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New patches and old wineskins part 2

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New patches and old wineskins part 2 Mark 2: 21-22   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 qwineskins. 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.” John is in prison, and at least some of his disciples have, for whatever reason, decided to fast with the Pharisees rather than feast with Jesus. I think part of the reason Jesus told them these parables was to open their eyes to reality. As I said in part of the discussion of the parable of the wedding guests, Matthew records the questioners here as John’s disciples. Mark and Luke don’t specifically name them, but Luke makes it appear that there are Pharisees among the crowd. Probably there is a mixed crowd of John’s disciples, Pharisees, and onlookers, wanting to see how Jesus will answer their charges. The parables
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New patches and old wineskins part 1

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  New patches and old wineskins part 1 Luke 5:36-39 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.   And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.   But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.   And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’ ” These two - or in Luke’s case three - parables are recorded in conjunction with the parable of the wedding guests in all three synoptic Gospels. Immediately after answering the question as to why his disciples didn’t fast but instead celebrated, Jesus offers his questioners these sayings. Interestingly, Luke records the first parable differently from Matthew and Mark. They both record Jesus saying that nobody mends an old garment with unshrunk cloth, because the patch would
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The wedding guests part 2

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  The Wedding guests part 2 Matthew 9:14-15 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”  And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. Fasting was a well established practice from the Old Testament. We know David fasted as an act of repentance and during times of intense prayer during crisis situations. The practice is also seen during similar situations when Israel as a nation is in crisis in Judges, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. But we also know that both Isaiah and Jeremiah criticized the practice when it was done for attention and not with proper motive. The people had turned the practice into nothing more than a ritual to show others how spiritual they were, while mistreating those beneath them socially. In Jesus’ day, John’s disciples were fasting in repentance and sorrow fo
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The wedding guests part 1

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  The Wedding guests part 1 Matthew 9:14-15 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”   And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” When Jesus called Matthew (called Levi in Mark and Luke), he held a feast in his home. Matthew and Mark are a bit vague, but Luke makes it clear that Matthew held the feast for Jesus at his home. All three accounts report large numbers of tax collectors (Matthew and Mark add “and sinners” while Luke adds “and others” to the tax collectors) who joined in the feast. In all three accounts, a group of people confront Jesus with a question. Matthew records the group as being some of John the Baptist’s disciples. The other two accounts do not identify the people as loyal to either group. But in all three accounts, the question is the same. John’s dis
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The Sower and the soils part 2

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  The Sower and the soils part 2 With the background information out of the way in part 1, it’s time to turn to the parable itself. In Mark’s gospel, the parable is followed immediately by Jesus’ quotation of Isaiah, and then the explanation. Only in Mark does Jesus rebuke the disciples for their lack of understanding ( Mark 4:13 ). He tells them that understanding this parable is the key to understanding parables. So, how are we to understand this parable? Fortunately, Jesus goes on to explain it. The seed is the word. The Sower is Jesus, and eventually his followers. The different types of soil are different types of people who hear the gospel message. People represented by the path are those who have no interest in God or spiritual matters. When someone starts talking about sin, heaven, hell, Jesus, or any related topic, they shut off their brain or change the subjject. These people have been blinded by the spirit of the age and see no need for such things. The only thing we can d
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The Sower and the soils part 1

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  The Sower and the soils part 1 Matthew 13:3-9 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow.   And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.   Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.   Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.   Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.   He who has ears, let him hear.” This parable is probably the most famous of Jesus’ parables. It is one of the few that were given a detailed interpretation, and it was also given a prominent place in each of the three Gospels that report it. In each of the three, it opens a section of instruction on parables. After Jesus tells this story, his disciples come to him and ask why he teach
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The Lamp part 3

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  The Lamp part 3 Luke 8:16 "No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light." It is the least intuitive thing in our culture to remember, but to an Israelite of Jesus’ time, the focus was rarely if ever on the individual. Those of us born and raised in the United States have cut our teeth on the American Spirit of independence and rugged individualism, to the point that we completely lose sight of the fact that this concept was foreign to most of the world for most of history. Most people would have thought of themselves first as a member of their family, their clan, their tribe. Their first thoughts would not have been about their own rights and freedoms, but about their responsibilities to those around them. The people of Jesus’ day were more defined by their relationships than by their jobs or hobbies. If you ask someone today who they are, you might get a brief family sketch - pa
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