Tag Archives: old garment

LUKE’S GOSPEL…NEW WINE – 11a

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“He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’ ””

‭‭Luke‬ ‭5‬:‭36‬-‭39‬ ‭NIV‬‬

To whom was Jesus addressing His words?  The context does not tell us. 

“They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.” Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.””

‭‭Luke‬ ‭5‬:‭33‬-‭35‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Does the “they” refer to the religious leaders to whom Jesus had been talking? Perhaps. Was this another criticism they levelled against Jesus? “His disciples must be an irreligious bunch of over- indulgers because they didn’t observe the rigours of their religion. Why didn’t they fast like John’s disciples did?”

Jesus’ response was not only for them but a timeless reminder that it is impossible to marry the two major covenants of Scripture without doing damage to both. 

The Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of profligate living when the law demanded adherence to strict rules of self-denial. The Pharisees lauded John’s disciples for fasting faithfully while Jesus’ disciples appeared to disregard such practices. 

Instead of agreeing with them and pulling His disciples in for self-indulgence, Jesus opened up the subject to a new perspective. What the Pharisees were criticising about the disciples was actually a window into a whole new life which Jesus was spearheading. 

Jesus used an everyday illustration to drive home His point. To restore a damaged garment, one does mend old worn out material with a patch of new cloth. They will pull apart with use and the result will be worse than the original tear. 

The same principle applies to the storage of wine. Old wineskins  become inflexible after time and the maturing of the wine. Fresh wine needs new wine skins which will expand as the wine matures. 

Google AI gives us a concise interpretation of Jesus’ illustration. 

“The phrase “new wine in old wineskins,” from Jesus’ teachings (Matthew 9, Mark 2, Luke 5), means the new life, grace, and freedom of the Gospel (the “new wine”) require a transformed, pliable heart and mindset (the “new wineskin”) to contain it, as rigid, old ways (old wineskins) would burst under the pressure of God’s new work, leading to spiritual breakage and loss. It’s a call to spiritual renewal, moving from legalistic traditions to a Spirit-led life, embracing God’s transformative power rather than trying to fit His fresh work into outdated spiritual frameworks or self-made rules. 

Key Meanings:

  • New Wine: Represents the new covenant, salvation, the Holy Spirit, joy, and the life-transforming message of Jesus.
  • Old Wineskins: Symbolize rigid traditions, old habits, legalistic thinking, self-righteousness, or the Old Testament system of law that can’t contain the new wine of grace.
  • The Principle: Fermenting new wine expands and needs flexible, fresh skins. Using old, hardened skins causes them to burst, spilling the wine. Similarly, trying to hold onto old religious practices or mindsets while embracing Christ’s new life leads to spiritual failure and missed blessings. 

Practical Application:

  • Personal Transformation: Believers must become “new creations” (2 Corinthians 5:17) through repentance and faith, allowing the Holy Spirit to soften and renew their hearts to receive God’s fullness.
  • Spiritual Flexibility: Embrace new ways of living in Christ, letting go of man-made restrictions and religious burdens that hinder grace.
  • Contextualizing Faith: Recognize that God’s work often brings fresh moves and insights that require updated approaches, not just patching old systems.”

There is still a tendency today to try to blend the Old and New Covenants with trends and practices which eventually destroy the significance and purpose of both…

This can never be because the Old Covenant calls for righteousness through obedience while the New  Covenant provides the gift of righteousness through faith. 

To be continued… 

An Unexpected Story

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AN UNEXPECTED STORY

No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins. (Mark 2: 21-22).

Jesus was good at interspersing His profound teaching with simple stories that unexpectedly made deep truths clear. This was one of them. A question about fasting – “Why don’t your disciples fast when John’s and the Pharisees’ disciples do?” – prompted Jesus to launch into a teaching full of hints about Himself and His coming passion, which His hearers obviously did not understand.

He had come to make clear to His people what they had misunderstood. He was no ordinary rabbi, following and adding to the already top-heavy list of dos and don’ts of what had moved from a lifestyle to a religion. His job was not to rubber-stamp the opinions of the sages, but to live out God’s Torah – His instructions and way of life so that His people would see His kingdom in action.

The bridegroom was on the scene. He had come to propose to His bride and to set in motion the process that would culminate in the glorious day when He would return to claim her and to take her to His Father’s house for the wedding. He had come to invite her into a brand new life. Like recently woven, unshrunk cloth; like new, unfermented wine.

The problem was that the new cloth and the new wine did not fit with the old. The old system and the new were incompatible. How could you “sew” this renewed walk of faith, love and freedom with Jesus onto the old “cloth” of religion with its intricate mesh of meaningless rules and rituals? How could you pour the “new wine” of life in fellowship with the Holy Spirit into the stiff, rigid old wineskins of self-righteous performance? It just would not work. Any attempt to blend the new with the old would ruin them both.

New wine could only mature in the new, flexible wineskins that had not yet stiffened with age and with use. Was Jesus implying that the “new wine” that He was introducing them to was alive with movement and expansion? It needed flexibility and room to grow. It was as mysterious and unpredictable as the wind. It was a life of interconnectedness with the Father through the Holy Spirit, a relationship of trust and obedience, based on something far deeper than the instructions they were supposed to follow.

This life was not so much about reading and following the “Book” as it was about living in intimate union with the Author of the Book. How much more effective than simply trying to get into the mind of the Author by reading His words! Now Jesus was giving His people the opportunity to get to know and understand the heart of the Author by living in fellowship with Him.  Once His followers grasped that, they would understand how futile it was to try please the Author by interpreting what He wrote as a rule-book rather than a love-story.

Did His hearers get the point? Old cloth and old wineskins were past their “sell-by-date”. There was no value in trying to make them last longer. They had served their purpose and would be replaced by something new and far better – life which the Holy Spirit would give them, freely and forever. This was not about resurrecting an old garment but clothing them with a brand new one. This was not about pouring new wine into old wineskins. This was about pouring the new wine of the Holy Spirit into new hearts, made clean and new through what Jesus would do on the cross.

A simple, homespun story – everyday things which they were familiar with, but packed with fresh insights into something no other rabbi had even offered, leave alone thought about. Did His hearers go away enlightened, excited, full of anticipation for what He would do for them? Much more than merely heal their bodies and make their lives a little easier to bear?

He was talking about wine – the stuff that went to their heads and made them temporarily jolly so that they would forget their troubles as long as its effects lasted. No, He was announcing that they would soon be drinking a wine so potent and so permanent that, in spite of their circumstances, they would be filled with joy that would not fade because the “wine” would live inside them forever. Much of their fasting was nothing more than part of the old “garment” and the old “wineskins” – no longer of use or value. They could dispense with that old life forever because the kingdom of God had come.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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