What the Bible Says About the Meaning of Celebration

Scripture

¹⁴ “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.”
¹⁵ Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
¹⁶ On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you.
¹⁷ And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever.
¹⁸ In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.
¹⁹ For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land.
²⁰ You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”

Exodus 12:14-20

Leviticus 23:1-44: ¹ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts.
³ “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places.
⁴ “These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them.
⁵ In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the Lord’s Passover.
⁶ And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
⁷ On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.
⁸ But you shall present a food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.”
⁹ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
¹⁰ “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest.”
¹¹ and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
¹² And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord.
¹³ And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma, and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin.
¹⁴ And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
¹⁵ “You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering.”
¹⁶ You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the Lord.
¹⁷ You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven, as firstfruits to the Lord.
¹⁸ And you shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, one bull from the herd and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
¹⁹ You shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings.
²⁰ And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest.
²¹ And you shall make proclamation on the same day. You shall hold a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a statute forever in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.
²² “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.”
²³ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
²⁴ “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation.”
²⁵ You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning.
²⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
²⁷ “Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord.
²⁸ And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God.
²⁹ For whoever does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people.
³⁰ And whoever does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people.
³¹ You shall not do any work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.
³² It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.”
³³ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
³⁴ Speak to the people of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths to the Lord.
³⁵ On the first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.
³⁶ For seven days you shall present food offerings to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation and present a food offering to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly; you shall not do any ordinary work.
³⁷ “These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as times of holy convocation, for presenting to the Lord food offerings, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day,
³⁸ besides the Lord’s Sabbaths and besides your gifts and besides all your vow offerings and besides all your freewill offerings, which you give to the Lord.
³⁹ “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest.
⁴⁰ And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.
⁴¹ You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
⁴² You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths,
⁴³ that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
⁴⁴ Thus Moses declared to the people of Israel the appointed feasts of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 16:1-17: ¹ “Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
² You shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place that the Lord will choose, to make his name dwell there.
³ You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.
⁴ And no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, and none of the flesh that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall remain all night until morning.
⁵ You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you,
⁶ but at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, at the time you came out of Egypt.
⁷ You shall cook it and eat it at the place that the Lord your God will choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents.
⁸ Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord your God. You shall do no work on it.
⁹ You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain.
¹⁰ Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you.
¹¹ You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there.
¹² You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.
¹³ “You shall keep the Feast of Booths seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress.”
¹⁴ You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns.
¹⁵ Seven days you shall keep a solemn feast to the Lord your God in the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.
¹⁶ “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed.”
¹⁷ Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you.

2 Samuel 6:12-19: ¹² And it was told King David, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing.
¹³ And when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal.
¹⁴ And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod.
¹⁵ So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn.
¹⁶ As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.
¹⁷ And they brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
¹⁸ And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts.
¹⁹ And distributed among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins to each one. Then all the people departed, each to his house.

