| Home > Devotionals > What Jesus Did! > March 14 |
![]() |
Something New, Something Fresh, Someone Amazing - Luke 5:33-35They said to Jesus, "John's followers often fast and pray, the same as the followers of the Pharisees. But your followers eat and drink all the time." Jesus said to them, {"When there is a wedding}, you cannot make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is still with them. But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them. Then his friends will fast." (ERV) Full Text Key Thought Jesus is basically telling folks that his presence means that it won't be "business as usual." Jesus' presence changes everything! This reality and the people's decision about that reality become the basis for everything else that follows. Jesus is something new, something fresh, and most importantly, he is someone amazing. God has come to visit his people in Jesus. Things are not the same. The dawn of a new era has come and it is an era of joy, salvation, and celebration. Yes, when he goes away, there will be moments of sorrow, of repentance, and of prayer that call for fasting. But when he is present, there is no time for business as usual! The same will be true when he comes again! The challenge for us is to live with the joy of his first coming and to live in anticipation of the second coming, as we live in the time in between. Today's Prayer NEW: Get Phil's What Jesus Did devotional in a paperback book. Click here to find out more! After this Jesus went out and saw a tax collector sitting at his place for collecting taxes. His name was Levi. Jesus said to him, "Follow me!" Levi got up, left everything, and followed Jesus. Then Levi gave a big dinner for Jesus. The dinner was at Levi's house. At the table there were many tax collectors and some other people too. But the Pharisees and those men that taught the law for the Pharisees began to complain to the followers of Jesus, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and other bad people?" Jesus answered them, "Healthy people don't need a doctor. It is the sick people that need a doctor. I have not come to ask good people to change. I have come to ask bad people to change their hearts and lives!" They said to Jesus, "John's followers often fast and pray, the same as the followers of the Pharisees. But your followers eat and drink all the time." Jesus said to them, {"When there is a wedding}, you cannot make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is still with them. But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them. Then his friends will fast." Jesus told them this story: "No person takes cloth off a new coat to cover a hole on an old coat. Why? Because he ruins the new coat, and the cloth from the new coat will not be the same as the old cloth. People never pour new wine into old wine bags. Why? Because the new wine will break the bags, and the wine will spill out and the wine bags will be ruined. People always put new wine into new wine bags. No person that drinks old wine wants new wine. Why? Because he says, 'The old wine is fine.'" Luke 5:27-39 (ERV)
Comments on "Something New, Something Fresh, Someone Amazing":
Easy-to-Read Version copyright © 2001 by World Bible Translation Center. All rights reserved. |
| ||||||||||