Jesus answered a complaint with a picture everyone understood. No one fasts at a wedding while the bridegroom is still there. The question expects the answer "No, of course not," and so it shows that His disciples' feasting was fitting, not careless.

The question also quietly says who Jesus is. Gill explains that Jesus was "signifying, that he was the bridegroom, and his disciples the children of the bride chamber," and that it was "unreasonable to expect" wedding guests to keep severe fasts. Barnes, on Matthew's parallel, says Jesus' answer teaches that "we should observe a fitness and propriety in things."

The critics' reply is not recorded. Jesus Himself went on to finish the thought: "But 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 then "spake also a parable unto them" about new cloth on an old garment and new wine in old bottles, closing with, "No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better" (Luke 5:36-39).

"Children of the bridechamber" is a word-for-word rendering of the Greek huious tou nymphōnos, "sons of the bridechamber." The ESV translates the sense: "wedding guests." Barnes explains them as "the bridemen, or men who had the special care of the bridal chamber, and who were therefore his special friends."

The question begins with the Greek word mē, which signals that the expected answer is "no." Wedding celebrations were times of joy, and fasting was a sign of sorrow. Barnes thinks it probable that John was then in prison and his disciples were fasting in grief, for "Fasting was the natural expression of sorrow." That makes the contrast with a wedding sharp.

Jesus' answer turns a debate about practice into a statement about Himself. He is the bridegroom, and His presence changes what is fitting for His people. Gill says it was "morally impossible" for wedding guests to be engaged in severe fasting during the celebration.

But Jesus also looked ahead with sober words: the bridegroom "shall be taken away" (Luke 5:35). Joy in His presence and sorrow at His absence both have their season. Matthew Henry notes that the Lord "trains up his people gradually for the trials allotted them." Jesus was not dismissing fasting. He was saying that harder days were coming for His disciples, and that then they would fast (Luke 5:35).