Advent 2025: Thu 18 Dec
Mark 2.18-20 Don't fast – enjoy the feast!
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, ‘How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?’
19 Jesus answered, ‘How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.
The people who asked Jesus about fasting were probably left baffled by Jesus’ reply. Who was this bridegroom? What was he doing with them? Where was the bride?
We might think of John the Baptiser as a lone figure, a single voice calling out in the wilderness, but this passage talks of his disciples. We don’t know how many there were or how influential they were, either, but they, and the Pharisees and their disciples, were clearly significant enough to be mentioned to Jesus. Certain days were set aside in the Jewish calendar for fasting. They commemorated past events such as the destruction of the first Temple, the day of Atonement and the fast that Queen Esther undertook.
It was clear that Jesus and his disciples did not observe these fasts. As far as he was concerned, he was intimating that he was “the bridegroom”, and people definitely do not fast at a wedding! There will come a time will come when this bridegroom will not be there – Jesus is referring to his impending death – and his disciples can fast then.
What the enquirers would not have known is that at the end of time when Jesus returns there will be a wedding celebration to end all wedding celebrations! Christ Jesus will be presented as The Bridegroom. And there will be a Bride. There will be no other guests because we, the Church, every one of us who claims the blood of Jesus for forgiveness, will collectively be the Bride, and this wedding supper will be a glorious, eternal celebration.
Jesus’ words may have fallen on non-understanding ears, but Mark considered them important enough to include in his Gospel.
How can the Church fellowship you belong to become more like the Bride of Christ?
Is an eternal wedding-supper what you thought heaven would be?
Father God, your desire is to invite me to the glorious wedding-supper in eternity, to sit, as part of the Church, beside Christ Jesus the Bridegroom. Turn my attitude from wondering if I’ll make it or thinking I’m not good enough, for that has been dealt with once and for all by Jesus. I dare to accept your invitation. Amen.
Sorry about the silly emojis:
Paul