Mark 2:18-20 meaning

The parallel Gospel accounts for Mark 2:18-20 are Matthew 9:14-15 and Luke 5:33-35.

In the preceding section of this chapter, Jesus responded to the Pharisees' challenge to His disciples: “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?” (Mark 2:16) with a short parable (Mark 2:17) and the explanation: "I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mark 2:17).

The interactions recorded in Mark 2:18-20 (though contextually related to what came before) appear to be a separate encounter from Jesus’s dinner party with tax collectors and sinners at Levi’s (Matthew) house.

Mark introduces this apparent follow-up event with an observation.

John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting (v 18a). 

Fasting entails intentionally forgoing a secondary good (such as food) in order to draw closer to the greatest good—God. Fasting was also used as a discipline to re-establish one’s perspective and put appetites, desires, or physical impulses in proper alignment and submission to one’s will and God.

Fasting was viewed as a righteous practice and something that righteous men would regularly do. John the Baptizer’s disciples fasted. The Pharisees fasted also.

But even though both groups were regularly fasting, it seems both groups had different motivations for fasting.

John the Baptizer and his disciples likely fasted for godly reasons. John was an ascetic, living a life of strict self-denial, eating locusts and honey, and wearing camel hair for clothing (Mark 1:6). But John’s eccentricities were not for show. John the Baptizer and his disciples likely fasted for godly reasons. They were denying self in order to grow closer to God.

The Pharisees fasted according to their traditions. Their tradition consisted of hundreds and thousands of religious rules that they had made up to prevent any Jew from transgressing the Law of Moses. This tradition is recorded in the Jewish “Mishnah.” By the time of Jesus’s ministry, the Pharisees regarded their tradition as equal to or in some cases more important than keeping God’s Law (Matthew 15:2).

The Pharisees went to great lengths to fast according to their tradition, and often twice a week (Luke 18:12). The Pharisees believed that by keeping their tradition they were righteous and that they were honoring God. And they often kept them in a public setting (virtue signaling) so that they would be honored by men (Matthew 23:5-7).

But in exalting their tradition above God’s Law, the Pharisees were not honoring God. They were not righteous. The Pharisees were self-righteous hypocrites (Matthew 6:16). They were actually serving self and seeking to elevate their esteem in the eyes of others.

After stating the observation that John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, Mark records the conversation:

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?” (v 18b).

The pronoun—they—refers to either John’s disciples or the scribes and Pharisees. But Mark most likely has both groups in mind.

• Matthew’s Gospel explicitly mentions how John’s disciples came and asked Jesus a similar question (Matthew 9:14).

• Luke’s Gospel does not mention John’s disciples when he writes how the Pharisees came to Him with this question (Luke 5:33). Luke also adds that the Pharisees included the offering of prayers, which describes how the intent of fasting is to draw closer to God (Luke 5:33a).

It is unclear if John’s disciples and the Pharisees came to Jesus together or separately with their question.

John the Baptizer had branded the Pharisees, “a brood of vipers” (Matthew 3:7). The Pharisees had much resentment toward John. The fact that both John’s disciples and the Pharisees questioned Jesus about His disciples’ apparent lack of fasting indicates the great significance placed upon external practices of righteousness in the ancient Jewish culture. This would also affect their expectations of the practices that would be engaged by the true Messiah.

But it is also noteworthy that each group embeds the positive example of their religious opponents within their question to Jesus. Each group points out how we (the good guys) fast, and that even our lowly religious opponents fast, but Your disciples do not fast. They wanted Jesus to explain this to them.

Jesus had fasted for forty days in the wilderness before He began His public ministry as the Messiah (Matthew 4:1-2, Luke 4:1-2). But as His ministry began to grow, others did not notice Jesus or His disciples fasting. But they did notice how Jesus dined with tax collectors and sinners (Matthew 9:11, Mark 2:16, Luke 5:30).

In asking Jesus why John’s disciples and the Pharisees fast while pointing out that Your disciples do not fast, the questioners may be indirectly including and indicting Jesus as someone who does not fast either.

Moreover, the fact that Jesus does not dispute their question, and that His response appears to agree with their observation, indicates that He and His disciples were not regularly fasting.

The heart of their question to Jesus, was “Why are You not like us?”

Even though their question to Jesus was the same: “Why do we fast, but (You and) Your disciples do not fast?” their motives were likely different.

John’s disciples were most likely trying to learn. John had trained them to fast. Their rabbi had signaled that Jesus was the Messiah (Matthew 3:14, John 1:29-34). John’s disciples likely presumed Jesus was righteous and believed to be the Messiah, and they wanted to know why the Messiah did not have His disciples fast. John’s disciples were likely genuinely curious and wanted to learn.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, likely had much different motives.

• They may have been trying to shame Jesus into behaving like them and perhaps to come under their management. They believed the Messiah would be like them and would keep their traditions.

• They also may have been trying to sow doubt among His disciples by making them feel inferior to themselves or to John’s disciples.

