33 And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink?
34 And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?
35 But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.
Introduction
Some time ago, I was reading that great American philosopher Erma Bombeck, and she was telling about a time when she attended church not long ago. She noticed a little boy who was just grinning at everybody. He wasn’t scuffling around. He wasn’t kicking the pew. He wasn’t rummaging through his mother’s purse. He wasn’t tearing pages out of the hymnal. He was just smiling at everybody. After a while his mother leaned over and gave him a good solid tap on the seat, “Will you stop that grinning? Don’t you realize that you are in church?”
Sometimes we come to church and sing “Serve the Lord with Gladness,” but we think that we ought to sit here in sadness and in gloom while we do that. Erma said, “I wanted to gather that little boy up in my arms and tell him about my happy God, about my happy Jesus. I wanted to tell him about the one who understands humanity, the one who understands why little boys pick their nose in church. That’s because they are little boys. I wanted to tell him about the one who has such a great sense of humor because he made the likes of you and me, and about the one who answers my shallow prayer, or at least puts up with my shallow prayers when I pray, ‘Lord, if you can’t make me thin, at least make my friends look fat.’”
You know the truth is that we do have a happy God, and we have a happy Jesus. And that’s the whole thrust of the three verses that are before us today in the book of Luke 5:33-35.
Jesus is having a hard time with the scribes and Pharisees, as he did so often in his ministry. They asked him this question, wanting to expose his failures and weakness to others. “Why don’t your disciples fast like John’s disciples fast and like we fast?”
The law of God in the Old Testament required only one day of fasting a year, and that was on the day of atonement. But the scribes and the Pharisees had so systematized religion, that in Jesus’ day, they believed that you should fast two days every week—on Monday and on Thursday. From sun up until sunset they did not eat anything two days a week. And more than that, they would go around with white paint or white makeup on their faces to make sure that everybody who saw them would know that they were fasting. They wore the paint even to make sure that God could see them and take note of their religious devotion. After all, there wouldn’t be any need in going through the suffering and the agony of fasting if God and the people didn’t know anything about it. They had so systematized their religion that it became a meaningless ritual to them.
If you have ever been on a diet, then you know that fasting is no fun. That is exactly what characterized the religion of the scribes and the Pharisees. They were the “no fun” kind of people. Their religion was sadness and gloom and despair almost all of the time. I read the other day about a man who was overweight who went to the doctor. The doctor (trying to help him) said, “I want you to eat regularly two days and then I want you to skip a day. Then I want you to eat regularly two more days and skip another day. I want you to repeat that procedure for two weeks, and then come back and see me, and you will have lost five pounds.”
Two weeks later, the man came in and he had lost 20 pounds, and the doctor was absolutely amazed at that loss of weight. He asked, “Did you just follow my instructions?” And the man, said, “I did. I ate regularly two days and I skipped a day. But, Doctor, I tell you, I thought I was going to drop dead that third day.” And the doctor said, “From hunger, you mean?” And the man said, “No. From skipping.”
You know that dieting is a no fun kind of thing, and this fasting that so characterized the religion of the Pharisees (and even the religion of John the Baptist) was a religion of sadness and gloom. These men said, “Lord, why don’t your disciples fast like that? Instead of fasting they feast and they seem to eat and drink and enjoy life.” Jesus made a most interesting response. He said, “Can you make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.”
Jesus likened himself unto a bridegroom and he likened his followers unto children of the bridechambers or wedding guests. In Jesus’ day when a young couple got married, they did not go away on a honeymoon. They rather stayed at home and had an open house for a whole week, and they wore the finest clothes that they had, they ate the finest of foods, and they celebrated. They had a weeklong party of eating and drinking and festive occasions. In all of their tough life, this was probably the happiest week that they would enjoy on this earth. And Jesus said, “That’s what my kingdom is like. I am the bridegroom and my followers are guests at the wedding party. They are wedding guests. They are children of the bridechamber.”
