Commentary - Mark 2:18-22

Bird's-eye view

In this brief but potent passage, Jesus is confronted with a question about religious observance, specifically, the practice of fasting. This is the third in a series of conflict stories in Mark's Gospel where the authority and identity of Jesus are challenged by the established religious order. The questioners, a coalition of John the Baptist's disciples and the Pharisees, want to know why Jesus' disciples don't engage in the same pious disciplines they do. Jesus' answer is revolutionary. He doesn't quibble about the details of fasting; He reframes the entire situation. He declares that His presence on earth is a wedding feast, and He is the Bridegroom. To fast in the presence of the Bridegroom would be as absurd as mourning at a wedding. This is a time for celebration. He then follows this stunning claim with two powerful parables, the unshrunk patch on an old garment and new wine in old wineskins. The point is unmistakable: the new covenant reality that Jesus is inaugurating cannot be contained within or patched onto the old structures of Judaism. The gospel is not a mere reformation or a minor adjustment; it is a radical, glorious, and disruptive new creation that requires entirely new forms to hold its explosive joy.

This passage, then, is a declaration of independence from the religious status quo. Jesus is not simply another rabbi with a new interpretation. He is the central figure of redemptive history, the long-awaited Bridegroom of God's people. His arrival changes everything. The old ways of approaching God, characterized by regulations and mournful piety, are now obsolete. The new way is characterized by the joyful feasting of those who are in the presence of their King. The gospel is new wine, and it demands new wineskins.

Outline

Context In Mark

This episode is strategically placed by Mark. It follows directly after the calling of Levi (Matthew) and the subsequent feast at his house with "tax collectors and sinners" (Mark 2:13-17). In that scene, Jesus was criticized for eating and drinking with the wrong kind of people. Here, He is criticized for not fasting, which is to say, for too much feasting. The theme is consistent: Jesus' ministry is characterized by a scandalous joy and open fellowship that collides with the expectations of the religious establishment. This passage is part of a block of five conflict narratives (Mark 2:1-3:6) that demonstrate the growing opposition to Jesus and clarify the radical nature of His kingdom. He has already asserted His authority to forgive sins (2:1-12) and to associate with sinners (2:13-17). Now He asserts His authority to define the very mood and practice of true religion. This sets the stage for further conflicts over the Sabbath (2:23-3:6), which will ultimately lead the Pharisees to conspire to destroy Him.

Key Issues

The Wedding Crasher

The question brought to Jesus seems perfectly reasonable. John's disciples fasted, and the Pharisees fasted. Fasting was a recognized mark of piety, a way of humbling oneself before God. So why were Jesus' disciples the odd ones out? Why were they always feasting while the serious people were fasting? Jesus' response must have been a jolt. He doesn't defend His disciples' behavior on the grounds of liberty or by pointing to some obscure loophole in the law. Instead, He makes an audacious claim about Himself. He says, "I am the Bridegroom."

In the Old Testament, God Himself is depicted as the husband of Israel (Isa. 54:5; Jer. 31:32; Hos. 2:19-20). For Jesus to claim this title for Himself is an implicit, but clear, claim to divinity. He is Yahweh in the flesh, come to claim His bride. And when the bridegroom is present, the party begins. A wedding is a time for feasting, not fasting. To insist on fasting during the wedding feast would be to insult the groom and misunderstand the entire event. Jesus is saying that His physical presence on earth has inaugurated the great eschatological wedding feast. The long-awaited Messiah has arrived, and the appropriate response is not mournful self-denial but exuberant joy. He has crashed the funeral of the old covenant with the wedding party of the new.

Verse by Verse Commentary

18 And John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they came and said to Him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”

The stage is set with an observation: two distinct and often opposed groups, the disciples of John and the Pharisees, are united in their practice of fasting. The Pharisees had a regular schedule of fasting twice a week, a practice they saw as a mark of true devotion. John's disciples likely fasted as an expression of repentance and urgent expectation for the Messiah. Their question to Jesus is a public challenge. It implies that Jesus and His followers are lax, undisciplined, and perhaps even unspiritual. It's a classic case of judging spirituality by external performance. They have a religious checklist, and Jesus' crew isn't ticking the right boxes.

