14 One day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, “Why don’t your disciples fast like we do and the Pharisees do?”
15 Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
16 “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.
17 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”
Matthew 9:14-17
18 Once when John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, some people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t your disciples fast like John’s disciples and the Pharisees do?”
19 Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. They can’t fast while the groom is with them. 20 But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
21 “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.
22 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.”
Mark 2:18-22
Dear God, this has always been one of those vague parables/analogies of Jesus that I really could have used a later section where Jesus explains the parable like he did at other times. This seems like too big of a deal to just let it go with these two quick references.
Jesus had come to bring whole new thing. The old garment, the old wineskins, were not fit to handle his new Gospel. They weren’t fit to contain what we would eventually call Christianity. Did Jesus fast and pray? Yes. Did he tell his disciples that some things only come out through fasting and prayer? Sure. But what the Pharisees were doing and had taught no longer made sense in this new song Jesus was teaching.
A local pastor I respect put out an email to local pastors recently that he was about to lead a study on a book by an author whom I have heard is more along the lines of Christian nationalism. Not wanting to prejudge the book or the author, I downloaded the sample on my Kindle app and read the endorsements that come with the book along with the introduction. I was disappointed because it was definitely about the Christian church exerting power and influence over the government. Interestingly, it drew parallels to Dietrich Bonhoeffer from Germany in the 1930s and his call for the church to resist Hitler’s Nazi regime and ideals, but I saw key differences. Anyway, I don’t want to get into all of that except to say that this type of approach seems to be very “old wine skin” and “old garment.” It doesn’t feel to me like who Jesus is. As I read this book, I tried to imagine Jesus, or even any of the apostles reading the book and thinking it was the right message–even the bombastic, front-lobed Peter. It looked more like Israel of the Old Testament, taking the world by force in your name, rather than the Jesus who led with prayer, service, persuasion, and suffering. When we start striving for power and influence then we will lose sight of you and make that our idol, and we will do whatever it takes to achieve it. We will be more like James and John, asking Jesus if they can sit at your right and left or if they should call down fire on Samaria, rather than Paul considering his own life worth nothing to him or James, the brother of Jesus, saying we should take our suffering and consider it joy.
Father, I realize I am being very judgmental right now. I’m sorry for that. But I am truly trying to process how you want me to respond to this. The pastor who is promoting this study. I still love him very much. I respect him as well. I just want to know how to love him as you would have me love him. I want to also see the error in my own thinking. Am I too weak? Am I not courageously taking up my cross and following you? Speak to me. Holy Spirit, speak to me. Help me to know exactly how to get rid of my old wine skin for your new ones. Help me to pre-shrink my fabric to make it fill in the gaps for the old, torn covenant of the Old Testament. For the beautiful symphony of Christianity that Jesus wrote, help me to be an effective player.
I pray all of this in complete submission to you,
Amen
Emails to God 