“And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his {Matthew’s) house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him…And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees  used to  fast: and they come  and say unto him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not?

“And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bride chamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.”-Mark 2:15, 18-20.

It would seem from other narratives of this same banquet…that a large number of people were gathered at Matthew’s house aside from those who partook of the banquet-Luke 5:29, and from the connection of the narrative it is supposed that it was one of the regular fast days of the Pharisees. {These facts led to the question): Why is it that your Master and all who affiliate with him .are banqueting and feasting and rejoicing while we Pharisees “fast twice in the week,” and the followers of John’s teachings also fast? Is not this a sign that you and your Master are not so devout as we?-Luke 18:12.

The Lord’s answer is very comprehensive and far reaching, and requires considerable study to be appreciated.  He explained that it would be inappropriate for his followers to be in   sadness and mourning at a time when they were receiving such wonderful blessings-at a time when the Bridegroom himself was present, cheering their hearts, refreshing and strengthening them, opening the eyes of their understanding, and giving them hearing ears to appreciate the divine favor that was coming unto them. Such would not be an appropriate time for fasting and mourning. By and by, when the Bridegroom would be away, there would be an abundance of perplexity and sorrow and then fasting would be in order. So surely it has been: The Lord’s people throughout the Gospel age have frequently felt called upon in times of darkness and adversity to seek a very close approach to the Lord by a humbling of the flesh, and have found fasting a valuable means to this end.

However, fasting has a typical significance-it means self-denial. So long as the Master was with his people, and especially so long as he was honored by the multitudes, it required comparatively little self-denial to be one of his followers-it  was in  many respects an honor to be called to  follow him, and an honor to sacrifice something of earthly interests to be a follower; and this made his kind of self -denial or fasting really a feast of pleasure. Later on trials came, when the Master got into the toils of his enemies, when his cause was unpopular, and the multitudes clamored for his death-then it required self-denial (antitypical fasting) to confess him and follow him; and so it has been all through the Gospel age-none can be a follower of the Lamb without self-denial, fasting, refusing the desires and appetites of the flesh, sacrificing some and mortifying others in the interest of the new creature and its spiritual development.

Now in the Lord’s second presence, we might say that the feast has begun again-that from  a spiritual standpoint there are so many and so great blessings, so much and so dainty spiritual food, that to those who are invited into the Lord’s banqueting house and whom he causes to sit down to meat, and to whom he brings forth things new and old, newly and refreshingly served, it almost appears that the fasting time has passed, and that the feasting and “joys of the Lord’ have begun. Not that there are no trials and difficulties, according to the flesh, but that as new creatures his people are so refreshed and exhilarated with the meat in due season that the trials and difficulties and self-denials (fastings) incidental to the way may now be esteemed so lightly as not to be worthy to be compared with the spiritual refreshments enjoyed, though these be but foretastes of the great marriage feast soon to be enjoyed.

R 2591-2592 (1900)