Clothes - Pt 9

Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.” (Mark 2:18-22 ESV). Some of us are old enough to remember when patches on our clothing were a sign that we were less affluent rather than more. It was not uncommon to wear out the knees on our jeans and put patches on them so we could get some more use out of them. Today that may not be the common practice. In fact, I have noticed that it seems to be very fashionable to wear jeans that have worn spots all over them. I’m told that those are very expensive designer jeans. That was not the case in Jesus’ day. The people of His day knew that they needed to use every scrap of material to make their clothing go as far as possible. Jesus also knew a very important principle about these patches. It was important that when you patched something up, the patch needed to be pre-shrunk. Otherwise it would only cause worse damage later. While this is good, practical advice, it is interesting to see how Jesus uses this principle to teach a very important truth to his disciples. Our reading today is one of the many parables Jesus used in his teaching. These were common word pictures that made the eternal principle much easier to understand. I think that Jesus was saying something like practices must be fitting with beliefs. Pre-shrunk jeans need pre-shrunk patches. Old covenant beliefs required old covenant practices. Jesus was ushering in a new covenant that required new practices. Jesus’ disciples learned new ways of living. They learned a new type of Passover celebration we call the Lord’s Supper (cf. Luke 22:14-20); they learned Jesus was the way to salvation (cf. Acts 16:31); and, they learned that following the Holy Spirit above all ritual laws was the way of this new covenant cf. (Acts 10:44-45). All these practices were new. When we choose to follow Christ, we become a “new creation” (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17). The Holy Spirit moves us to reject ill-fitting lifestyles that would tear us away from God. He gives us new work, new hearts, and a new identity so we fit the coming of a new kingdom. Put on your new clothes today!