Some things change quickly and often. And we either think that the changes are great and will make everything better or we wonder why they are changing them in the first place.
There were people who wondered why we would want to change from horses to cars. It must be a fad that will go away soon. There were people who wondered why we would want to fly. Who needs to get someplace that fast?
Jesus was bringing change to people who needed it, but weren’t really looking for the change he was bringing. And it is change that goes to the core of the church. What it means to be those who follow Christ is in a large way defined in this set of events in Jesus’ life.
Jesus sits at a feast where there are tax collectors. The Pharisees complain about this, not to Jesus directly, but to his disciples. It ends up that Jesus hears the complaints, but not because this is the way to bring the complaints, but being Jesus, he knows. So he responds. He responds to two complaints, one that he is eating with the tax collectors and sinners and the other that his disciples do not fast.
These complaints have a common problem with them and they therefore have a common answer that Jesus gives. He answers each a bit first. He says it is the sick who need a doctor in response to eating with the tax collectors and sinners. He speaks of a wedding banquet in response to the disciples not fasting as the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees do. But then he tells this parable of clothing and wineskins that responds to the real problem with both complaints.
Think about this first part of the parable. An old garment is torn and we want to repair it. We don’t repair clothes often anymore, but then it was more common. Even our parents and grandparents can remember darning socks and patching pants and shirts. I had a fair number of jeans with patches on the knees.
But when clothes were patched, it was done with cloth that was also older. My mother had a bunch of old jeans that were for cutting patches out of. Old jeans had been worn and washed and were already shrunk. Now, of course, we buy them preshrunk and pre patched and pre ripped. If one put a new piece of cloth on the old to patch it, it would shrink and rip off the pants.
And why would one take a good pair of pants and cut part of it out to fix what is old and broken. If you have the new ones, wear them and save the old to fix them later. Or discard them if they are of no value anymore.
I know that some pairs are comfortable, but when they are no longer useful we should get rid of them. Or at least only use them for working or around the house where no one else will see them. But when we have to be around others we wear the ones that are good and without tears, holes or patches.
He then goes on about the wineskins. Once a wineskin has been used it cannot be reused. When it used the first time it stretches as the wine continues to ferment. When the wine is placed in the wineskins it has a few months yet to ferment. At the end of that time the skin is about as stretched as it can get and the alcohol content is about 12%, like much of our wine today.
But the skin is stretched to its limit. It will not shrink down and be able to be used again. It will require another skin for the next seasons wine. If you tried to use it again, the wine would burst the skin as it fermented.
Both pictures in the parable speak of something old and something new and how they are not able to be used together. The new will break the old. And to take part of the new to patch the old makes no sense.
People wanted to hang on to what they had and maybe take some of what Jesus taught to fix a few things with what they have. He tells them that they have to move on and take hold of what he brings and make this new thing the definition of what they are and how they worship God.
Taking part in Christ's church brings change. Not just patching us up a bit, it means a complete change. We don't get a patch that makes us work a bit better, it is no less than a complete system change. We are made to be something new and therefore to take part in something new.
Don't settle for being a little better. Let yourself be completely changed and be made new in Christ.
