities reveal our expectations and our awareness of the current reality. We sometimes do things simply because it is tradition even though the times require a dif ferent expression. The bridegroom’s appearance demanded an adjustment from the status quo. While Jesus was with His disciples, their typical regiment of periodic fasting was suspended. His presence represented a time of immense importance and His disciples recognized the time and celebrated His being with them. The disciple’s refusal to fast made a statement: the bridegroom is here now! Those who do not recognize what is going on and simply live by tradition and set times and seasons will be confused by those who do know what is happening in God’s eternal time clock. There was an offense towards the disciples of Jesus for not following religious protocol and it provoked and infuriated the various religious groups. But the disciples were not following just any Rabbi. Jesus was the Rabbi and He was more than a teacher. He was the bridegroom . Therefore, His presence stipulated a different protocol and this new protocol provoked questions and sometimes anger. Without skipping a beat, Jesus moved in quick succession from the discussion of the Bridegroom to two other metaphors of His presence and how it demanded a change in the way things are done. “But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment for the patch pulls away from the garment and a worse tear results. Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins otherwise the wineskins burst and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined, but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matthew 9:16, 17) New Wine and New Wine Skins

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