MARK 2:18–22 — WHY WEREN'T JESUS' DISCIPLES FASTING?
The Bridegroom, the New Cloth, the New Wine, and the Coming New Covenant
A Question About Fasting — An Answer About Something Much Greater
Jesus had already upset the religious expectations of many people.
He had forgiven a man's sins (Mark 2:1–12).
He had eaten with tax collectors and sinners (Mark 2:13–17).
Now people were questioning why His disciples did not fast like other religious groups.
At first, this seems like a disagreement about religious practices.
But Jesus' answer goes much deeper.
He speaks of a bridegroom who will be taken away. Then He describes new cloth that cannot simply be sewn onto an old garment and new wine that cannot safely be stored in old wineskins.
Why these illustrations?
Jesus had come to fulfill God's promises. The Law of Moses had served a purpose, and the prophets had promised a new covenant. The Messiah who would bring that covenant had now arrived.
The people questioning Jesus did not yet understand the changes His coming would bring.
Let us follow His explanation carefully.
MARK 2:18 — WHY DIDN'T JESUS' DISCIPLES FAST?
Mark tells us:
"Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, 'Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?'"
The question was straightforward.
John's disciples fasted.
The Pharisees' disciples fasted.
Why weren't Jesus' disciples doing the same?
What was fasting?
Fasting ordinarily meant going without food for a period of time.
In the Old Testament, fasting could accompany mourning, repentance, prayer, or an urgent appeal to God.
David fasted while pleading for his sick child (2 Samuel 12:16).
Ezra proclaimed a fast when the people sought God's protection (Ezra 8:21–23).
Joel called Israel to return to God with fasting, weeping, and mourning (Joel 2:12–13).
The Day of Atonement also required Israel to humble themselves before God (Leviticus 16:29–31), traditionally understood to include fasting.
Fasting was not wrong.
But the Law of Moses did not require the regular weekly fasting practiced by some religious groups in Jesus' day.
In Luke 18:12, a Pharisee boasted that he fasted twice a week.
That was a religious practice, not a command God had given every Israelite.
We should also remember that John's disciples and the Pharisees may have fasted for different reasons. Mark does not explain why each group was fasting on this particular occasion.
What was the real question?
People were comparing Jesus' disciples with other religious groups.
They assumed that the practices of those groups provided the standard by which Jesus' disciples should be judged.
But Jesus did not begin by discussing fasting schedules.
He began by explaining the importance of His own presence.
The question was about fasting. The answer was about Jesus.
MARK 2:19 — THE BRIDEGROOM HAS ARRIVED
Jesus answered:
"Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast."
Imagine being invited to a wedding celebration.
The bridegroom is present.
The guests have gathered to celebrate.
Would this be the proper occasion for mourning?
Of course not.
Jesus' listeners would have understood His illustration.
There is a proper time for fasting, but there is also a proper time for rejoicing.
Who is the bridegroom?
Jesus is speaking of Himself.
His disciples are compared with the wedding guests.
His presence is the reason for their joy.
This is important because the Old Testament sometimes described God's relationship with His people in the language of marriage.
Isaiah 54:5 calls Israel's Maker her husband.
Isaiah 62:5 describes God rejoicing over His people as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.
Hosea also uses marriage to describe God's covenant relationship with Israel.
Jesus does not specifically quote these passages here, but they provide meaningful background for His illustration.
The promised Messiah had arrived.
The kingdom of God had drawn near (Mark 1:14–15).
This was not an ordinary moment in Israel's history.
The bridegroom was present. That changed what was appropriate for His disciples.
MARK 2:20 — THE BRIDEGROOM WILL BE TAKEN AWAY
Jesus continued:
"The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day."
Notice the change.
The bridegroom is present now.
But a time is coming when He will be taken away.
Then His disciples will fast.
What did Jesus mean?
In the larger story of Mark, Jesus' words point forward to His suffering and death.
Later, He will tell His disciples that He must suffer, be rejected, be killed, and rise again (Mark 8:31).
But here, early in His ministry, Jesus has already introduced the possibility of His being taken away.
His disciples did not yet understand what lay ahead.
The wedding celebration would not continue in its present form.
Was Jesus rejecting fasting?
No.
He specifically said His disciples would fast when the bridegroom was taken away.
Later, Christians did fast and pray (Acts 13:2–3; 14:23).
Jesus was not abolishing fasting.
He was explaining why His disciples' behavior was appropriate while He was physically present with them.
Why is His coming death important?
