The Parable of New Cloth and New Wineskins
30 But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?
31 And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
32 I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
33 And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink?
34 And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?
35 But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.
36 And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.
37 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish.
38 But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.
39 No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better (Luke 5:30-39).
This parable is also found in Matthew 9 and Mark 2.
Jesus came to save the world from their sins, calling many to repentance. However, it can be easy for people to assume that they are righteous, especially when following their traditions. Tradition can be important, but not so important as following Jesus Himself.
Jesus and His followers were accused because of their association with sinners and for doing things differently than was expected of them. However, what they had was something far better. They had Jesus. He had a lot to teach His disciples and all who would hear His words. These teachings were for the teachable, not for those who were stuck in their ways.
As Christians, we too have many traditions. Sometimes, tradition is good. For example, we need to preserve the truth about who Jesus is and what His gospel means. We should do our best to preserve sound doctrine, searching the scriptures with humility and seeking the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth to us. Even so, no matter how much we think we know, we too must remain teachable.
This does not mean that we accept any new thing. Any truth that is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit will not contradict the truth of the gospel, the truth of who Jesus is, and what it means to follow Him. The truth will not contradict the scriptures, but there are many ways in which the scriptures have been interpreted, and how many of these interpretations are true and how many are mere traditions that many have accepted and hardened?
Regardless of our areas of disagreement about interpreting scripture, there are things that matter most for us as believers and followers of Jesus Christ. These hinge on pursuing a life lived in Jesus Christ. If we are committing ourselves to Him, then He will provide us with faithful instruction in all things in His own time—instruction that has more to do with the way we repent of sin and live righteously than instruction in keeping traditions.
Jesus calls sinners to repentance, and that is a mindset that we must always keep. Repentance is not merely a one-time act, but an active mindset as we continue to see our failings, acknowledge them to Jesus, and set our minds on doing what is right by the strength of His Spirit given to us.
We should always remain new to Him.
He gives us new, white robes of righteousness, and we put our faith in Him for our salvation. However, as sign of good faith and obedience to the one we call Lord, we do not allow our white robes to become old through a life of neglect over the state of our soul. The way we live matters, and we should strive to seek out all sin in our lives and repent—not to earn our white robes—but in respect of them.
He gives us new wine—new teachings by the power of the Holy Spirit that instruct us in the Christian way, including all soundness of doctrine. However, there are many old wineskin forms of Christian religion who cling to tradition too tightly, unable to receive correction for falsities that have been hardened to such an extent that it is a fearful thing to have those ideas challenged.
Opposition causes pain as their old wine skin begins to suffer under the pressure of the new wine. I pray and trust in Jesus to provide new wineskins for all who have the humility to seek them, so that we can grow in our knowledge of the truth—truth that many traditions have hardened us to.
Sometimes the old is better. Sometimes not. Just because a system of Christianity is old, doesn’t mean they are so perfect in all their doctrines and traditions that they have no more need for teaching. We all have room for teaching, because Jesus is alive, and His Spirit is alive, and the Father says, “This is my beloved Son, hear Him.”
Don’t let anyone rob you of consistent pursuit of Jesus—pursuit of a faithful and righteous life and pursuit of knowledge of sound doctrine which not a single institution of the faith has correct in every measure—no matter how old.
I’m going to resume discussing the Parables of Jesus and the Proverbs, which I was working on before writing These Things Saith He.
Many have come in the name of Jesus, and they all have something to say about what it means to be Christian. What does Jesus say about His church? Read the free online book, “These Things Saith He” for a look at who Jesus is and edifying words that He spoke by His Spirit to His church.