Our faith is not characterized by the sadness and the gloom of fasting, but rather by the joy and the happiness of feasting and celebrating. I want to remind you that Jesus compared himself to a bridegroom, not to a mortician. The Christian faith ought to be more like a wedding than a wake. We as his disciples ought to act like groomsmen—not like pallbearers. But so very often, the sadness and the gloom of the Pharisees has characterized the people of God. As William Barclary notes in The Letters to the Corinthians, a journalist was once told by a beloved chaplain, “Don’t make an agony out of your religion.” Similarly, he notes that it was said of Robert Burns that he was “haunted rather than helped” by his religion. I don’t know where the idea that sadness, gloom, and despair ought to characterize the people of God came from, but you cannot find it in the New Testament. Our God was and is a happy God. Jesus Christ was and is a happy person, and he wants us to be happy also.
What does God do for us? How does he work in our lives to give us the kind of joy, happiness, and excitement that ought to characterize people who are wedding guests? There are seven things I want to suggest to you. If you are taking notes on the sermon, these are the things you will want to write down. The first is this: he cleanses us of our past sins. There are very few people who can ever be happy until they are cut loose from past mistakes. He gives us cleansing from our past sins.
Second, he gives us the capacity to love. In order to be happy you must love and you must be loved. Jesus brings us into a realm and fellowship where we can be loved and where we can love other people, and that is essential to happiness.
Third, he gives us a standard to live by. Happiness and holiness are inseparable. You cannot live like the devil and rejoice and be happy in God. Happiness and holiness demand that we live up to a standard and he gives us such a standard.
Fourth, he gives us contentment with life. We learn to change the things that we can change, and to accept gracefully and joyfully the things we cannot change. We find a measure of contentment in living our lives day by day, accepting that which we cannot change.
Fifth, he gives us a cause to serve. He gives us something that is bigger than ourselves—something that occupies us so that we are not always looking on the inside at ourselves. We are not to be too introspective about life. We are rather to be so committed to a mission and a purpose that we get outside of ourselves, forget ourselves, and suddenly discover that life’s okay.
Sixth, he gives us appreciation for the little things of life. We discover that happiness is found not in the spectacular or the monumental. It is found in the simple things, the little things of life.
Seventh, he gives us assurance for tomorrow. The uncertainty of the future is always before us. When we have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ we may not know what tomorrow holds, but we know who holds tomorrow and there is assurance and comfort in that.
So, cleansing of past sins, and providing us with the capacity to love, a standard to live by, a contentment with life, a cause to serve, an appreciation for little things, and assurance of tomorrow—that’s the way the Lord helps us to be happy people. Think with me about those seven points for a few moments.
1. God cleanses of past sins.
Guilt over past mistakes is oftentimes like a great ghost that comes riding into our lives out of the past to rob us of whatever joy and happiness we could have, want to have, and ought to have in the present. I submit to you that there are many, many people who will never, ever find happiness in their life until they have dealt sufficiently with their past mistakes. Some time ago they did wrong, and the memory of that wrong continues to hunt them down through the years, and trouble them so much in the present that they cannot enjoy what God has given to them.
I talked this week with a young man who was involved in a tragic automobile accident years ago that was his fault. As he stood there he wept bitter tears while saying to me, “I will never, ever get rid of the burden of this guilt.” I could say to him with all confidence, “Son, if you will bring your sin and your mistakes to God in confession and in repentance, he can lift that burden, and you can stop looking back at the past and begin to look forward to the future, knowing that things are right with you and God. You may not forget what you have done, but the burden and the guilt of it does not have to stay with you the rest of your life.”
There are many people who have messed up. They’ve gotten involved in all kinds of bad relationships, sexual relationships, drugs, alcohol, and other tragic things in their lives, and they feel like that is a scar that will mar them as long as they live. But I submit to you that if you bring your life and your past sins and mistakes to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, he has the ability—more than that, he has the willingness—to forgive you of your sins, to cleanse you, and to give you a fresh new start in life.
I think about that verse in the book of Acts, “Repent … and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). That word blotted means “to erase,” and God’s pencil has a big eraser on it. If you will come to God he will erase all of the mistakes, all of the smudges, and all of the sins of days gone by, and will give you a fresh new page in your book of life, and you can start writing over again.
