We might find this a bit confusing. What is all this about sewing a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment and putting new wine into old wineskins? I have just finished reading a book by Lois Tverberg: Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus. She explains this Jewish way of conversing with the use of parables. This is very different from the way we discuss matters. We would be inclined to use reasoned argument and to use statements such as "If …….. then…… That style of logical reasoning came from the Greeks. The Hebrew way of thinking was to use concrete illustrations as parables. They just used the illustration and did not try to explain it. So here we find Jesus using this way of making a point using an illustration that would be familiar to his hearers. So if we start to think about what he is saying, he is using two parables to make the same point. First of all, there is a parable about trying to merge different types of cloth. This is where someone tries to patch a hole in clothing by using a new piece of cloth which has still to be shrunk. When this new patch is sewn on to old clothes, it does not work. The two types of cloth function differently. Jesus then takes another concrete illustration to do with wine. This is when someone pours fresh new wine into old wineskins. Again, this does not work and results in a disaster - the new wine leaking from the old wineskins.
I am not very familiar with these illustrations. I have never tried to patch a hole in my trousers nor have I ever poured new wine into old wineskins. Those listening would have a much better idea of what Jesus was talking about. What is the lesson he is teaching? You cannot merge new and old. The context was that the Pharisees were commenting or more likely criticising the fact that Jesus disciples did not engage in fasting. Fasting was a big thing for the Pharisees and this made them seem very spiritual. They liked people to know that they were fasting. The Pharisees made the point that the disciples of John Baptist also fasted but Jesus was not insisting that his disciples spent time fasting. Jesus is saying that they are trying to impose something old on to something new or maybe it is the reverse. Jesus is the new wine and the new garment. He is not following the old traditions of the Jewish people. He has come from God with a new message and a new life for the people. This does not sit comfortably with the old style of the Pharisees with their insistence on legality and following a set of rules. The two will pull each other apart. They do not fit into each other.
What does this mean for us today? Perhaps the best illustration is to look at one letter which Paul wrote to the Galatians. There were false teachers who were doing the same thing and causing distress in the churches in Galatia. They were saying that new Christians needed to be circumcised in order to be right with God. This was adding the new to the old. The old was the circumcision and the keeping of the Old Testament law; the new was the Gospel of forgiveness for sins through grace on account of the work of the cross. This caused major issues in these New Testament churches and Paul had to make it clear that this legal approach did not fit comfortably with the Gospel - it was trying to add old to new and this did not work.
There is always the temptation that we follow the teachings of the Pharisees. We accept that we are not saved by our good works and that it was God's grace that saved us from our sins. But then we begin to add all sorts of restrictions to our lifestyle. I have recently seen statements from Christians on Facebook who are deciding all sorts of additional features of a Christian. One man stated that if you are rich, you cannot be a Christian because you have not been kind enough to poor people in other parts of the world. This is not to deny the challenge of poverty to us in our comfortable lifestyle. But to make giving to the poor a requirement for salvation is putting a restriction which is not there. On another occasion I heard someone publicly state from a platform in a church that if you did not believe that the world was created in 6 days you were not a Christian. This is putting new wine into old bottles or sewing new cloth onto old clothes. Anything which is legal or burdensome and is not based firmly on the Word of God is following the teachings of the Pharisees.
By the way, Jesus is not saying that we should never fast. He is making the point that his disciples did not need to fast because they had direct access to the son of God. In the book of the Acts, we read of the disciples fasting and praying and there is no reason to rule this out. I am aware that I have never fasted and maybe that is a challenge to me. It shows a real commitment to our prayers and an earnestness in our approach to God. Jesus was speaking about the situation with his disciples before he left them and returned to heaven.
Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.” [Mark 2: 18-22 ESV]
[Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash ]
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