The Bridegroom and His Guests

And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.” Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.” And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins. And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”

Luke 5:33-39

---

Divine Merriment

Who is God, and what is he like? He is eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, holy, wise, loving—and, yes, merry!

Jesus, the Son, mirrors the Father’s heart in every word and deed. At Cana’s wedding feast, he launched his ministry not with solemn decrees but with water turned to wine, a miracle of joy. “Eat, drink, be merry,” his actions sing, for the Bridegroom heralded through the centuries has arrived. “In that day, you will call me ‘My Husband,’” whispers Hosea’s promise.

Christ entered creation as a bridegroom enters his chamber, his presence too radiant for fasting, too alive for mourning. Yet when he departs, his disciples will feel his absence, and then they will fast, longing for his return.

Pharisaic fasting at the royal, Messianic wedding feast would be as incongruous as sewing an unshrunken cloth on an old cloak or pouring new wine into old wine skins. Jesus’ new wine of the kingdom bursts the old skins of the Mosaic law. Those who refuse to taste the new wine shield themselves from the divine merrymaking by taking comfort in old, settled forms.

During the entire period that our Lord was in the midst of the world, he compared it with a bridal chamber and himself with the bridegroom. For the bridal guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them…

St. Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron 5.22a–22b

Traditional Chinese Translation

《新郎和他的賓客》 
新郎來了，帶來了新衣和新酒。
新郎的陪伴者，必須喝酒吃飯。