Daily Word Of God
Luke 5:33-38
The Pharisees and the scribes said to Jesus, ‘John’s disciples are always fasting and saying prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees, too, but yours go on eating and drinking.’ Jesus replied, ‘Surely you cannot make the bridegroom’s attendants fast while the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them; that will be the time when they will fast.’
He also told them a parable, ‘No one tears a piece from a new cloak to put it on an old cloak; if he does, not only will he have torn the new one, but the piece taken from the new will not match the old.
‘And nobody puts new wine in old skins; if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and then run out, and the skins will be lost. No; new wine must be put into fresh skins.’
Today's Pointers on God's Word
As you read the passage what words, phases or meanings caught your attention?
- In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that to be His disciples; we will experience great joy in knowing, loving and serving Him. Our faith in Jesus will lead us to eternal salvation.
- However, when Jesus spoke of our need to “fast” He wants to remind us too that within this Good News of salvation there is the reality of the Cross that we have to take up daily to follow Jesus.
- Whether it is the joy of the gift of eternal life or the pain of the Cross we have to bear, Jesus is challenging us to be constantly open to His Truths (“new wine”). We are being challenged in our old ways of thinking and living (“old wine skins”).