A Discussion about Fasting

Mark 2:18-22

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. So they came to Jesus and said, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?”
Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. They can’t fast while the groom is with them.
But the time will come when the groom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
“People don’t sew a patch of new cloth on old clothes. If they do, the new piece will shrink and pull away from the old. That will make the tear worse.
And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be destroyed. Instead new wine is poured into new wineskins.”

Matthew 9:14-17

Then John’s disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don’t fast?”
Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, because the patch will pull away from the garment and the tear will be worse.
And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the skins burst and the wine is spilled out and the skins are destroyed. Instead they put new wine into new wineskins and both are preserved.”

Luke 5:33-39

Then they said to him, “John’s disciples frequently fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours continue to eat and drink.”
Jesus said to them, “At a wedding you can’t ask the friends of the bridegroom to fast while he is still with them.
But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”
He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. If they do, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old.
And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.
Instead new wine must be poured into new wineskins.
And no one, after drinking old wine, wants new, because he says, ‘The old is better.’”