From the beginning of Gospel of Mark, people around Jesus were in awe of his preaching. They realized that Jesus was different from the others because he spoke with authority (Mark 1:22). John the Baptist introduces the Savior as the one who is mightier than him (Mark 1:7). Yet there were those who questioned his authority and saw him as an ordinary teacher like John the Baptist and the Pharisees. So they asked Jesus the below questions from Mark 2:18,19.
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?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
I believe Jesus knew their hearts and answered them that he is not to be compared to the others. He is God himself who has come like a bridegroom. He had pictured himself as the husband of his people Israel (Isaiah 62:4; Jeremiah 2:2; 3:20; Ezekiel 16:8; Hosea 2:19) and now the word of God has become flesh so that he can be with his people. Fasting was a time when the children of God mourned and prayed for a God encounter. Since Jesus is now with them, their mourning has turned to dancing. The Lord compares this situation to stitching a new garment into an old garment and storing new wine in an old wine skin. They are both very different and are not to be mixed.
