The fundamental difference between Christ and John the Baptist or the Pharisees that was manifest in the fasting of their disciples became clear to me tonight. The Pharisees, and Jews generally in the days of Christ, were teaching the law of Moses and looking for the coming of a Messiah to save them. Thus they and their disciples would be fasting and praying for the coming of the Messiah. John was declaring that the coming of the Messiah was imminent, thus he and his disciples would be fasting and praying for the coming of the Messiah—with the expectation that His coming would shortly arrive. Jesus was the Messiah and anyone who recognized that was His disciple, thus the thing they would have been dating for prior to gaining that testimony had arrived and their reason for fasting was eliminated during the ministry of Christ.
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