I share what John said in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I have the joy of underscoring that word “all,” as there is nothing outside of that. No matter what a person has done, and no matter how deep into sin they may have gone, God can and will forgive all our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness, and there is the possibility that life can start over again. Some of you will never find happiness until you find forgiveness. You will never be right with yourself until you are right with God. Happiness begins by having the sins of the past forgiven.
Some of you have experienced rejection in life. You were married and your husband or your wife left you, and you felt that tremendous blow of rejection. Perhaps you have been rejected by a parent, or rejected by a child, or rejected by an employer. Rejection is hard to take. Jesus said in John 6:37, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” I assure you that if you come to God through faith in Jesus Christ, you will never ever be rejected.
Jesus met a woman at a well. She had been married and divorced five times. She was now living with a man she was not married to. Live-in relationships are not anything new. Do you know what? As Jesus talked with her she came to realize that he was able to satisfy the deepest longings of her heart—something a new relationship or a new love affair could never supply. She turned in faith to him and the Lord forgave her and she became one of his followers and she became a great evangelist. If the Lord did not reject her for five divorces and for living with a man at that time when she was willing to recognize her sin and turn from it, then he will not reject you.
They brought to him one time a woman caught in the very act of adultery. Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you: go, and sin no more” (John 8:11). If the Lord Jesus did not reject her, he won’t reject you.
There came to him one time a tax collector named Zacchaeus who was hated and despised by his people because he was a traitor to his own country. He was dishonest and unscrupulous in all of his ways, but he realized the errors of his ways and he came to Jesus. This Zacchaeus and another tax collector named Matthew came to the Lord, and he did not reject them. If he did not reject those dishonest unscrupulous men, he will not reject you. The great promise of scripture is this: if you come to God in repentance and faith, he will forgive you and you can start life all over again. Some of you will never know happiness until you come to him. He offers you, first of all, cleansing from sins of the past.
2. God gives us the capacity to love.
You know that resentment, hatred, and the nursing of grudges are all major factors in unhappiness. If you find a person who resents others, a person who has been hurt and is holding a grudge, or a person who has anger and bitterness in their heart, you will find a miserable, unhappy person. But I submit to you that Jesus Christ in your life can give you the ability to love people who have hurt you. To love people who have wronged you. To love people who never come to say “I’m sorry” for what they have done. He can give you the capacity to overcome that bitterness, resentment, and anger. He has done it again and again for other people, and he can do it for you. If you don’t get rid of those kinds of feelings, then you are never going to be happy. I find as I talk with people all the time that those kinds of feelings are at the root of much of the unhappiness in our world today.
The Bible tells us in the book of Esther about a man who held bitterness, anger, and resentment in his heart. His name was Haman. He was the crown prince of Persia, and he had a hatred and a resentment for a Jew by the name of Mordecai. Haman had everything that a person could ever want in life. He had power. He had wealth. He had prominence. He had prestige. He had it all. But the Bible quotes Haman as saying this: “Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate” (Esther 5:13). His hatred, bitterness, and resentment toward another was so intense that he could not enjoy all the blessings of life that he had.
That happened not only to Haman in the Old Testament—it happens to people right here in Tyler, Texas, today. If you are harboring resentment and bitterness and anger toward another person, you are destined to be unhappy. If you want to live in your misery, go ahead. But if you want to be free, come to Christ. He can set you free, and he can give you the capacity to love and to forgive other people. If you’re ever going to be happy, you must have the consciousness that you are loved by someone else and that you love other people. There can be no real happiness without that.
When Jesus died on the cross, he prayed, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). They didn’t ask for forgiveness, but he forgave them anyhow. When they stoned Stephen to death he prayed, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts 7:60). They didn’t apologize. They didn’t ask for forgiveness, but he prayed for them anyhow. When the apostle Paul stood trial before the Roman court, he said, “No man stood with me, but all men forsook me” (2 Timothy 4:16). All of his friends let him down and he prayed that same prayer, “I pray God, it may not be laid to their charge.” The grace of God was at work in the life of Christ, in the life of Stephen, and in the life of apostle Paul, and that same grace can work in your life.
God’s grace can allow you to pray for those who nail you down as they did Jesus, or who knock you down as they did Stephen, or who let you down as they did the apostle Paul. Until you have that kind of grace and that kind of forgiveness you will never know happiness. He gives you forgiveness for sins of the past. He gives you the capacity to love and forgive those who hurt you.
