Jesus Questioned About Fasting^(A)

¹⁸ Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting.^(B) Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”

¹² I fast^(A) twice a week and give a tenth^(B) of all I get.’

Jesus Questioned About Fasting^(A)

¹⁴ Then John’s^(B) disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often,^(C) but your disciples do not fast?”

¹⁵ Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them?^(D) The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.^(E)

¹⁶ “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. ¹⁷ Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

¹⁸ so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.^(A)

Fasting

¹⁶ “When you fast,^(A) do not look somber^(B) as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

Jesus Questioned About Fasting^(A)

³³ They said to him, “John’s disciples^(B) often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”

³⁴ Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom^(C) fast while he is with them? ³⁵ But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them;^(D) in those days they will fast.”

³⁶ He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. ³⁷ And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. ³⁸ No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. ³⁹ And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”

³ Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.^(A)

⁵ “Everything they do is done for people to see:^(A) They make their phylacteries^[a](B) wide and the tassels on their garments^(C) long;