The critics kept pressing. Their first complaint was about the company Jesus kept (Luke 5:30). Now they turned to His disciples' religious habits: serious people fast and pray, but "thine eat and drink." The question compares Jesus' followers with two respected groups, John's disciples and the Pharisees' disciples, and implies that His followers come up short.

The Gospels tell us more about who was asking. Luke's "they" follows straight on from the scribes and Pharisees (Luke 5:30), while Matthew says "the disciples of John" came with the question (Matthew 9:14). Gill names both possibilities: "The Scribes and Pharisees, or the disciples of John." Barnes, commenting on Matthew's account, says the Pharisees fasted "regularly twice a week, besides the great national days of fasting."

Jesus answered with a question of His own: "Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?" (Luke 5:34). He then added that "the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days" (Luke 5:35). He finished with a parable about a new patch on an old garment and new wine in old bottles, ending with the saying, "The old is better" (Luke 5:36-39).

Fasting and prayer were marks of devotion. The Pharisee in Jesus' later parable boasts, "I fast twice in the week" (Luke 18:12). The phrase "make prayers" uses the Greek deēseis, petitions or requests, and only Luke mentions the prayers alongside the fasting.

The Greek texts differ here. The Textus Receptus behind the KJV begins with Diati, "why," so the KJV prints a question. Other Greek editions lack that word, which is why the ESV prints the same words as a statement: "The disciples of John fast often." Either way, the critics were pressing Jesus to explain His disciples.

This question opens a door for Jesus to say who He is. Instead of debating religious schedules, He answers by calling Himself the bridegroom (Luke 5:34). Gill draws out the point: Jesus was signifying "that he was the bridegroom, and his disciples the children of the bride chamber."

The question also shows two ways of measuring faithfulness. The critics measured by visible practices. Jesus measured by His presence. Matthew Henry, writing on this whole passage in his Concise Commentary, calls it "a wonder of his grace, that he so patiently bore the contradiction of sinners against himself and his disciples," and that he "fixed the services of his disciples according to their strength and standing." Jesus did not throw out fasting. He placed it in its proper season.