Divine Dining February 27, 2026 Devotional

LUKE 5:33 | ³³ Then they said to him, “John’s disciples, like the disciples of the Pharisees, frequently fast and pray, but your disciples eat and drink.”

The Jewish leaders also questioned Jesus spiritual seriousness, contrasting His tendency, and that of His followers, to celebrate rather than practice self-denial. He feasted more than He fasted!

This charge haunted His ministry taking the extreme form, which Jesus Himself reported, that He was a “drunkard and a glutton.” Now there were two very specific reasons why Jesus celebrated rather than mourning.

One reason was His excitement to see the broken healed and the spiritually dead restored. Those broken by loneliness, or isolation, like tax collectors, found friends. Those crippled by disease or by ailments, recovered health. Those who repented of their waywardness, returned home and found their place in His Father’s house (see Luke 15 and the Prodigal Son). All of these moments of restoration, in which God acted, to heal and to help, were worth celebrating. To see Levi and his friends changing was a miracle of sorts.

What excites you the most?

Gracious God,

Let me celebrate Your wonderful deeds, Your moments of healing and restoration. Teach me when to be serious and when to be joyful.

Amen.