Then the disciples of John approached him and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast [much], but your disciples do not fast?” 15 Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. 17 People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”
The disciples of John ask Jesus a serious question. They and the Pharisees fast, but Jesus’ disciples do not. Fasting was known among the Jewish people as a sign of repentance, mourning, and humble prayer before God. John the Baptist had called people to repentance because the kingdom of heaven was at hand. His disciples naturally wondered why Jesus’ disciples did not follow the same pattern.
Jesus answers with the image of a wedding feast. Wedding guests do not mourn while the bridegroom is with them. His presence makes the occasion one of joy. In the Old Testament, God’s covenant love for His people is sometimes described in the language of marriage. God is the faithful husband of Israel, and His people are called to belong to Him with undivided love. Jesus now takes this bridegroom image to Himself. The kingdom is present in Him, and His disciples are living in the joy of His presence.
This does not mean that fasting has no place in the life of His disciples. Jesus says, “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast” (v. 15). These words look ahead to His Passion, death, and the time after His visible departure from the disciples. Christian fasting belongs to this time. It is not a denial of Christ’s victory, but a way of turning the heart toward Him with repentance, prayer, and longing.
Jesus then gives two short images. No one repairs an old cloak with unshrunken cloth, because the new patch will pull away and make the tear worse (v. 16). No one puts new wine into old wineskins, because fermenting wine expands and would burst skins that have become dry and rigid (v. 17). What Jesus brings is new, and the life He gives cannot simply be lived within the old forms of religious life. He is not merely adding a small correction to religious life. In Him, God is bringing the promised kingdom, the forgiveness of sins, and a new covenant relationship with His people.
At the same time, Jesus’ words do not teach contempt for what came before. Matthew’s Gospel shows that Jesus fulfills the Law and the Prophets, rather than destroying them. The old is not treated as obsolete. Rather, the Law and the Prophets find their fullness in Christ. The new wine needs fresh wineskins because the life Christ gives requires renewed hearts.
This passage helps us understand Christian fasting properly. Fasting is not meant to be a way of displaying piety before others, but a humble act of turning the heart more fully toward God. It is a bodily way of seeking God with a simpler and more attentive heart. Christians fast because the Bridegroom has been taken away in His Passion, and because we await His return in glory. Yet we fast as people who already know that the Bridegroom has risen. Christian fasting is marked by longing and sustained by hope.
Lord Jesus Christ, Bridegroom of Your Church, renew our hearts so that we may receive the new life You bring. Teach us to fast with humility, to rejoice in Your presence, and to long faithfully for Your return. Amen.
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Sources and References
- The New American Bible, Revised Edition. Washington, DC: Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 2011. Matthew 9:14–17 and notes on Matthew 9:15–17.
- Hahn, Scott, and Curtis Mitch. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010. Pages 22–23, notes on Matthew 9:15–17.
- Casciaro, José María, gen. ed. The Navarre Bible: New Testament, Expanded Edition. Dublin: Four Courts Press; New York: Scepter Publishers, 2008. Page 77, note on Matthew 9:14–17.
- Brown, Raymond E., Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy, eds. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990. Page 650, paragraph 62.
- Aguilar Chiu, José Enrique, Richard J. Clifford, Carol J. Dempsey, Eileen M. Schuller, Thomas D. Stegman, and Ronald D. Witherup, eds. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. New York: Paulist Press, 2018. Page 927.
- Collins, John J., Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid OP, and Donald Senior CP, eds. The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century. Third Fully Revised Edition, with a Foreword by Pope Francis. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2022. Matthew 9:14–17, page not supplied.
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