And they said to him, the disciples of John fast often and offer prayers and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink. And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast in those days.”
– Luke 5:33–35
These are really important verses for us to understand on multiple levels. So first, just the context here. Critics are coming after Jesus because his disciples are not fasting like other disciples of the Pharisees or even John the Baptist fast. And in his response, Jesus teaches one of the reasons for fasting. He uses this illustration of a wedding. When the bridegroom is there, it’s a time for celebration, it’s a time for eating and drinking, not for abstaining.
Luke 5:33–35 teaches us to fast while long for Christ’s return.
And the implication is clear. Jesus is here. And so his disciples are not abstaining from food. They’re eating and drinking and enjoying food with the one who is worthy of celebration, Jesus himself. But there is coming a day, Jesus says, when just like when the bridegroom is away from a wedding, that Jesus will be gone and then his disciples will fast. So one of the biblical reasons why we fast is because we long for Jesus to return. We long to be physically in his presence. He’s not here right now and we long for him to come. We long for his Kingdom to come.
So all throughout Scripture, we see reasons to fast, in repentance, over sin, to just seek God in deeper ways, to express desire for God’s help in specific ways. Think about Esther saying, “Fast, I need God’s help. I’m about to go into the king.” And here’s this reason for fasting, to express longing for Jesus return, which so now flip it. If we’re not fasting, what we’re saying with our lives is we’re content without Jesus being here.
We’re feasting on this world. Like this is the celebration when it’s not. Yes, God gives so many good things in this world, including food that we eat on a regular basis, but we fast. We set aside food on a periodic basis to say more than I want anything this world offers, including the food that my body needs, I want you, Jesus, I want to be with you. I want your Kingdom to come. I want you to return. One of the reasons I said this passage is really important on multiple levels, one, just to get that context, but two, because in many people’s lives, fasting is a forgotten or neglected spiritual discipline.
Luke 5:33–35 reminds us to cultivate fasting as a spiritual discipline.
And I just want to encourage you, if fasting is not a regular part of your spiritual life, meaning either on a regular basis you’re setting aside food. And instead of eating, you’re spending that time in concentrated prayer and extra meditation on God’s Word, if you’re not doing that on a regular basis or on a periodic basis where you set aside a little more extended time to do that.I want to encourage you to prioritize fasting and get some resources on fasting.
We have resources on Radical’s website. There are great books on fasting. I wrote a forward for one by John Piper called A Hunger For God. So I just want to encourage you to build fasting into your spiritual life. And one of the reasons is here in Luke 5, because more than we long for anything in this world, we long for Jesus to return. So God, we pray that you would teach us to fast like this. Help us to fast like this, to set aside food that we are so thankful for in this world that we need. But God, we say to you, we need you more.
And more than we long for our stomachs to be full, we long for your Kingdom to come. Jesus, we are not satisfied here in this world. Yes, we want to live content in this world, but Jesus, we want to see your face. We want to see your Kingdom come, oh God, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So teach us to fast toward that end.
Prayer for the Kotokoli People
And specifically as we pray for unreached people groups around the world, God, for the Kotokoli people of Togo, West Africa in Togo, Ghana, and Benin for this people group of 300,000 in Togo, specifically Muslim men and women, no known followers of Jesus. God, we pray that that would change. Lord, we pray that the gospel would spread to all the peoples of the world and including the Kotokoli people of Togo, so that your glory and your grace and the celebration that is found in you alone, Jesus, remain known among all the peoples of the world. God, we pray and fast toward this end in light of your word in Luke chapter five, verses 33 through 35. In Jesus name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
