VS. March 22, 2025 Devotional
March 22, 2025
LUKE 7:33-34 | 33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, “He has a demon”; 34 the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!”
LUKE 4:1-4 | 1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. 3 The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ 4 Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.”’
Generosity does not require a rigid austerity. Jesus enjoyed parties and celebrations. Not only did he resupply divine wine for a wedding celebration, he went to numerous meals where he taught and healed in the context of a dinner or a feast. He notes, himself, the false charge that he was a drunkard and a glutton.
Yet he could also fast, as he did leading into his pre-ministry confrontation with the Evil One. His pithy quote from Deuteronomy explains his reasoning, no one can live by bread alone. Our deepest desires are not physical but spiritual. The self-control learned in fasting makes room for the truths and directions that deepen our lives and hearts, encountered in prayer and scripture.
Are you making room for the words that come from God’s mouth?
Gracious God,
Help us to celebrate with joy and fast with integrity. May we make room for the life-sustaining words you speak to us in the Scriptures and through your Spirit.
Amen.
