People can have very stereotyped ideas of the way religious people should behave and appear to be shocked when a supposedly religious person does things differently. This was happening to Jesus all the time. If He was a 'religious' person, He and His disciples should have been fasting like the Pharisees and the followers of John the Baptist. Jesus replies in two ways. First, as the 'Bridegroom', it would be unthinkable for His disciples to fast while the 'wedding' (His time with them) was still ongoing. More to the point, though, He gives two examples - new patch on an old cloak, new wine in old wineskins. In other words, those who think along the old ways have difficulty understanding the new ways of Jesus' thinking. For him, serving God does not just consist in ritualistic practices and external observances but in the inner spirit of love and service. Without the latter, the former have very little value. How do I see the truly 'religious' person? How do I measure my own life as a disciple of Christ and a member of my Christian community?