1 Kings 8:1-66: ¹ Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ houses of the people of Israel, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion.
² And all the men of Israel assembled to King Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.
³ And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark.
⁴ And they brought up the ark of the Lord, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up.
⁵ And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.
⁶ Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the Most Holy Place, underneath the wings of the cherubim.
⁷ For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles.
⁸ And the poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the Holy Place before the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day.
⁹ There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone that Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
¹⁰ And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord,
¹¹ so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.
¹² Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness.
¹³ I have indeed built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever.”
¹⁴ Then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel stood.
¹⁵ And he said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to David my father, saying,
¹⁶ Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, that my name might be there. But I chose David to be over my people Israel.
¹⁷ Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.
¹⁸ “But the Lord said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart.’”
¹⁹ Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name.’
²⁰ Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise that he made. I have risen in the place of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and I have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.
²¹ And there I have provided a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
²² Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven,
²³ and said, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart,
²⁴ who have kept with your servant David my father what you declared to him. You spoke with your mouth, and with your hand have fulfilled it this day.
²⁵ Now therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you promised him, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’
²⁶ Now therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you have spoken to your servant David my father.
²⁷ “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!”
²⁸ Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Lord my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you this day,
²⁹ that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place.
³⁰ And listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen in heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.
³¹ “If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and comes and swears his oath before your altar in this house,”
³² then hear in heaven and act and judge your servants, condemning the guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head, and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.
³³ “When your people Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against you, and if they turn again to you and acknowledge your name and pray and plead with you in this house,”
³⁴ then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them again to the land that you gave to their fathers.
³⁵ “When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them,”
³⁶ then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk, and grant rain upon your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.
³⁷ “If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar, if their enemy besieges them in the land at their gates, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is,”
³⁸ whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all your people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart and stretching out his hands toward this house,
³⁹ then hear in heaven your dwelling place and forgive and act and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways (for you, you only, know the hearts of all the children of mankind),
⁴⁰ that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our fathers.
⁴¹ “Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for your name’s sake
⁴² (for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house,
⁴³ “hear in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.”
⁴⁴ “If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to the Lord toward the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name,”
⁴⁵ then hear in heaven their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause.
⁴⁶ “If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near,”
⁴⁷ yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly,’
⁴⁸ if they repent with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name,
⁴⁹ then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause,
⁵⁰ and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions that they have committed against you, and grant them compassion in the sight of those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them.
⁵¹ (for they are your people, and your heritage, which you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace).
⁵² Let your eyes be open to the plea of your servant and to the plea of your people Israel, giving ear to them whenever they call to you.
⁵³ for you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be your heritage, as you declared through Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God.”
⁵⁴ Now as Solomon finished offering all this prayer and plea to the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven.
⁵⁵ And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying:
⁵⁶ “Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant.”
⁵⁷ be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us,
⁵⁸ that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers.
⁵⁹ Let these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires,
⁶⁰ that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other.
⁶¹ Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the Lord our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day.”
⁶² Then the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the Lord.
⁶³ Solomon offered as peace offerings to the Lord 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord.
⁶⁴ The same day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord, for there he offered the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat pieces of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small to receive the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat pieces of the peace offerings.
⁶⁵ So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt, before the Lord our God, seven days.
⁶⁶ On the eighth day he sent the people away, and they blessed the king and went to their homes joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had shown to David his servant and to Israel his people.

Nehemiah 8:9-12: ⁹ And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.
¹⁰ Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
¹¹ So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.”
¹² And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.

Esther 9:20-32: ²⁰ And Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,
²¹ to command them to keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year, as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor.
²² as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor.
²³ The Jews accepted what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them.
²⁴ For Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur (that is, cast lots), to crush and to destroy them.
²⁵ But when it came before the king, he gave orders in writing that his evil plan that he had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
²⁶ Therefore they called these days Purim, after the term Pur. So, because of all that was written in this letter, and of what they had faced in this matter, and of what had happened to them,
²⁷ the Jews firmly obligated themselves and their offspring and all who joined them, that without fail they would keep these two days according to what was written and at the time appointed every year,
²⁸ that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, in every clan, province, and city, and that these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of these days cease among their descendants.
²⁹ Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew gave full written authority, confirming this second letter about Purim.
³⁰ Letters were sent to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, in words of peace and truth,
³¹ to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed time, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther obligated them, and as they had obligated themselves and their offspring, with regard to their fasts and their lamenting.
³² The command of Esther confirmed these practices of Purim, and it was recorded in writing.

Psalm 150:1-6: ¹ Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!
² Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!
³ Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!
⁴ Praise him with the sound of the trumpet; praise him with the lute and harp!
⁵ Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
⁶ Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

Isaiah 25:6-9: ⁶ On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
⁷ And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
⁸ He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
⁹ It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Luke 15:11-32: ¹¹ And he said, “There was a man who had two sons.
¹² And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them.
¹³ Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.
¹⁴ And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.
And he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.
¹⁶ And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
¹⁷ “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!
¹⁸ I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.
¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
²⁰ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
²¹ And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
²² But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
²³ And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.
²⁴ For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
²⁵ “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.”
²⁶ And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.
²⁷ And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’
²⁸ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him.
²⁹ but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.
³⁰ But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’
³¹ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
³² It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”

John 2:1-11: ¹ On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
² Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.
³ When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”
⁴ And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”
⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
⁶ Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.
⁷ Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.
⁸ And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it.
⁹ When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.
¹⁰ and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
¹¹ This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

Acts 2:1-13: ¹ When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.
² And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
³ And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
⁵ Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.
⁶ And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.
⁷ And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
⁸ And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?
⁹ Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome,
¹¹ both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”
¹² And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
¹³ But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

Romans 12:15-16: ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

1 Corinthians 5:6-8: ⁶ Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
⁷ Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
⁸ Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Colossians 2:16-17: ¹⁶ Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
¹⁷ These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Revelation 19:6-9: ⁶ Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
⁷ Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;
⁸ it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
⁹ And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”