The Bridegroom Is With You

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”  Mark 2:18–22

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The Bridegroom Is With You
Fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training, but they make no sense in the presence of the King when you arrive at his feast. There is a time and a place for mourning and weeping. There is a time for celebration and joy. God grants joy to you and me by granting us the presence of his Son. This is the promise that the world dismisses and ignores. Jesus comes to dwell with his people at his own feast when the Word of God is preached in the churches of God and the Sacraments are administered according to his divine command. This is the promise that you believe. Your God is dwelling with you and he brings the good gifts of his feast. He made the Sabbath not as a burden, but that when you hear the Word and receive the Sacrament, you find rest and are satisfied in him. Thanks be to God that he delights to gather us to himself.