Because His death would accomplish much more than His disciples then understood.
At the Last Supper, Jesus would say:
"This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood" (Luke 22:20).
His death would be central to the establishment of the covenant God had promised through Jeremiah.
Mark 2:20 does not yet explain all of that.
But the bridegroom's coming departure belongs to the same unfolding story.
The Messiah had arrived, and His mission was moving toward a death that would change the covenant relationship between God and His people.
MARK 2:21 — WHY CAN'T NEW CLOTH SIMPLY PATCH AN OLD GARMENT?
Jesus continued:
"No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made."
This was an illustration people could easily understand.
Imagine an old garment that has already been washed and worn.
Someone tries to repair it with a piece of new, unshrunk cloth.
When the new cloth shrinks, it pulls against the older material.
Instead of repairing the garment, the patch makes the tear worse.
What was Jesus teaching?
Something new had arrived that could not simply be treated as an addition to the existing religious arrangements.
Jesus had not come merely to add a few more rules to the practices already followed by the Pharisees.
Nor was He simply starting another religious group with slightly different customs.
His coming was part of God's plan to fulfill the promises made through the Law and the Prophets.
Did Jesus come to destroy the Law of Moses?
No.
Jesus said:
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Matthew 5:17).
That statement is essential to understanding the change Jesus would bring.
God had given the Law to Israel.
It was not a mistake.
It was not an unsuccessful experiment.
It had a purpose in God's plan.
But fulfilling something is not the same as keeping its earlier form in place forever.
A promise reaches its goal when it is fulfilled.
A preparation reaches its purpose when the event being prepared for arrives.
The Law pointed forward to Christ.
Now Christ had come.
What does the illustration suggest?
Jesus does not explicitly identify the old garment as the Law of Moses or the new cloth as the new covenant.
But His illustration points toward a fundamental change brought by His arrival.
The old arrangements cannot simply remain untouched while the new is added as a patch.
The coming of Christ requires more than a few adjustments.
God's promises were reaching their fulfillment.
The next illustration makes the point even more forcefully.
MARK 2:22 — NEW WINE REQUIRES NEW WINESKINS
Jesus continued:
"And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins."
In Jesus' day, people sometimes stored liquids in containers made from animal skins.
New wine could continue fermenting and producing gas.
A fresh wineskin had flexibility and could expand.
An old wineskin might have become stiff and unable to stretch.
If new wine continued fermenting inside it, the pressure could cause it to burst.
The wine would be lost, and the container would be ruined.
What is the lesson?
New wine needs a container suited to it.
It cannot safely be forced into a container that is no longer suitable.
Jesus is again describing the problem of trying to fit something new into arrangements that cannot properly accommodate it.
But what was this new thing?
To understand the larger significance, we need to remember what God had already promised.
THE NEW COVENANT WAS NOT A LAST-MINUTE IDEA
Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, God had announced that a new covenant was coming.
Jeremiah 31:31 says:
"Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah."
Then God explained something especially important.
Jeremiah 31:32 says that this covenant would not be like the covenant He made when He brought Israel out of Egypt.
God Himself announced that a different covenant was coming.
The new covenant would involve God's law written on the hearts of His people, a true knowledge of God, and the forgiveness of sins (Jeremiah 31:33–34).
Ezekiel 36:26–27 also promised a new heart and God's Spirit working within His people.
These were not human inventions.
They were God's promises.
What does this tell us?
The covenant made through Moses was never presented as the final stage of God's entire plan.
God had already promised something new.
The arrival of Jesus meant that the time of fulfillment was approaching.
The new covenant was not an attempt to repair a mistake in the old covenant. It was the next promised stage in God's plan.
And Jesus would accomplish what was necessary to establish it.
JESUS CAME TO FULFILL THE LAW
Jesus was born under the Law of Moses.
Galatians 4:4 says:
"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law."
Jesus lived among the people of Israel under the covenant God had made with their ancestors.
He obeyed His Father's will.
He fulfilled the Scriptures.
And He offered Himself for the sins of humanity.
What was the purpose of the Law?
Paul explains in Galatians 3:19–25 that the Law had a temporary role in God's plan.
It was added because of transgressions and served until the promised offspring came.
Paul also describes the Law as a guardian until Christ.
The Law revealed God's standards and exposed sin.
It governed Israel as God's covenant nation.
Its sacrifices and priesthood taught important lessons about sin, holiness, and the need for forgiveness.
And through Israel, God brought the promised Messiah into the world.
