Luke 5:34

34 Jesus said to them, "You cannot make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you?

Luke 5:34 Meaning and Commentary

Luke 5:34

And he said unto them
The disciples of John, or the Scribes and Pharisees:

can ye make the children of the bride chamber fast, while the
bridegroom is with them?
signifying, that he was the bridegroom, and his disciples the children of the bride chamber; and that as it is unreasonable to expect, and morally impossible, that persons, attending the festivals of a nuptial solemnity, should be engaged in severe fastings; so it was not to be thought, that whilst Christ was corporeally present with his disciples, that they should be prevailed upon to live such an austere and mortified life.

Luke 5:34 In-Context

32 I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance."
33 Then they said to him, "John's disciples, like the disciples of the Pharisees, frequently fast and pray, but your disciples eat and drink."
34 Jesus said to them, "You cannot make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you?
35 The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days."
36 He also told them a parable: "No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise the new will be torn, and the piece from the new will not match the old.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.