• They may have been trying to goad Jesus to give an answer which they could twist and use against Him. The Pharisees likely rationalized that Jesus was a deceiver and was not righteous. And they were seeking to show that His and His disciples’ lack of fasting was evidence for their malicious presumption.

It is possible that the Pharisees had all three of those motives. If either the second or third listed motive was the case, then the Pharisees were seeking to harm Jesus by asking Him why His disciples did not fast.

The tone in which the Pharisees deliver their statement appears to be antagonistic. The Pharisees seem to assert their challenge in the same self-righteous tone of condemnation that they displayed when confronting Jesus's disciples in the previous verses (Mark 2:16).

The Pharisees' remark presumes their moral superiority. Implicit in their presumption is the message to Jesus: Why do we and John’s disciples [who are perceived as righteous] fast, but Your disciples [and perhaps by extension—You, Yourself, Jesus] do not fast? In other words, "If You are so righteous, why do You not perform the acts of the righteous, as we do?" Their self-assumed superiority aligns with the nature and hostile spirit of their previous interactions with Jesus's disciples.

The Pharisees’ questions were somewhat similar to those the Pharisees had just posed to Jesus's disciples at Levi's (Matthew's) home (Mark 2:16). Both sets of questions challenged the behavior of Jesus and His disciples, noting that it did not conform to the cultural standards for righteous behavior among the religiously observant in Judea. Jesus was threatening the religious status quo, and it was not being well received.

After recording John’s disciples’ and the Pharisees’ question to Jesus: “Why do we and our religious opponents fast, but (You and) Your disciples do not fast?,” Mark records Jesus’s response.

Jesus answered them with three short parables.

The first parable was:

And Jesus said to them, “While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day” (vv 19-20).

Jesus began His parable with a rhetorical question: While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they?

A bridegroom is a man who is about to be married to his bride. The attendants of the bridegroom are his friends who are there with him to help him prepare and celebrate the bridegroom’s wedding to his bride.

Jesus answers His rhetorical question: So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. His answer means: "No. While the bridegroom is with his attendants, his attendants do not fast.”

A bridegroom is in a state of joy, celebrating a happy occasion, and his friends join him in this celebration at the wedding feast. It would be inappropriate for them to decide, "We have chosen this time to fast," and miss out on the festivities.

In this analogy, Jesus is the bridegroom, and His disciples are the bridegroom’s attendants. They are celebrating with Jesus, rather than fasting and showing signs of mourning. They are rejoicing in His presence.

By comparing Himself to the bridegroom, Jesus subtly implies that He is the Messiah.

In the context of Isaiah's prophecies, the Messiah is often associated with joyous celebrations and feasts. For example, Isaiah 25:6-9 vividly depicts a grand banquet that the Lord will host for His people when the Messiah comes, highlighting a future time of abundance and joy. This imagery reinforces the idea of the Messiah as a source of ultimate blessing and celebration.

Isaiah also says:

"And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
So your God will rejoice over you."
(Isaiah 62:5)

In this parable, Jesus likens Himself to the bridegroom and implies that He is the Messiah, ushering in a time of celebration and joy for those who are with Him. This allusion connects to the Messianic imagery of a future time of abundant rejoicing, aligning with the prophetic vision of feasting and happiness associated with the arrival of the Messiah. Also implicit within Jesus’s answer was that the kingdom of God was at hand (Mark 1:15).

Moreover, the disciplines of fasting and prayer are done to bridge the gap and express a longing for connection with God. Since Jesus was among them He is visibly present. Therefore, there is no need for the gap to be bridged.

Since Jesus, God incarnate, is physically present as the bridegroom, His disciples are able to interact with God directly. Consequently, they do not need to fast. The connection between them and God is already established and tangible.

Ironically, the Pharisees considered themselves to be ardent followers of Moses and they were resisting Jesus who is the very prophet Moses promised God would raise up to be like him (Deuteronomy 18:18). God’s words are in Jesus’s mouth, because He is God, but the Pharisees’ ears are closed to Him.

However, Jesus says the current situation where He is physically present will not always be the case. This prophesies that Jesus will soon ascend to heaven, the place from which He descended (John 3:13).

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

There will indeed be a time for Jesus’s disciples to fast, but that time is not now. It will come when Jesus is no longer physically present with them, either due to His crucifixion and death (Mark 15:37) or more likely, His ascension into heaven (Mark 16:19). Once Jesus has departed, His disciples will enter a period when fasting will be appropriate for them.

At the time this commentary is being written (2024), Jesus has not yet returned to earth, but is still in heaven. The bridegroom’s physical presence has been taken away from His followers. Consequently, fasting is currently an appropriate discipline for Jesus’s followers to practice in order to be more mindful of God who is currently not visibly present in the world. There will come a future time when God will physically dwell among His people on a new earth (Revelation 21:3).

Jesus continues His response to the Pharisees' challenge and John’s disciples’ question with two more parables in the next section of scripture (Mark 2:21-22).