Dr. Bradford Reaves
CrossWay Christian Fellowship
Hagerstown, MD
www.mycrossway.org
We are continuing on with our study of the parables of Jesus. This fascinating study has discovered some remarkable truths of the Kingdom of God. We've also learned about the significance of adequately interpreting these parables. Having the proper context of how these parables were applied gives us better application into the theological implications of studying these parables in our own lives. Today's parable is like many other of the parables Jesus presents. On the surface, we find a simple illustration, but digging into it gives us a wealth of understanding. Let us read it together in Luke chapter 5, starting in verse 33 and continuing to the end of the chapter.
33 And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” 36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, spill it, and destroy the skins. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’” (Luke 5:33–39)
The goal of the gospel is a message of forgiveness through the work of Jesus Christ alone, apart from our works. The gospel, as presented by Jesus, is unique in its own sense. Therefore, by its very nature, it is incompatible with any other religious system in the world, including Judaism of Jesus’s day you cannot mix the gospel into other religious, political, cultural, or other social constructs. It accommodates no other religion. It is absolutely exclusive.
Being a Christian means that we abandon all other religious systems and especially the idolatry. Salvation is through faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone. When Jesus came, he wasn't offering himself an addition to 1st-century Judaism or any pluralism; he didn't come to blend himself in with whatever was in the heart of man. Jesus came to turn man's heart toward God and atone for man's sins once and for all. With that, he absolved all legalistic means of coming to God. As Gentile Christians, we do not add Jewish feasts or traditions to our life in Christ. We abandon everything for Christ. The same will be said for all Jews. They are not adding Christ to their Judaism, rather Christ has fulfilled the entirety of the law for their salvation.
God came to save sinners, all sinners.
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned (Romans 5:12)
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, (1 Timothy 2:5)
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1–2)
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)
All of these things convey the significance and the solidarity of the gospel and the believer's life. It is not compatible with any other religious construct. Available with any idol, spirituality, or religion. God will not share his throne in heaven and he will not share his throne in your heart.
This is where the hostility began between Jesus and the religious leaders of his day. If you go back to the earlier parts of Luke's gospel, you will find that Jesus was connecting with sinners in Israel. He forgave sins, healed sinners, and made them his disciples. These were people hated by the religious elites of Jesus' day. And the more Jesus connected with these people, the greater his influence all over Judea.
The reason was that the religious leaders were self-righteous. To everyone, that self-righteousness was the way to appease and please God. Meanwhile, Jesus was associating with so-called sinners. He was eating in the houses of tax collectors and sitting among prostitutes. This wasn't an endorsement of sin but a means to connect the gospel to the hearts of those who needed it the most. And so he gained the title of being a friend of sinners and tax collectors. Not to identify with the sin, but as a means of being a salvation from the sin.
I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32)
The religion of Judaism was concerned with self-righteousness, while the heart of the gospel was concerned with the heart of the Sinner. The religion of Judaism concerned itself with what men thought, and the gospel was concerned about what God thought. And so there was a huge disparaging difference between the gospel of Jesus and Judaism of Jesus’s day. The fact of the matter is the gospel can only be effective if it completely replaces all other idols and religious systems.
So Jesus delivers a fatal blow to the Jewish parasitical legal system of his day because Jesus says that this is in no way connecting people with God. Jesus proves he is God to the legalists by healing the paralytic and forgiving his sin. God can do that. With that, there is increasing conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders, and this parable is the heat of that conflict.
So that brings us to the question being posed to Jesus in Luke 5:33: “33, And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.””
But it's essential for us to first recognize who “they” are that loop refers to in this passage. Most people assume that Luke is referring to the religious leaders. While verse 30 definitely points to them being the antagonists of this situation, it seems more likely, especially looking at Matthew’s account of this exact situation, that it is the disciples that are asking Jesus why he doesn't fast like the disciples of John fast. Matthew emphasizes that the disciples of John were posing the question, and Mark says that both the disciples of John and the religious leaders posed the question. So it stands to reason that John's disciples we're closely associated with the religious leaders. At least, they were committed to the same patterns of praying and fasting that was considered to be a part of the religious system of Jesus’s day.
What happened was that John's disciples were melding the legalistic nature of first-century Judaism with John's message. Now, if you remember, the religious leaders of Jesus Day were highly pious. They made a big deal out of their ceremonial prayers and fasting. They put on a show when they fasted. They prayed regularly during the day at set times and fasted twice a week, probably on Monday and Thursday. When they did these things they always made a big deal out of it so that people would see them and admire their piety.
