Welcome to the Prayers of Rest podcast.

I'm your host, Ashrita Chuchu, and this Advent season, we're praying for joy together, focusing on some traditional and non-traditional Christmas passages.

So take a deep breath and quiet your heart as we become aware of God's loving presence around us and within us.

Today's passage comes from Matthew chapter 9 and chapter 11.

Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.

But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples,

Why does your teacher eat with such scum?

When Jesus heard this, he said, healthy people don't need a doctor. Sick people do.

One day, the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him,

Why don't your disciples fast like we do and the Pharisees do? Jesus replied, do

do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with a groom? Of course not.

The son of man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say he's a glutton and a drunkard

and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners.

But wisdom is shown to be right by its results.

Let's begin by reciting God's goodness.

Oh Jesus, what a picture we have in scripture here of someone who isn't afraid of a good time,

of a savior who reaches out to everyone and anyone.

Thank you that you modeled for us, not just what a life of discipline and focus and obedience looks like,

but also what it looks like to experience holy joy in earthly pleasures. You are the one Jesus who perfectly models what it looks like, that whether

we eat or drink, whatever we do, that we would do it for the glory of God.

So take a moment now to praise God for giving us these passages in scripture that reveal a Jesus, a Savior who knows how to have a good time, how to celebrate and enjoy the fun of friendship

and the fun of a party and the good gifts of a good father with his friends.

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