Stress Test Devotional April 20
April 20, 2024
And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests
fast while the bridegroom is with them?”
This is a one sentence parable, a compressed analogy with one main point. During the week-long Palestinian wedding celebration, in which the bride and groom were king and queen of the festivities, all guests were exempt from fasting. Such individual acts of self-discipline had to give way to the shared communal joy centering on family, love, and blessing.
Now there was one standard first century picture of the coming of God’s Kingdom—a great celebratory feast called the Messianic Banquet. Jesus is claiming that his disciples are guests at this event. If fasting is out of place at a wedding—how much more at the Great Feast of God’s arrival? The healing, exorcisms, and teachings of Jesus were signs of the New Age and reasons to celebrate. His disciples’ joy and spontaneity were a natural response, as the prophets’ hopes were filled, and God’s promises made real, in their Master’s words and deeds.
PRAYER
Gracious God, Give me a new joy in my life. Grant me a new sense that through Jesus I am a citizen in a Kingdom of love and peace that will someday cover the earth, eliminating everything that is dark and dangerous. Help me celebrate every sign of that Kingdom. Amen.