19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the attendants of the bridegroom fast when the bridegroom is with them? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

Jesus answers their question with a question of His own, a common rabbinic technique. His analogy is simple and unanswerable. No one expects the groomsmen, the "attendants of the bridegroom," to be somber and to fast during the wedding celebration. That would be completely out of place. The very presence of the bridegroom dictates the mood, and that mood is joy. The application is direct: "I am the Bridegroom." His physical presence with His disciples is the defining reality. As long as He is with them, fasting is inappropriate. It is not just that they may not fast; Jesus says they cannot fast. The joy of His presence makes it an impossibility, like trying to weep while laughing. This is a profound theological statement. The presence of God in Christ is not a cause for mournful piety, but for uncontainable celebration.

20 But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.

Here Jesus introduces a somber, prophetic note. The wedding party will not last forever. There is a day coming when the Bridegroom will be "taken away." This is a clear, albeit veiled, reference to His coming arrest, crucifixion, and death. The joy of His presence will be violently interrupted. And on that day, in that specific time of grief and apparent loss, His disciples will indeed fast. This verse is crucial. Jesus is not abolishing fasting altogether. He is re-grounding it. Christian fasting is not a general discipline for earning merit, but a specific response to a specific situation: the felt absence of the Bridegroom. It is a longing for His return, a groaning for the consummation of all things. So, Christians do fast, but not like the Pharisees. We fast out of love-sickness for our absent-but-returning King.

21 “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise that patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results.

Having established the new reality of His presence, Jesus now explains why this new reality cannot simply be incorporated into the old system. The first parable is about a patch. If you take a piece of new, unshrunk cloth and sew it onto an old, worn-out garment, you create a bigger problem. The first time the garment is washed, the new patch will shrink, and its strength will tear the weaker, older fabric around it. The result is a "worse tear." The gospel of the kingdom is this new, strong piece of cloth. The religious system of the Pharisees, with its traditions and legalism, is the old garment. You cannot simply "patch" Jesus onto Judaism. Trying to fit the grace of the gospel into a framework of works-righteousness will only destroy the framework. The two are incompatible.

22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”

The second parable intensifies the point. New wine is still fermenting, actively expanding and releasing gases. Old wineskins have already been stretched to their limit; they have become brittle and inflexible. If you pour new wine into them, the pressure will build until the old skins burst. The result is a total loss: the wine is spilled and the wineskins are ruined. The new wine is the explosive, effervescent life of the Holy Spirit, the joy of the kingdom that Jesus brings. The old wineskins are the external forms of the old covenant religion, its ceremonial laws, its fasts, its temple rituals. These forms were good and useful for their time, but they were never designed to contain the reality to which they pointed. The gospel is not a refinement; it is a revolution. It requires entirely new structures, new forms of worship, new community life, a new covenant. The church is the new wineskin, created to contain the new wine of the Spirit.

Application

This passage is a potent warning against the perennial temptation to domesticate the gospel. We are always trying to pour the new wine of Christ into our old, comfortable, man-made wineskins. We try to patch our worn-out systems of self-righteousness with a little bit of Jesus, hoping it will hold together. But Jesus says it won't work. The gospel will either be rejected, or it will shatter our categories and systems.

First, we must ask if our Christian lives are characterized by the joy of the wedding feast. Is our relationship with Christ a source of celebration, or is it a grim duty? If our religion consists mainly of a list of things we don't do, then we are behaving like the disciples of the Pharisees. The presence of the Bridegroom, through His Spirit, should make us a feasting people, a joyful people. This doesn't mean life is without sorrow, but it means that underlying all our circumstances is the bedrock reality that the King has come and will come again.

Second, we must be willing to let go of our old wineskins. This can apply to our personal habits, our church traditions, our political ideologies, or any structure that we rely on for our identity apart from Christ. The gospel demands new forms. It creates a new community, the church, with new practices like baptism and the Lord's Supper. It creates a new heart within us that requires a new way of life. We cannot simply add Jesus to our old way of living. He demands to make all things new. The question for us is whether we will cling to our brittle, old wineskins, or whether we will joyfully embrace the new ones God provides for the glorious new wine of His kingdom.