New patches and old wineskins part 1

 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 tear away and make the tear worse. Luke records Jesus as saying that nobody would tear a piece from a new garment to patch an old one because the two pieces of fabric wouldn’t match and the new garment would be torn. Luke also adds an extra thought to the end of the pair. Nobody who has tasted old wine wants new wine because the old wine is better.

I think that last line adds clarity to Luke’s idea. As with most parables, I think there are multiple valid ways to understand these. It may even be that Matthew, Mark, and Luke all recorded them for different reasons. After all, Matthew records that John’s disciples asked Jesus the question, while Luke seems to leave us with the impression that it is the Pharisees asking.

So, with the idea in mind that Jesus is answering the Pharisees, what is he saying to them? The Pharisees had spent years adding layer upon layer of tradition onto the laws of Torah. They had added so many new traditions that the burden to keep them was much more than the average Israelite could bear.

But Jesus didn’t come to fulfill the Pharisaic tradition. He came to fulfill Torah. The patch the Pharisees were attempting to use to patch Judaism was only making it harder to keep the law, all while perverting the intent of the law itself. Jesus accused them multiple times of keeping their tradition while breaking Moses’ law (Matthew 23, John 5:45, John 7:19-23). But he said that he didn’t come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17).

I think that’s what Jesus was telling the Pharisees. You have tried to fix Israel your way and made it worse. You have tried fixing the garment with new cloth, and you have tried pouring new wine into old wineskins. But I am not going to fix it, I’m going to restore it, and people are going to realize that your new is inferior to the perfected, fulfilled, pure and undefiled message that I am bringing.

We have that perfected, fulfilled story. Our job is to tell it. Remember that song? Is it true?

I love to tell the story!

‘Twill be my theme in glory!

To tell the old, old story

Of Jesus and his love!