They
said to him, “Why do John’s disciples often fast and pray, likewise also the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink?” He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast, while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast in those days.” He also told a parable to them. “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old garment, or else he will tear the new, and also the piece from the new will not match the old. No one puts new wine into old wine skins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wine skins, and both are preserved. No man having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’”
Luke 5:33-39
Luke 5 [28.] He left everything, and rose up and followed him. Levi made a great feast for him in his house. There was a great crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining with them. Their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Luke 5 [33.] They said to him, “Why do John’s disciples often fast and pray, likewise also the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink?”
Luke 5 [34.] He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast, while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast in those days.” He also told a parable to them. “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old garment, or else he will tear the new, and also the piece from the new will not match the old. No one puts new wine into old wine skins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wine skins, and both are preserved. No man having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’”
Luke 6 [1.] Now on the second Sabbath after the first, he was going through the grain fields. His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why do you do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day?”
Meaning:
The question about fasting follows directly from Levi’s great feast, where Jesus ate and drank with tax collectors and sinners (Luke 5:27-32). Jesus’ critics now ask why his disciples feast while other devout people fast. His answer explains the newness of what he brings. Mark and Matthew report the same exchange (Mark 2:18; Mark 2:19-22; Matthew 9:14-17).
- “Why do John’s disciples often fast and pray”
Besides the yearly fast on the Day of Atonement, many devout Jews fasted often. The Pharisee in Jesus’ parable boasts, “I fast twice a week” (Luke 18:12). John the Baptist lived an austere life in the wilderness and taught his disciples to fast and pray; Jesus’ disciples later asked him to teach them to pray “just as John also taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1). Jesus himself was accused of being “a gluttonous man, and a drunkard” (Luke 7:34).
- “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast, while the bridegroom is with them?”
A Jewish wedding was a week-long celebration, and the bridegroom’s friends were excused from religious duties such as fasting while it lasted. In the Old Testament God pictures himself as the husband of his people (Isaiah 54:5). By calling himself the bridegroom, Jesus quietly claims to be the one in whom God comes to his people. His presence is a time of joy. The New Testament ends with the same picture: “For the marriage of the Lamb has come” (Revelation 19:7).
- “The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them”
This is one of the first hints of Jesus’ death in Luke’s Gospel. Jesus would later say plainly that the Son of Man must suffer, be rejected and be killed (Luke 9:22). Then his disciples would fast, not as a ritual of merit but in longing for their absent Lord. Christian fasting belongs to the time between his going and his coming again.
- “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old garment”
The first parable is about patching. Cutting up a new garment to patch an old one ruins the new and does not suit the old. Jesus did not come merely to repair the old system of rules and traditions.
- “New wine must be put into fresh wine skins”
Wine was stored in skins made from goats. New wine was still fermenting and expanding; old skins had become stiff and would burst under the pressure. The new life of the Kingdom needs new forms. Jesus would establish “the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20), and Paul writes, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
- “No man having drunk old wine immediately desires new”
Only Luke records this final saying. People used to the old ways are naturally reluctant to try something new; they say, “The old is better.” Jesus explains why many of the religious leaders rejected him. They were content with the old and did not want the new wine. The saying is also a warning: comfort with familiar religion can keep us from receiving what God is doing.
The Significance of Luke 5:33-39
- Joy in Jesus’ presence
The Christian life is not first a matter of grim duty but of joy in the presence of the Bridegroom.
- Fasting with the right motive
Fasting still has its place, but as an expression of longing for Christ and dependence on God (Matthew 6:16-18), not as a way to earn merit.
- Open to God’s new work
We all tend to say, “The old is better.” Jesus calls us to receive the new wine of his grace with open hearts.
Cross-References:
Mark 2:19-22: “Can the groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them?” Mark’s account of the same teaching.
Revelation 19:7: “For the marriage of the Lamb has come,” The wedding of Christ and his people.
Luke 22:20: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood,” The new wine of the Kingdom.
2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” Life made new in Christ.
Conclusion: In Luke 5:33-39 Jesus is asked why his disciples eat and drink while John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast. He answers that the friends of the bridegroom cannot fast while he is with them, though they will fast when he is taken away. With the parables of the new patch and the new wine in fresh wineskins, he teaches that the Kingdom he brings cannot be fitted into old forms, and he warns that those who prefer the old may refuse the new.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible