Tuesday
Tuesday
The Debate over Fasting
How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?
Mark 2:19
Mark begins his account of the third debate by drawing attention to a difference between three groups of disciples. The disciples of John the Baptist and the disciples of the Pharisees, he writes, are fasting, but the disciples of Jesus are not. On the contrary, according to Luke, they “go on eating and drinking” (Luke 5:33). So some people came up to Jesus and asked him why the other two groups were fasting, while his disciples were not.
Jesus replied with a counterquestion: “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them” (Mark 2:19). Some commentators understand this as a proverb for inappropriate action. For example, it would be as inappropriate for us to do this or that as it would for guests to fast during the wedding festivities.
But personally I think that a mini allegory is intended. Jesus the bridegroom was with them. So this was a time of joyful celebration. It would therefore be wholly inappropriate for them to fast at that time. “But the time will come,” Jesus continues, “when the bridegroom will be taken from them” (v. 20). “Taken” or “taken away” could be an allusion to his violent death. True, he had not yet plainly predicted his sufferings, yet it seems that he already had an inkling of them. On that day, when he will be taken from them, they will grieve and fast. As we saw in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus seems to have assumed that giving, praying, and fasting would all be part of the Christian life.
Not that fasting is always associated with grief. For although in one sense the bridegroom has been taken away from us, in another he has returned to us in the Holy Spirit, and our grief has been turned into joy (John 16:20–22).
For further reading: Mark 2:18–20