February 1 | Luke 5:33-39
- David Thompson
- Feb 1, 2025
- 3 min read
DAILY READING
REFLECTION
Oh, the Pharisees
by Dave Thompson
Have you ever read a really good book, perhaps a mystery book? To make it good there is always an antagonist (a bad guy). Even though the Bible is not a mystery, nor a fiction book at all, sure enough there are some antagonists that make trouble for Jesus, His disciples, John the Baptist and many others that are too numerous to recount. Once again, in Luke 5:33-39 Jesus is dealing with the Pharisees. This set of verses, said to Jesus, would have been hard for me to defend in my finite mind. The Pharisees are recorded telling Jesus the following: "They said to Him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.” At this point, my first reaction might have been to punch all of them in their smug faces, but that would have been exactly what they wanted: a reason to condemn Him as a violent, heretic. That would have been the end of me, but let's look into Jesus' reaction.
As we know, Jesus mainly spoke in parables and hard to understand statements. Here, these verses seem confusing at first, but the Pharisees understood them after pondering them for a while. Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”
As the Pharisees thought about this statement, it became obvious to them that Jesus was speaking about Himself as the bridegroom. After a bit more time and perhaps all the way up to Jesus' crucifixion, the Pharisees might have looked back at this transaction and understood that they themselves were the cause of Jesus not being with the disciples and followers so then the followers would begin fasting.
Ultimately, Jesus finishes this passage with a parable. He tells of putting new wine in old wine skins. The old wine skins would be too rigid and would break. Jesus actually was saying that the Pharisees were like the too rigid, old wine skins and due to this; they could not receive or believe in Jesus. You see, as an example of this rigidity, the Pharisees had 39 categories of things you cannot do on the Sabbath. Their rigidity stopped them from accepting Jesus' fresh approach. We must pray that our churches and the leaders of our churches are not so rigid that they would not accept new things that Jesus brings. And we must keep our own hearts focused on Jesus' Word and revelation so we might change as well as Christ reveals things to us.
Thinking about folks that are so hardened in their hearts that they can't understand or accept Christ makes me feel sorry for them. The Pharisees could not change or Jesus would have changed them. There were some (see Nicodemus in the book of John) that did get converted, but so many did not. Just like today, many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 22:14). He further stated in Matthew 9:37-38, "The harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."
Prayer
Lord, let us not be like the Pharisees and be so rigid that we can not accept things that you want us to accept. Help churches and their leaders be open vessels to hear your Words and revelations and to react accordingly. Help us to daily be those that take UALC's mission statement to heart: "To be and To Make Disciples of Jesus Christ." Amen.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DAVE THOMPSON
I am the administrator of the Daily Worship Blog. My wife, Carla, and I have been attending UALC for seven years at the 9 o'clock service at Mill Run. We have two children, Catherine and Aaron. I have been a Christian for 53 years and am thankful that my Savior has given me two spiritual gifts that have carried me both spiritually and vocationally all my life: they are teaching and administration. I look forward to spending many years here at UALC to serve my Lord and Savior.
Comments