Your Disciples Do Not Fast!

Monday, January 20, 2025

Heb 5:1-10; Mk 2:18-22

Today’s Gospel highlights Jesus establishing his identity as the Messiah.

The controversy occurs over the disciples of Jesus not fasting like the ones of the Pharisees or John the Baptist. 

In a way, Jesus turns their very question into an answer, thus cementing his identity as the Messiah. 

It is like Jesus is saying, ‘I am not like the Pharisees or John the Baptist. I am the Messiah, the bridegroom to the people of God.’

In addition, the boldness and clarity that Jesus’ response characterizes also help him establish the fact that his public ministry is a special time in which the old forms of religious practice were not appropriate. 

As such, Jesus’ sayings about the cloth and the wine contrast the new and the old forms of religious practice. 

Newness is the identity of Jesus. Or with Jesus, everything old gets renewed. Jesus, who came as the fulfillment of everything, transforms the old so that it may take on a new meaning and identity. 

Our identity as Christians flows from Jesus the Messiah Himself. 

Let us pray that we may be faithful to the greatness of our identity as Christians. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar