“No one patches up an old coat with a piece of new cloth, for the new patch will shrink and make an even bigger hole in the coat. Nor does anyone pour new wine into used wineskins, for the skins will burst, the wine will pour out, and the skins will be ruined. Instead, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins, and both will keep in good condition.” Matthew 9: 16-17;
The Scripture presents to us two parables; A New Cloth and A New Wine. They can also be found in Mark 2: 21, 22 and Luke 5:36-39.
In order to understand this parables, we have to understand why Jesus said them. First let’s establish the context.
In the preceding verses, Matthew 9: 14-15 says;
Then John’s (the Baptist) disciples came and asked him,” How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered,” How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.
One thing we pick out from this reading is that;
• The Disciples of John and the Pharisees were involved in this incident and both questioned Jesus.
• It is also clear that both compared themselves to Jesus disciples and had come to the conclusion that Jesus disciples were not measuring up to the high standards of their religion.
• They recognized that Jesus and his disciples didn’t do the things they did to put their self-righteousness on public display.
• We also notice that the disciples of John the Baptist came under the influence of the Pharisees religious rules in the absence of John’s leadership. They had quickly forgotten the substance of John’s message of repentance and his rejection of religious self-righteousness.
In Matthew 5:17 Jesus says; “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
What Jesus is saying here is that religiousness has nullified the spiritual principles God had established and Jesus was here for the truth.
Jesus was here to demonstrate perfect obedience to God.
• He was not bound in any way to the man-made religious requirements. Since the Pharisees had their own idea of what righteousness looked like, they couldn’t recognise true righteousness in Jesus.
We as Christians should not be any more bound to religious requirements.
In chapters 5 and 6, you’ll find the religious crowd continuing to struggle with the fact that Jesus and His disciples had a serious disregard for their rules. In other words, they couldn’t make that distinction.
• Obedience to God and obedience to religion is not the same thing. This is what we have to keep in mind. Obedience to religion will not save you.
Let's look at the first parable, Matthew 9:16;
“No one patches up an old coat with a piece of new cloth, for the new patch will shrink and make an even bigger hole in the coat.
In some versions it says new cloth, un-shrunk cloth. KJV translated agnaphos, “new”.
• It is sometime translated undressed, uncombed or unfinished.
• Refers to wool or cotton cloth that has not been carded or combed so that the fibres are aligned, giving it both strength and a smoother, and more finished appearance.
As Jesus explains in the parable, such cloth, if used to patch a tear in an older garment, would actually weaken the garment and cause a worse tear.
This parable illustrates the incompatibility of the old with the new.
• When Jesus uses the illustration of the unfinished cloth being used as a patch for an old garment, He’s implying that something new, yet unfinished, is not compatible with something old, which has been damaged or torn.
The new unfinished cloth is His message of the Kingdom;
• The New Covenant is not yet fully revealed, so it is not completely understood.
• The Old Covenant (The Law and the Prophets) has been damaged, torn and rendered useless by the religious men who follow their flesh, rejecting Gods righteousness.
At this point, Jesus message of the Kingdom is unfinished. Why?
It is unfinished because we need to consider;
1. Jesus tells us that He was “sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” Matthew 10:5,6 15: 22-28 21: 42, 43. Only after His death and resurrection, an invitation of the Kingdom is extended to the Gentiles (revealed to Paul in the book of Acts and Romans)
2. Jesus tells His Disciples the revelation of truth about the Holy Spirit.
In John 14:26, Holy Spirit would come to “teach you all things and cause you to remember what I have told you already.” Then later in John 16:12, 13 “I have many things to tell you, but you’re not mature enough to bear them. However, when the Spirit of Truth has come, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak His own message, but only what He hears from the Father and will do it in the Father’s timing.”
Jesus says that His Good News concerning the Kingdom was not complete revelation; there was more to come. The rest will be revealed until after He was gone.
3. The message of the Kingdom is unfinished because God always used a vessel/ channel to which He could relate to His people. In the Old Testament, priests or prophets relied on man-made religion instead of the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus message was incomplete. Why?
• Because it didn’t include the Gentiles or a revelation of the true church and how it would function.
It would be completed after He was gone by revelation to the apostles through the Ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 9:17. This is what Jesus says;
Nor does anyone pour new wine into used wineskins, for the skins will burst, the wine will pour out, and the skins will be ruined. Instead, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins, and both will keep in good condition.”
In the KJV, two words are translated new. Neos applying to wine relates to time, recent or young. However, the word used to describe new wineskins is kainos, meaning “new” as it relates to form or quality and it can mean uncommon, renewed, refreshed or reconditioned.
To understand this, we have to understand the process of winemaking.
• You would assume that every year new wineskins (leather bottles) were made because new wine could only be put into new wineskins, but that was not the case.
Old wineskins when emptied were saved for the next year. Over the course of time they became dry and brittle. But they were easily “reconditioned” by soaking in water for few days. Then, when they softened, they were coated with olive oil and were ready to use again.
Now the bottles were able to stretch, accommodating the expansion of gases that were a result of the fermentation process.
It’s obvious that the old is still incompatible with the new. However, in this case, Jesus makes it clear that the new message can only be successfully deposited in the old heart that has been reconditioned and is soft, and ready to extend itself to new limits as the revelation of the Kingdom continues to grow.
Those who receive the new message must be ready and able to withstand the pressures caused by the agitation and the violence in that process.
- New reconditioned wineskins were meant to stretch and expand when gases from the fermenting process exerted pressure. Dry and old wineskins did not have the capacity so they can burst easily.
- It’s time to stretch and extend our boundaries. It’s time to expand the capacity in our lives so that the blessings of God can fully fill our wineskins.
Change is always happening around us but change is difficult to deal with.
Nicodemus went to Jesus in the night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God; for no can do these signs that you do apart from God’s presence.” Jesus said to him, “very truly, I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again.”
Jesus was talking about change but Nicodemus wondered if it were possible, “How can anyone be born after having grown old?”
A rich man came to Jesus and asked, “Good teacher, what must I do to be saved?” And when Jesus told him to give away all his riches to the poor and come follow him, he went away sad and depressed.
My friends, Jesus did not come into this world so that you and I might remain the same. He came to change things – to transform your life and my life and make us more into the image of God.
But change is difficult for those who have grown old; who are set in their ways; who are inflexible and ridged and who want things to stay as they have always been. Wineskins do become old and new wine, continually being produced, has to be accommodated somewhere. That is the problem with change. Whether we want it or not, change happens and we are left to deal with it or we are left behind.
Jesus new message of the Kingdom is that whether Jews or Gentiles, whether black or White. The invitation is to all. So that the creation of God can be complete and be new. So that when the Lord returns, he is to take a new reconditioned, restored unblemished church.
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