Mark 2:18-22
Chapter 2
18
On fasting
One day, while the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist were fasting, some people asked Jesus: “Why is it that both the Pharisees and the disciples of John fast, but yours do not?”19
Jesus replied:
“How can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
20
But the day will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.
21
No one sews a piece of new cloth on an old coat, because the new patch will shrink and tear away from the old cloth, making a worse tear.
22
And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, for the wine would burst the skins and then both the wine and the skins would be lost. But new wine, new skins!”
Commentaries
On fasting.
Moving from a banquet in the previous passage, this section addresses fasting. The opponents are now the disciples of John and the Pharisees. While the Law required only one day of fasting per year (Lv 16:29; Nm 29:7), the Pharisees’ pursuit of perfection led them to fast twice a week (Lk 18:12). Jesus does not oppose fasting; rather, he suggests it is not appropriate to practice during the celebration of a new covenant of love, a new alliance between Jesus (the bridegroom) and his followers (cf. Jn 3:29; 2 Cor 11:2; Eph 5:32; Rev 19:7; 21:2).