But the Law could not itself provide the final solution to human sin.
Hebrews 10:1–4 explains that the repeated animal sacrifices could not finally take away sins.
They pointed toward something greater.
What happened when Christ fulfilled its purpose?
The promised Messiah accomplished what the Law had anticipated.
Romans 10:4 says that Christ is the telos of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
The Greek word can refer to an end or goal. In this context, Christ is the one toward whom the Law's purpose reaches.
We should not use that one word alone to settle every question about the Law.
But other passages make the covenant change clear.
The Law of Moses had served its God-given purpose. Christ brought that purpose to fulfillment.
WHEN DID THE NEW COVENANT TAKE EFFECT?
At the Last Supper, Jesus connected the new covenant with His approaching death.
Luke 22:20 records His words:
"This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood."
Hebrews 9:15 identifies Jesus as the mediator of a new covenant and connects that covenant with His death.
Hebrews 9:16–17 also uses the relationship between death and the taking effect of a will or testament to explain the importance of Christ's death.
Then Hebrews 10:9 says:
"He does away with the first in order to establish the second."
This is a remarkable statement.
The first covenant was not simply given a few new regulations.
The second was established through Christ.
What about His resurrection?
Jesus' death and resurrection belong together in God's saving work.
Romans 4:25 says that Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Hebrews presents Christ as the risen and exalted High Priest whose sacrifice was offered once for all (Hebrews 7:24–27; 10:11–14).
His death is the decisive sacrifice associated with the new covenant.
His resurrection confirms His victory and His continuing life as our Savior.
The New Testament then records the public proclamation of His risen lordship and the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2).
We do not need to reduce all these events to a single moment to recognize the decisive importance of the cross.
Christ's death established the basis of the new covenant. His resurrection and exaltation reveal the living Savior through whom its blessings are received.
THE OLD COVENANT WAS GIVEN TO ISRAEL. THE NEW COVENANT OPENS GOD'S PROMISES TO THE NATIONS.
The covenant made at Sinai was given to Israel.
Exodus 19:3–6 describes God's covenant relationship with the people He brought out of Egypt.
The Law governed their life as a nation.
But God's purpose was always greater than Israel alone.
Long before Moses, God promised Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him (Genesis 12:3).
That promise was never limited to one nation.
How does Christ fulfill that promise?
Galatians 3:8 explains that God announced the gospel beforehand to Abraham when He promised that the nations would be blessed through him.
Galatians 3:26–29 then teaches that those who belong to Christ are Abraham's offspring and heirs according to the promise.
Ephesians 2:11–22 explains how Jews and Gentiles are brought together in Christ.
Jesus did not establish one way of salvation for Jews and a different way for Gentiles.
He brought both together through Himself.
Does this mean God rejected the Jewish people?
No.
The first Christians were Jews.
The apostles were Jews.
Jesus Himself was born among the Jewish people.
The new covenant fulfills God's promises, and Jewish and Gentile believers share its blessings through the same Messiah.
Romans 11 warns Gentile believers against boasting over Jewish unbelief.
The old covenant governed Israel as a nation. Through Christ, the blessings of the new covenant reach people of every nation.
This is not a rejection of God's promises to Israel.
It is the fulfillment of God's larger purpose through the Messiah who came from Israel.
NOW RETURN TO THE NEW CLOTH AND NEW WINESKINS
With this larger biblical background, Jesus' illustrations become even more meaningful.
He had not come merely to improve the existing religious system.
He had come to fulfill what God had promised.
The bridegroom was present.
The bridegroom would be taken away.
Something new was coming.
The old garment
The new cloth cannot simply be added as a patch without causing damage.
Jesus' coming cannot be understood as merely adding a few religious practices to the old arrangements.
The old wineskins
The new wine cannot safely be contained in wineskins that are unsuitable for it.
The coming fulfillment of God's promises requires a covenant arrangement suited to what Christ would accomplish.
What is Jesus alluding to?
Jesus' illustrations point toward the fundamental change His coming would bring. Read in light of Jeremiah's prophecy and the later teaching of the New Testament, they naturally anticipate the establishment of the new covenant.
This is more than a change in fasting schedules.
The Law of Moses had been given for a purpose.
Jesus had come to fulfill that purpose.
Through His death, the promised new covenant would be established.
The old covenant would no longer govern God's people as it had governed Israel.
The new covenant would bring people from every nation together under Christ.
That is the larger change toward which Jesus' ministry was moving.
An important distinction
Mark does not explicitly say, "The old wineskins represent the Law of Moses."
