God is our Father, who loves us unconditionally and always wants what is best for us. We all know that, because we were taught that and brought up with this belief. We say the prayer ‘Our Father’ daily, and so we address God -- Dad. But it was not always like that. Before Jesus came, the most common belief was that God is a very powerful and revengeful figure. That God will punish you for your sins. And no, you couldn’t address God as Father; that would be blaspheming. Pray, obey, fast, sacrifice, and do everything in order to avoid God’s anger and punishment. Jesus gave us a totally different image of God. He wants you to be joyful that you have a Father in Heaven who loves you and cares for you very much. This is what some of Jesus listeners couldn’t understand… Why don’t you fast like everybody else? How can you fast and be sad when you have God who loves you? And yes, fasting is good and important, and Jesus was fasted. But at the same time we need to remember that we have God whom we can address as a Father, so we need to be joyful and share this joy with this world.