3. God gives us a standard to live by.
Mark it down somewhere in the corridors of your mind: happiness and holiness go together. You cannot live wrong and feel right about yourself. Somewhere along the way you must deal with your actions and your behaviors and make them conform to the standards and the will of God if you want to find ultimate happiness. One of the wonderful things about the Lord Jesus is that when we come to him, he gives us a standard of loyalty, love, devotion, morality, honesty, right living, and all the things that are so important to having a happy and meaningful life. There are people today who are absolutely confused as to what is right and what is wrong. They are wandering around in a moral fog, confused and bewildered by life itself. If they came to Jesus Christ they could find a compass for the uncertainties of life. Once they knew that their lives were on course and headed in the right direction, they would have a sense of peace and joy that always comes with that.
4. God gives us a contentment with life.
Happy people have to learn to accept life as it is—to accept that which they cannot change and to accept it gracefully. Unless we are able to accept life and to recognize life as it really is we will never find happiness in life. Happy people accept the fact that water is wet, that rocks are hard, that winter is cold, and that life is oftentimes unfair. I don’t know who said that life is supposed to be fair. They didn’t know what they were talking about when they said it. I’m not told anywhere that life is fair. Life is oftentimes unjust. Many times we get a raw deal and we have to learn to accept the fact that life is unfair and that many things happen that we cannot explain.
We can search and search for answers, but we must live this life in mystery. Unless we learn to accept that which we cannot change we are destined to be miserable. You have to accept the fact that you are going to grow old. You cannot be forever young. Can you accept that gracefully? You have to accept the fact that not everybody is going to like you, especially if you are in public places. When I started out in the ministry, I thought everybody was going to like me. Why wouldn’t they? I still don’t know why they wouldn’t, but I soon discovered that they didn’t. But that makes sense, because I don’t even like myself sometimes. Sometimes I don’t like you too much either, so the same, right back to you!
The person who thinks that he must go through life with everyone liking him is unrealistic. There are certain things in life that we can change, and certain things that we cannot change. The Lord gives us the grace to accept those things that we cannot change, and to accept them gracefully.
You have heard the Serenity Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” The Lord does that. He gives us the courage to change what we can, the peace to accept what we can’t, and the wisdom to know the difference between the two.
The apostle Paul said one time, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Philippians 4:11). When he wrote those words he was in prison. I want you to know that he didn’t like being in prison. He would have much preferred to have been some other place. But he knew at that moment that he could not do anything about it so he accepted it without bitterness, without resentment, and without complaint. You can read every one of the letters of the apostle Paul that were written while he was in prison or after he got out of prison. Never once does he complain about how cold and damp the prisons were, or how lumpy the bedding was, or how sorry the food was. He just accepted that bad experience and made the best of it. What I am saying to you is that the Lord in your life can give you the capacity to be content with life and to accept what you cannot change. If you can’t do that then you are never going to be happy.
You will grow old. People will dislike you. Life will be unfair. Things will happen that you cannot explain, but God will give you the grace to accept it gracefully and that is the only way to be happy.
5. God gives us a cause to serve.
I don’t know of anybody who is happy who does not have a cause that is bigger than himself that he is involved in. It is that mission or that cause in front of us that keeps us from always thinking about ourselves, and that keeps us from being too introspective. People who are too introspective and are always looking inwardly are never happy people.
Happy people don’t go around asking themselves, “Am I happy?” They don’t go around asking, “What can I do to make me happy?” The people who are asking those questions are absolutely miserable people. Happy people are the ones who are so involved in a work or ministry that is meaningful and helpful to other people that they don’t have time to worry about themselves. They wake up sometimes and they look back on the past and they say, “Hey, that’s not been bad. That’s been good.”
The Lord Jesus gives us that kind of purpose and that kind of cause. I don’t know where else you can find it except in the Lord Jesus: a cause that is eternal, a cause that will never die, a cause that is worthy of our highest and best. Jesus said, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 16:25).
