Jesus illustrated why it was not appropriate for his disciples to fast, and that living according to his new message was better than following the old traditions like fasting.

Matthew 9:14-17

14 Later, the disciples of John the Baptizer came to Jesus and asked him, “We (exc) and the Pharisees often abstain from food to show that we want to please God, but your disciples do not do that. Why do they not?” 15 Jesus wanted to show them and the Pharisees that it was not appropriate for his disciples to abstain from food and mourn while he was still with them. So he gave them this illustration: “When a bridegroom is with his friends at the time of the wedding, ◄his friends certainly do not mourn, do they?/do his friends mourn?► [RHQ] No, they do not mourn, because they are not sad at that time. But when the bridegroom is taken {someone takes the bridegroom/his enemies take the bridegroom} from them, they will abstain from food, because then they will be sad.”

16 Jesus wanted to show them that people who desire to live in accordance with his new message should not try to continue to obey the old religious traditions like ◄abstaining from food/fasting► [MET]. So he said to them, “People do not sew a patch of unshrunken cloth on an old garment to mend a hole. If they did that, when they washed the garment, the patch would shrink and tear the garment, and the hole would become bigger. 17 Neither does anyone pour freshly-squeezed grape juice into old skin bags to store it. If anyone did that, those skin bags would tear because they would not stretch when the grape juice ferments and expands. They would be ruined, and the wine would be spilled {spill} on the ground. Instead, people put new wine into new skin bags, and the bags will stretch when the wine ferments. As a result, both the wine and the bags are preserved.”