Do you remember a few weeks ago, we studied the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector who went into the temple? The Pharisees stood in the temple's most prominent spots and made a big production of his prayer. However, the tax collector stood off in a distance and begged for God's forgiveness. Jesus said it was the tax collector who went away justified. The point was that the tradition became more important than the heart. In fact, the only day the Jewish law required fasting was on the day of atonement, Yom Kippur.
So, John came preaching a message of repentance. He preached that Jews must get their hearts and lives in order because the Messiah was coming. Literally thousands of people followed after John. As John's popularity increased, he pointed the way to the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ (John 3:28)
However, because of the corruption of the religious system of Jesus's day, most disciples of John would have emulated devotion and piety to the system established by the Jewish leaders of that day. That's all they knew. That's all they understood, and now John is in prison. He's not around to point people to Christ. So, the disciples of John, wanting to be strong and dedicated to the things of God, go back to the thing they understood the most.
12 It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. (Galatians 6:12)
This brings us to Jesus’ interpretation.:
34 And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” (Luke 5:34–35)
The meaning of this is pretty simple. The wedding is a time of celebration. You celebrate at a wedding; it's not a time of fasting. Fasting is out of place. Just like you don't show mourning during a wedding, likewise the presence of Jesus, the bridegroom, there's also not a time of fasting. Here, Jesus is saying, “You've been waiting and waiting for the bridegroom (the Messiah) to come, and now that he's here, you're overly focused on the fasting. In other words, you are out of touch with reality.
I think what Luke was conveying from Jesus is that the Jews became so devout toward religion that they completely lost the meaning of what the gospel is supposed to be. To the point they didn't even recognize the Messiah when he arrived. They were so overwhelmed with their own agendas that they completely lost the plan of God. Jesus did not come to add on to Judaism, he came to fulfill it and usher in the Kingdom of God. Technically, that would have happened had the Jews received him.
That brings us to our parable in verses 36 through 39. And it's a beautiful graphic illustration of what Jesus means:
36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, spill it, and destroy the skins. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.” (Luke 5:36–39)
A simple point. You can't attach the gospel to Judaism or any other religious system; thus, also you cannot put a new patch of material onto the old, faded, worn-out garment. They won't match. The gospel is exclusive in itself. Jesus did not come to patch a new message into an old system by replacing it. I want to be very clear, however. The old garment is not the Old Testament. The old garment is not God's holy law. We're talking about the religious system of Judaism in Jesus's day.
Likewise, Skin bottles for carrying various fluids were made by killing the chosen animal, cutting off its head and feet, skinning the carcass, and sewing up the skin, fur side out, to seal off all orifices but one (usually the neck). The skin was tanned with special care to minimize disagreeable taste. In time the skin became hard and brittle. If new wine, still fermenting, were put into such an old skin, the buildup of fermenting gases would split the brittle container and ruin both bottle and wine. New wine was placed only in new wineskins still pliable and elastic enough to accommodate the pressure. (Jerry, Hillyer, Sermon Central)
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31–34)
4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5:4)
Sadly, too many people are trying to add the gospel to their brokenness and sinfulness. They're trying to slide Jesus in with the rest of the world around them, when in reality, what needs to happen is that Jesus must come in and clean the spiritual house. He will not share the throne with anyone or anything.
How do you respond to the presence of Jesus in your life? Do you celebrate his grace and love or cling to our old ways? Are you open to the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart, who transforms us into new wineskins that can contain the fullness of God's blessing?
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets, not to abolish them. He did not come to add more rules and rituals to our religion but to reveal God's will's true meaning and purpose. He came to bring us into a relationship with God, not to burden us with legalism and hypocrisy. He came to usher in the kingdom of God, not to conform to the world's expectations. The parable of the wineskins shows us that we cannot mix the old and the new. The wineskin will burst if you try to hold on to your old life. We will end up with nothing.
The Parable of the New Wineskins is a powerful illustration of the contrast and the conflict with our old traditions and worldly ways and the Gospel. It teaches us that we cannot mix or match them or reject the new one for the sake of the old one. It also teaches us that the Gospel is superior and sufficient and that it is the fulfillment and the completion of the old covenant. The scriptural correlations to this parable help us to understand and appreciate the meaning and application of this parable and to live in the light of the new covenant that God has made with us in Christ.
