Reflection by James –  not John’s Brother, but the other one,  Alphaeus’ son

There’s no pleasing some people, is there?   The food is always too hot or too cold.  The bed is always too soft or too hard.  Just what do they really want – if not an excuse to complain all the time?

Yesterday. they were on about mixed messages.  Or were they having a deeper dig at us?  Who knows?  Who cares?  Jesus soon put them straight.

“How come your disciples are not fasting?” they demanded.  “John is.  His disciples are.  The Pharisees certainly are as well.  But look at your lot!  They’re a gluttonous and disrespectful bunch; stuffing themselves while everyone else goes hungry.  How can you allow them to disregard such important tradition and disciplines?”  (I guess that is how they see us: greedy and ill-disciplined!)

“Well, it’s like this,” Jesus replied with a twinkle in his eye. “Have you ever been to a wedding?”  He paused to examine their nonplussed faces before continuing; “You don’t see many people fasting at a wedding, do you?  In fact, that might be seen as rather rude!  A wedding is a time for feasting, not fasting.  And that is what my friends are doing; they are celebrating while the bridegroom is among them.  There might come a time when he is taken away from them, and then they may stop eating.  But now it’s the time to party and that’s what we’ll do!”

Wow!  I kind of liked that!  I love a party; and with Jesus at the moment, it looks like all the time is party time.  There is just so much to celebrate, to marvel at and enjoy.

But they looked at him with complete incomprehension!  I could tell they were searching to work out which one of us might be about to get married!  Their faces displayed more than a hint of scepticism as they glared at us all the more.

“You don’t get it, do you?”  Jesus continued.  “Well, let me explain!  Don’t imagine that it is a case of ’one size fits all’.  It certainly isn’t!  And you can’t go forcing your rules and expectations onto everyone else; they might not fit!  I mean; stick a new patch onto an old coat sleeve and what’s going to happen when it’s washed?  The patch will shrink, won’t it?  And then it will tear the sleeve even more!  It’s daft to impose the one onto the other!”

“Or, if you’ve got old leather wine bottles, all dried up and cracked with age, you don’t go putting new wine in them, do you?  If you do, you know what a disaster it will be!  Ka-boom!  The old skin will have lost its elasticity and won’t stretch.  So, as the new wine continues to ferment the bottle will burst under the pressure, won’t it?   Then you’ll not only loose the bottle, but all that lovely wine as well!  Come on, be sensible!  Get new leather bottles for your new wine.  You know that’s what you need!”

I’m not sure that they got the point he was making, but I saw his meaning quite clearly. Things are changing now that Jesus is here, so we had better get used to things being different.  Long cherished customs and traditions may not be appropriate anymore.  The old has gone: the new has come!

From what I have seen of Jesus so far, everything is different.  It’s all so fresh and real – so new!  It’s exciting!

But I figure that it may not be long before the backlash comes.  They may put up with us not fasting like the others, but Jesus’ total disregard of their Sabbath customs is pushing them too far.  They won’t stretch much further.  The new wine is fermenting and the bubble is about to burst.