Luke 5:36-38
In a similar fashion, grape juice is made and put into new wineskins where it is left to ferment; in that fermentation process, though, the wine begins to expand and thus the bag expands with it. If that newly forming wine, however, were to be put into old bags and begin to expand, the wineskins would burst, and therefore spill the wine and render it worthless.
So many people put rules and traditions in a place that’s almost higher than their faith itself, or they try to fit other things into their faith that really don’t belong. I remember listening to one of my extended family members (a Lutheran) talking to his friend (a Catholic) about how quickly a priest could get through a mass and how fast a pastor could get through the liturgy, and I realized then that his belief system was one of tradition and knowledge than rather than a personal, thriving relationship with Christ. It was seriously sad to listen to him talk about what he thought was important in church services.
Jesus was dealing with a similar situation here, but with the Pharisees. See, the Pharisees—a group of often snobbish Jewish leaders—thought it terrible that Christ and His followers were not holding to the custom of fasting, among other things. In other words, they were upset that He (the Son of God) was not following the rituals that they declared were necessary. Rather than humble sacrifice and obedience to God, these Pharisees thought that their rituals (many of which were not directly prescribed in the law) would save them.
What Christ is talking about here is that the Jewish teachers were trying to fit the Old Covenant into the beginnings of the New Covenant, which, like the old cloth/new cloth and old wineskins/new wine examples, doesn’t work. Now, just to be clear here, Jesus wasn’t coming to completely wipe out the law—remember His words in Matthew 5:17-18, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” Here’s the deal, since Christ came, He has proved that the rituals and practices of plain Judaism clearly fall short of His glory and greatness. His power over death and ability to bring about salvation from sins makes the law and rituals of the past simply a shadow that came before Christ Himself. Look at what Hebrews 8:13 says (and while you’re at it, please read the entire chapter), “By calling this covenant ‘new,’ He has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.”’
Let’s go back to that new patch on the old coat for a second. The irony with that statement is that what is supposed to serve to repair one item, in the end, only serves to ruin both cloths as well as making the original hole even larger.
Christ cannot be contained within the boundaries of the old law, for it was incomplete. And we cannot force our other little ideas and beliefs into Christ, because, as Isaiah 55 says, “’My thoughts are not your thought, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’”
God came to save me, and in doing so mended the cloth just right, so that the coat would not tear away, yet why is it that I often think that I can do a better job? I know better, but I still do it. Nevertheless, I will not stop trying to give everything to God, and just know that God is God and He will always do what is right and good.
He told them this parable: “No one tears a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he 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. If he does, 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.”Let’s begin with a bit of simple background. Now, it’s an established fact that most clothes shrink, specifically when washed for the first few times. However, they do stop growing smaller as time goes on. Knowing that, one would be a fool to take a brand new piece of cloth and sew it on to an old garment, for when the entire piece was next washed, the new part would begin to shrink while the old remained the same, thus causing the new to tear away and create a hole larger than the original.
In a similar fashion, grape juice is made and put into new wineskins where it is left to ferment; in that fermentation process, though, the wine begins to expand and thus the bag expands with it. If that newly forming wine, however, were to be put into old bags and begin to expand, the wineskins would burst, and therefore spill the wine and render it worthless.
So many people put rules and traditions in a place that’s almost higher than their faith itself, or they try to fit other things into their faith that really don’t belong. I remember listening to one of my extended family members (a Lutheran) talking to his friend (a Catholic) about how quickly a priest could get through a mass and how fast a pastor could get through the liturgy, and I realized then that his belief system was one of tradition and knowledge than rather than a personal, thriving relationship with Christ. It was seriously sad to listen to him talk about what he thought was important in church services.
Jesus was dealing with a similar situation here, but with the Pharisees. See, the Pharisees—a group of often snobbish Jewish leaders—thought it terrible that Christ and His followers were not holding to the custom of fasting, among other things. In other words, they were upset that He (the Son of God) was not following the rituals that they declared were necessary. Rather than humble sacrifice and obedience to God, these Pharisees thought that their rituals (many of which were not directly prescribed in the law) would save them.
What Christ is talking about here is that the Jewish teachers were trying to fit the Old Covenant into the beginnings of the New Covenant, which, like the old cloth/new cloth and old wineskins/new wine examples, doesn’t work. Now, just to be clear here, Jesus wasn’t coming to completely wipe out the law—remember His words in Matthew 5:17-18, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” Here’s the deal, since Christ came, He has proved that the rituals and practices of plain Judaism clearly fall short of His glory and greatness. His power over death and ability to bring about salvation from sins makes the law and rituals of the past simply a shadow that came before Christ Himself. Look at what Hebrews 8:13 says (and while you’re at it, please read the entire chapter), “By calling this covenant ‘new,’ He has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.”’
Let’s go back to that new patch on the old coat for a second. The irony with that statement is that what is supposed to serve to repair one item, in the end, only serves to ruin both cloths as well as making the original hole even larger.
Christ cannot be contained within the boundaries of the old law, for it was incomplete. And we cannot force our other little ideas and beliefs into Christ, because, as Isaiah 55 says, “’My thoughts are not your thought, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’”
God came to save me, and in doing so mended the cloth just right, so that the coat would not tear away, yet why is it that I often think that I can do a better job? I know better, but I still do it. Nevertheless, I will not stop trying to give everything to God, and just know that God is God and He will always do what is right and good.
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