Mark 2:19

19 Jesus replied, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while He is with them? As long as He is with them, they cannot fast.

Mark 2:19 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 2:19

And Jesus said unto them
Both to John's disciples and the Pharisees,

can the children of the bride chamber fast, while the bridegroom is
with them?
Suggesting that he was the bridegroom, as John their master had called him, ( John 3:29 ) , and that his disciples were the children of the bride chamber; and that it was very unsuitable for them, and very unreasonable to desire them to fast at such a time, and under such a character: wherefore the answer returned by Christ himself to the question is,

as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast:
all which the Syriac version expresses by (al) , "no": (See Gill on Matthew 9:15).

Mark 2:19 In-Context

17 On hearing this, Jesus told them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were often fasting. So people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t Your disciples fast like John’s disciples and those of the Pharisees?”

19 Jesus replied, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while He is with them? As long as He is with them, they cannot fast.

20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.

21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, and a worse tear will result.