Mark 2:18-20 (NIV): Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”
Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.”
It was taken for granted that the truly pious would observe all of the traditional fast days. God had only established one period of fasting, the Day of Atonement, but people had added many more to it. Many of the Pharisees fasted twice a week (Luke 18:12), and some people still fasted in memory of the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon. To these people it seemed strange, and even heretical, for Jesus and His disciples not to fast.
But Jesus always drew a hard line between the rules that God had actually put into place and those “supplemental rules” that were created by man. Jesus and His disciples obeyed God’s law, but felt no need to conform to the expectations of people, or to religiously follow their rules. So when Jesus was confronted over His seeming disregard for “the rules” that even John’s disciples obeyed, it didn’t faze Him at all.
Jesus pointed out that fasting, as frequently practiced, was a sign of repentance or sadness. But the reality was that Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah had finally come, so sadness and self-denial were out of place. Instead everyone, including the Pharisees (who were waiting for the Messiah as much as anyone) should have been celebrating, not fasting. The fact that the Pharisees and John’s disciples who would not follow Jesus refused to join in this celebration, instead placing their focus on the keeping of traditions, showed that they would not accept Him as their own Messiah.
But even at this early stage of His ministry, Jesus knew where His path led. He pointed to the dark day in the future when He would be arrested, tried, executed, and buried, wrested from His disciples. On that day they would indeed fast, not because of tradition, but because of grief.
In all of this it is important to draw a clear distinction, just as Jesus did, between God’s real commandments and those things that are merely man-made rules. Jesus never pooh-poohed God’s laws. But He was never bound by the rules of man. As He demonstrated so ably, true righteousness is not holding to man-made traditions, but is living in the ways that God has set forth for His people.
Father, it is easier than it seems to get caught up in man-made rules, and to judge ourselves as righteous because of our adherence to them, while at the same time disregarding the commandments that you have actually given. Forgive us, Lord, and teach us anew to live by Your word; to follow Jesus’ example in this as in everything else. Amen.