“18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. People came and asked Him, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees disciples fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”
19 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the groom is with them, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast. 20 But the time will come when the groom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new patch pulls away from the old cloth, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
Mark 2:18-22
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If we want to see new things come about in out walk with Christ, we cannot be content to maintain things the way they ‘used to be.’ In this passage, Jesus is dealing with a question of non-required, ritual fasting. It was a personal decision in search of piety, not a day of fasting prescribed by God. It was, yet again, something done to try to earn piety, to make one’s self holy, to try to gain approval from God. It was based in tradition, not in the Word or in the heart. And so when He was confronted with tradition that didn’t need to take priority over the heart, Jesus explained that the new way and the old traditions weren’t going to work well together.

It isn’t enough to just do things for the sake of doing them, to put them on our list of ‘pious things I do’ as if we come to God with a list of our positive traits that will convince Him to love us and forgive us. Instead, we live each moment with Him, guided by Him, rejoicing when it is time to rejoice, fasting when it is time to fast. It doesn’t have to be on some arbitrary schedule, but should come from the rhythms of life, our hearts combined with our day to day lives, seeking a closeness, an intimacy, with God.

In this case, it wasn’t time to fast, but that time would come. Jesus’ disciples were acting properly according to what God was doing in their life. When the situation changed, their actions would change accordingly, but never just for the sake of doing it, in an empty repetition of obligation. Fasting is a discipline, and just like any discipline, it is a gift given, a sacrifice for God. And sacrifices are acceptable when they come from the heart, from the sincere desire to grow close to God. When they are simple, scheduled rituals of obligation, then God has stated very clearly that He doesn’t want empty ‘gifts’ and heartless observations. Instead, we love Him with full sincerity, living accordingly and letting out actions reflect that heart-felt desire. Man made rules and obligations don’t cut it and don’t show anyone what it really mean to follow after Jesus. If we are going to GoLove others, then it must be in sincerity, born out of passion and urgency, not a calendar and a to-do list. That place, the heart of love, is where devotion shines through and God is glorified.