Are you looking for life? I mean a life of joy, of meaning, of happiness, and of purpose? Jesus said, “If you go out and try to find that kind of life, you will miss it altogether.” But he said, “If you will lose your life for my sake and if you will lose your life for the Gospel’s sake, then you will discover that you have found the life you are looking for.” The Lord Jesus can give us a cause that we can serve. Some people are so busy looking on the inside that they suffer from the paralysis of analysis and they are never happy.
6. God gives us appreciation for the little things of life.
It was Rudyard Kipling who said, “Teach us to delight in simple things.” You know life is not all watching a parade in the summer. It is not all spending the day at the State Fair of Texas in the fall. Life is not made up of those exciting, spectacular, and monumental kinds of things. Life is made up of simple little things. A meal with your family. A brisk walk through the woods or through the neighborhood. Reading a good book. A cup of coffee with a friend. In those simple little things of life you find life. If you are always looking for the spectacular and the monumental, you are going to miss it altogether.
I think sometimes we are rushing through life at such breakneck speed that we never take time to stop and enjoy the beauty and the wonder of the life that is around us. Do you know that we live in one of the most beautiful spots of the world? I am determined that at least every week, I just need to stop and look around at the trees, the grass, the flowers, the beauty of God’s creation, and the beauty of East Texas. I say to myself and I say to the person who is next to me, “Look at the beauty of this place and the privilege we have of just living here.” Listen, that does something to your soul. I don’t have to be traveling on a cruise someplace or in some distant land to look around and see the beauty of God; it is here. God gives us the ability to be appreciative for what we have around us every day. We so need that.
He also gives us hope for the uncertainty of tomorrow. You know life has always been uncertain. We never know what is going to happen tomorrow. We don’t know, but our parents didn’t know, and their parents before them didn’t know. Our great-grandparents and on down the line—they all didn’t know. Nobody can know what tomorrow holds, but if we can know who holds tomorrow, if we can know that God holds it and that we can trust in him, then there can be a calmness and a certainty in the midst of uncertainty.
Jesus said, “Don’t get all uptight and worried about what you are going to eat and what you are going to drink and what you are going to wear. Put your faith in God. He is the one who feeds the birds of the air. He is the one who makes the flowers grow.” If God has been taking care of the birds since Genesis 1:1, and if God has been taking care of the flowers since the beginning of time, don’t you think he is going to take care of you? If you will just seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, the basic needs of your life are going to be met somehow, some way.
God in his grace will take care of you, and when we live with that kind of confidence, it means we can live in the now. You see, yesterday is a canceled note, tomorrow is a promissory note, and today is the only currency we have to spend. We must live today and not be so worried about tomorrow that we forget that today is the day the Lord has made, and we should rejoice and be glad in it.
7. God gives us assurance for tomorrow.
Augustine said a long time ago that the way of happiness is to leave the past to the mercy of God, to leave the present to the providence of God, and to leave the future to the promises of God. When we live forgiven, when we live loving and forgiving other people, when we live by his standards, when we live with contentment, accepting what we cannot change, when we live committed to a great cause and a great purpose, when we live with appreciative hearts for what we have, when we live with the hope and assurance that God (who has led us thus far) will not fail us in the future, when we live that way—we find happiness. And that’s why Jesus said, “I’m a bridegroom, and my followers are members of the wedding party, and we are happy people.”
We are not pallbearers; we are not attending a funeral. We have found something worth living for, and because of this we are happy. The analogy of a bridegroom helps us to understand the purpose and the nature of Jesus’ ministry. As a great lover of humanity, Jesus’ purpose was to woo us and to win us to God, and the nature of that relationship is one of joy and happiness.
One last thing: Jesus said his disciples didn’t fast because they didn’t need to. The time was coming when the bridegroom (Jesus) would be taken from them. The Greek verb taken means “to be taken violently.” He looked ahead in those moments to the Garden of Gethsemane experience where he would be violently arrested. He looked ahead to his trial where he would be violently taken through the mockery, and he looked ahead to the cross of Calvary where he would be violently crucified. In those days there would be sorrow, but then would come Easter morning, the resurrection and new life, and his people would be happy once again.
Would you receive him today? Would you join this church by transfer of letter, by moving your membership? If you need to make such a decision, this is the time to do it.