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From: Matthew 9:14-15
The Call of Matthew (Continuation)

[14] Then the disciples of John (the Baptist) came to Him (Jesus), saying, “Why
do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” [15] And Jesus
said them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with
them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and
then they will fast.”

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Commentary:
14-17. This passage is interesting, not so much because it tells us about the
sort of fasting practised by the Jews of the time — particularly the Pharisees and
John the Baptist’s disciples—but because of the reason Jesus gives for not requi-
ring His disciples to fast in that way. His reply is both instructive and prophetic.
Christianity is not a mere mending or adjusting of the old suit of Judaism. The re-
demption wrought by Jesus involves a total regeneration. Its spirit is too new and
too vital to be suited to old forms of penance, which will no longer apply.
We know that in our Lord’s time Jewish theology schools were in the grip of a
highly complicated casuistry to do with fasting, purifications, etc., which smo-
thered the simplicity of genuine piety. Jesus’ words point to that simplicity of
heart with which His disciples might practise prayer, fasting and almsgiving (cf.
Matthew 6:1-18 and notes to same). From apostolic times onwards it is for the
Church, using the authority given it by our Lord to set out the different forms
fasting should take in different periods and situations.
15. “The wedding guests”: literally, “the sons of the house where the wedding is
being celebrated”—an expression meaning the bridegroom’s closest friends. This
is an example of how St. Matthew uses typical Semitic turns of phrase, presen-
ting Jesus’ manner of speech.
This “house” to which Jesus refers has a deeper meaning; set beside the para-
ble of the guests at the wedding (Matthew 22:1 ff), it symbolizes the Church as
the house of God and the body of Christ: “Moses was faithful in all God’s house
as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ was
faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are His house if we hold fast our
confidence and pride in our hope” (Hebrews 3:5-6).
The second part of the verse refers to the violent death Jesus would meet.