Mark 2:18-22 18And John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And they came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19And Jesus said to them, “Are not the sons of the wedding hall able to fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have time with the bridegroom, they are not able to fast. 20The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. 21No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. But if he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is ruined, and so are the skins. But new wine is for new wineskins.”
Jesus was on the front lines of ministry in the previous section as he dined with tax collectors and sinners. The next story contrasts with the previous with the mention of the religious piety of the disciples of John and the Pharisees. This could be a subtle comparison between two ways of doing religion. On the one hand, Jesus met people where they were and called them to a better life of following him. John’s disciples and the Pharisees attempted to prepare their hearts through fasting but were missing the goal of all of their efforts.
The question from the unnamed people in verse 18 implies their criticism of what Jesus had done by eating at Levi’s house. The opposition to Jesus continues to grow with this passage and focuses on a personal matter of piety. The Pharisees liked to make their fasting known to everyone. John had disciples, some of whom had begun to follow Jesus. Word should have gone out among these disciples that the Messiah had come, the one for whom John had prepared the way. Why were they still fasting, which could be a sign of their waiting? The assumption in this criticism is that Jesus’ disciples were not as religious as those of John and the Pharisees. This, then, would be a direct reflection on the piety of Jesus. These people were trying to corner Jesus and give him a bad reputation.
Jesus answers their implied criticism by giving three analogies. The first analogy comes from a part of a typical Jewish wedding. Weddings were a great time of celebration as guests of the bride and groom gathered together to embrace the new marriage. Often, a whole village might participate in the festivities. It was not a time for fasting but feasting. Jesus alludes to himself as the bridegroom here (see Matthew 25:1-13). This was a happy time for the disciples because Jesus was with them. There would be an appropriate time for fasting when he was no longer there. The implied purpose of fasting in this situation was spiritual preparation for his second coming, just as John’s disciples fasted in preparation for his first coming. The second analogy of unshrunk cloth shows the incompatibility of the old with the new. New clothe shrinks with washing. Putting a patch of new cloth on old cloth and then washing it will cause it to shrink and the patch to tear off. The third analogy gives a similar image. New wineskins are pliable. As the wine ferments, it expands. If new wineskins are used, then they can expand with the new wine. But an old wineskin will burst with the fermentation.
The application of these analogies is only implied. Jesus was bringing a new way of doing things. The kingdom was not like the old ways of Judaism. The old paradigms were too rigid to hold the new ways of the kingdom. The time of mourning for Israel was over. The kingdom of God had come with power. The wind of the Spirit was blowing in fresh spiritual revival. When the kingdom comes, we can remain in our old dead state of doing religious acts, or we can move out in obedience to the call of Jesus and become transformers of the lost and the least.
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