A Question About Fasting

¹⁴ Then ^(A)the disciples of John came to him, saying, ^(B)“Why do we and ^(C)the Pharisees fast,^[a] but your disciples do not fast?”

A Question About Fasting

³³ And they said to him, ^(A)“The disciples of John ^(B)fast often and ^(C)offer prayers, ^(D)and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” ³⁴ And Jesus said to them, ^(E)“Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? ^35 (F)The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and ^(G)then they will fast in those days.” ³⁶ He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. ³⁷ And no one puts new wine into old ^(H)wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. ³⁸ But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. ³⁹ And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”^[a]

A Question About Fasting

¹⁸ Now ^(A)John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, ^(B)“Why do John's disciples and ^(C)the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁹ And Jesus said to them, ^(D)“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. ^20 (E)The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and ^(F)then they will fast in that day. ²¹ No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. ²² And no one puts new wine into old ^(G)wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”^[a]

Fasting

¹⁶ “And ^(A)when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. ^(B)Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

¹⁸ For John came ^(A)neither eating ^(B)nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ ¹⁹ The Son of Man came ^(C)eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, ^(D)a friend of ^(E)tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”^[a]

²⁵ Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over ^(A)purification.

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

⁹ He also told this parable to some ^(A)who trusted ^(B)in themselves that they were righteous, ^(C)and treated others with contempt: ¹⁰ “Two men ^(D)went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee, ^(E)standing by himself, prayed^{[a] (F)}thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ^12 (G)I fast twice a week; ^(H)I give tithes of all that I get.’

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

4 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and ^(A)baptizing more disciples than John

^2 (A)Now when John heard ^(B)in prison about the deeds of ^(C)the Christ, he sent word by ^(D)his disciples