There are many things that we do simply out of habit or routine. Prayer and fasting are one of them. Habits and routines are helpful in developing in us skills or competencies. However, situations can change; our context or environment can become different. And this ought to alert us to whether our “usual” habits and practices are still in accord with our present situation or context. Failure to read the “signs of the times” makes us irrelevant, unresponsive, even anachronistic. This is what Jesus wants to tell the disciples of John who are wondering why they and the Pharisees and their disciples fast while Jesus’ disciples do not. The three metaphors (wedding banquet, patching a new cloth into an old one, pouring new wine into old wineskin) are meant to say that our actions should be in accord with the time or situation we are in. Jesus’ coming means celebration, joy, rejoicing, not sadness, and so there is no room for fasting or abstinence. In short, when we are stuck with “Lenten” observances despite the breaking in of “Easter,” we fail to read the sign and thus fail to act accordingly.

Thus says the Lord: On that day I will raise up the fallen hut of David; I will wall up its breaches, raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old, That they may conquer what is left of Edom and all the nations that shall bear my name, say I, the Lord, who will do this. Yes, days are coming, says the Lord, When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the vintager, him who sows the seed; The juice of grapes shall drip down the mountains, and all the hills shall run with it. I will bring about the restoration of my people Israel; they shall rebuild and inhabit their ruined cities, Plant vineyards and drink the wine, set out gardens and eat the fruits. I will plant them upon their own ground; never again shall they be plucked from the land I have given them, say I, the Lord, your God.

“The Lord speaks of peace to his people.”

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered 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. No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”