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18 The disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees made a practice of fasting.

Some Jews fast twice a week and pray three times daily, but Jesus has a different set of practices for His followers. Some of the pious are disturbed by this.

Some People (to Jesus): Why is it that John’s followers and the Pharisees’ followers fast, but Your disciples are eating and drinking like it was any other day?

Jesus: 19 Guests at the wedding can’t fast when the bridegroom is with them. It would be wrong to do anything but feast. 20 When the bridegroom is snatched away from them, then the time will come to fast and mourn.

21 These are new things I’m teaching, and they can’t be reconciled with old habits. Nobody would ever use a piece of new cloth to patch an old garment because when the patch shrinks, it pulls away and makes the tear even worse. 22 And nobody puts new, unfermented wine into old wineskins because if he does, the wine will burst the skins; they would lose both the wineskins and the wine. No, the only appropriate thing is to put new wine into new wineskins.

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