Defense of the Disciples for not Fasting

Matthew 9:14-17

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why, though we and the Pharisees fast, your disciples don’t?”

And Jesus said to them, “Do the guests of the bridegroom mourn while the bridegroom is still with them? But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them. Then they will fast.

“No one patches an old garment with a piece of new cloth. It would pull away from the garment and the tare be worse. Neither do men put new wine into old wineskins. If so, it would bust the wineskins, losing the wine as well as the wineskins. Rather, they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are kept.”

Mark 2:18-22

The disciples of John and the Pharisees practiced fasting. They came to Jesus and said, “Why, though we and the Pharisees fast, your disciples don’t?”

And Jesus said to them, “Do the guests of the bridegroom mourn while the bridegroom is still with them? But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them. Then they will fast.

“No one patches an old garment with a piece of new cloth. It would pull away from the garment and the tare be worse. Neither do men put new wine into old wineskins. If so, it would bust the wineskins, losing the wine as well as the wineskins. Rather, they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are kept. New wine must be put into new wineskins.”

Luke 5:33-39

They said to him, “Why, though we and the Pharisees fast and pray regularly, your disciples eat and drink all the time?”

And he said to them, “Do the guests of the bridegroom mourn while the bridegroom is still with them? But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them. Then they will fast.”

Then he gave them a parable. “No one cuts out a piece of a new garment to patch an old one. That would ruin both of them. The new would be torn and it wouldn’t match the old. Also, no one puts new wine into old wineskins. The new wine would burst the old wineskins and be spilled, and the old wineskins would be lost as well. Rather, new wine must be put into new wineskins so both are kept. Also, no one having drunk the old wine wants the new, because he says, ‘The old is better.’”