The disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees fasted. It was a sign of a deeper commitment to the service of God. How come then that the disciples of Jesus were not fasting? Jesus says that a wedding feast is no time for fasting. Jesus is clearly the bridegroom and his disciples the attendants. Jesus continues with another image. No one uses a piece of new, strong cloth to patch an old garment. At the first sign of stress, the new patch will pull and tear the weaker, old cloth. Similarly, no one puts new, fermenting wine in old, used wineskins. When the wine ferments and expands the old skins have no more stretch and will burst. The skins are ruined and the wine lost. In both images Jesus is saying that he and his teaching and the Way he is proposing cannot be judged by the old, traditional standards. Jesus has brought about a radical shift in the ways we are to relate to God and to each other. The way of the Pharisees was the external observance of laws. The Way of Jesus is ultimately rooted in interior relationships based on love, a love that always seeks the well-being of the other. If we judge what Jesus does by the old ways, we will have difficulties. We need, as Paul says, "to have the mind of Christ." As St Augustine used to say, "Love and do what you want." True love is not bound by rules. Keeping rules may be very unloving at times.