The New Feast

The New Feast

Read: Revelation 21:1-7

The one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!”

Revelation 21:5

SOME PEOPLE came to Jesus one day and asked him why his followers did not fast like the followers of their religious leaders and John the Baptist (Luke 5:33-39). Jesus did not dismiss fasting by any means, but he made a remarkable statement about timing. His followers sensed that they were with the bridegroom and ate like they were at a wedding feast. They were, even in their limited understanding, celebrating a new covenant, a new relationship, and an entirely new kind of life.

Jesus compared the new life he offers to a new wineskin. Old and new skins can’t be sewn together because an old container is rigid and the new skin will expand. New life can’t be imposed on old structures; the new creation can’t blend with the ways of the world. The follower has to choose between religious traditions and spiritual renewal. One caters to our understanding and comforts us with predictable patterns; the other stretches our faith and sends us on an exciting but somewhat nerve-testing adventure. The new does not conform to old paradigms and will ultimately break them. But it is definitely worth celebrating.

Lent is a good time to fast in prayer and repentance, but that kind of solemnity is a marker and memorial of our transition from old to new, not the substance of the Kingdom life. No, the Kingdom life is a wedding feast, a celebration of the newness that came with the Resurrection. We are a different kind of creature, no longer born merely of this world but of another realm. We plant our feet not in the fallen world of Genesis but in the regenesis of a greater creation. Why? Because our essence has changed. We are butterflies leaving the remnants of our caterpillar life. We are not who we used to be.

Mourn the fallen condition of the world and your own soul, but do not remain in that state for long. Anticipate the Resurrection—a departure from past brokenness and the entryway into a thoroughly new existence. Whenever your experience seems to point you back toward the old rather than into the new, insist that your life line up with the promise of the gospel rather than the other way around. Your inheritance, by God’s own promises in the old covenant and fulfillments in the new, is for rebirth. Look at his movements in your life. Feast on them. He really is making all things new.

PRAYER

Jesus, you are the template for my new existence. I no longer look to my old ways of life; I look to you. Create in me a new heart, a new vision, a new joy. Lead me into Kingdom ways, and help me lead others into them too. Amen.

REFLECTION

Are there times when life seems old, stale, and predictable? According to God, what is the reality of your condition? What practical steps can you take to walk in newness of life?

From the book