XI. Back in Capernaum
41. New Wine and Old Wine Skins
33And the Pharisees said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.”a34And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroomb is with them? 35The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. 16No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment and a worse tear is made. 17Neither is new wine put into old wine skins; if it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed. 38But new wine must be put into fresh wine skins.”
(Lk. 5:33–35; Mt. 9:16–17; Lk. 5:38)
a “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.”—It is natural for the human child to pray to his heavenly Father, but fasting was not taught by Jesus. Fasting was a part of the old order but was not a part of the new gospel of the kingdom. Jesus compares the attempt to make his gospel fit into the Jewish tradition to the foolish practice of putting new wine into old wineskins.
b “bridegroom”—John the Baptist referred to Jesus as a “bridegroom.” (See Ch. 21, Jn. 3:29.)
Lk. 5:33 And the Pharisees said / And they said (RSV)
Mt. 9:16 No / And no (RSV) (147:7/1655–6)