Nor does Jesus identify every detail of the illustrations.
We should not pretend that He did.
But neither should we ignore the larger biblical setting.
Jeremiah promised a new covenant.
Jesus announced that His presence changed the situation.
He predicted that He would be taken away.
He then used two illustrations about the inability of old arrangements to accommodate what was new.
Later, He connected His death directly with the new covenant.
And Hebrews explains that the first covenant gave way to the second.
The connection is not based on one isolated word. It rests on the developing argument of Scripture.
DOES THE NEW COVENANT MEAN CHRISTIANS HAVE NO LAW?
No.
The end of the Mosaic covenant as the governing covenant does not mean Christians are free to disregard God's will.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:21 that he is under the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2 speaks of fulfilling the law of Christ.
Jesus commanded His apostles to teach disciples to observe all that He had commanded (Matthew 28:18–20).
The new covenant is not freedom to live however we please.
But neither is it simply the Law of Moses repeated under another name.
The new covenant centers on Christ's completed sacrifice, forgiveness of sins, the work of the Spirit, and a people belonging to God through faith in Jesus.
Christians obey Christ because He is Lord.
They do not return to the Sinai covenant as the basis of their relationship with God.
That distinction is important.
The authority of Christ continues. The covenant made through Moses has fulfilled its purpose.
HOW DOES THIS PASSAGE FIT INTO MARK'S LARGER ARGUMENT?
Notice the sequence of events in Mark 2.
Mark 2:1–12 — Jesus forgives sins.
The scribes question His authority.
Mark 2:13–17 — Jesus eats with sinners.
The scribes question His associations.
Mark 2:18–22 — Jesus' disciples do not follow familiar fasting practices.
People question their behavior.
Jesus explains that the bridegroom has arrived and that something new is coming.
Mark 2:23–28 — Jesus is questioned about the Sabbath.
Jesus declares that the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.
Mark is showing us more than a collection of disagreements.
He is gradually revealing the authority and identity of Jesus.
Each encounter forces people to consider who He is.
The questions concern familiar religious practices.
But Jesus' answers reveal something much greater.
The Messiah had arrived.
God's promises were moving toward fulfillment.
WHAT SHOULD WE NOT CONCLUDE FROM THIS PASSAGE?
1. That fasting was wrong.
Jesus said His disciples would fast when the bridegroom was taken away.
2. That the Law of Moses was a mistake.
God gave the Law for a purpose. Jesus came to fulfill it.
3. That Jesus came merely to introduce different religious customs.
His mission involved the fulfillment of God's promises and the establishment of the new covenant.
4. That every new religious idea is automatically acceptable.
The new wine is not permission for people to invent whatever religious practices they please.
The question is what Christ actually taught and authorized.
5. That everything God revealed in the Old Testament has become worthless.
The Old Testament remains Scripture. It reveals God's character, His promises, and the preparation for Christ.
What changed was the covenant under which God's people live.
6. That the new covenant excludes Jewish people.
The new covenant was promised through Israel's prophets and established by Israel's Messiah. Jews and Gentiles alike are called to belong to Christ.
BEFORE YOU LEAVE
Read Mark 2:18–22 again, and consider these questions.
Why did people expect Jesus' disciples to follow the fasting practices of other religious groups?
Why did Jesus compare Himself to a bridegroom?
What did Jesus mean when He said the bridegroom would be taken away?
What do the illustrations of the new cloth and new wine have in common?
What had Jeremiah promised about a new covenant?
How did Jesus fulfill the purpose of the Law rather than simply destroy it?
Why is the new covenant more than a few new rules added to the Law of Moses?
How do Jesus' death and resurrection help us understand the larger significance of these illustrations?
The central lesson
The people questioning Jesus were concerned about fasting.
Jesus answered by pointing to Himself.
The bridegroom had arrived.
He would be taken away.
And His coming would bring changes that could not simply be fitted into the existing religious arrangements.
God had promised a new covenant.
Jesus had come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets.
Through His death and resurrection, God's promises would reach their fulfillment in Him.
The old covenant had served its purpose. The promised Messiah had arrived. The new covenant was coming.
That is why Jesus' answer was about much more than fasting.
Read First. Conclude Later.
CONTINUE STUDYING MARK
Previous Study: Mark 2:13–17 — Why Did Jesus Eat With Tax Collectors and Sinners?
Next Study: Mark 2:23–28 — Is the Sabbath Made for Man, or Man for the Sabbath?
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