One of the great legacies we have from the earthly ministries of Jesus is his parables. Parables were a powerful way of getting the message over by using metaphors and images that people would understand.

So In Luke’s Gospel, which I intend to follow for the next few weeks, we see the first of Jesus parables.

Setting the scene. Calling of Levi (Matthew); starting following Jesus publically; Eating at his house, courtyard setting, Pharisee’s standing at the edge looking questioning his disciples. Discussion about fasting. Then the parable.

Let’s have a look at this step by step. This parable sets out three pictures.

Verse 36 “No-one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old.”

Some prepared to take bits of Jesus message and sow it into their own ideas where they have become a bit threadbare.

Jesus means for his word to be a total replacement, not a source of useful patches.

The Pharisees were people with a passion for the old. And the message of Jesus was so startling that they couldn’t adjust to it.

Verse 37 “No-one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.”

There are some people who want all of the new, they want all the new....but to keep all the old as well.................That doesn’t work. If you are willing to receive the new wine of Jesus message, the brittle wineskins of your old beliefs will not be able to hold it together. It really makes the difference to what you are thinking.

These two things have one thing in common and that is elasticity. It tries to stick old onto you, then the elasticity goes, the clothes tear. The wineskins burst open.

Verse 38 "No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins."

The change must be there.

Verse 39 "And no-one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’’ Sarcastic? The prejudiced person will not even try the new. He will not bother to compare because the old is good enough. That is refusal to accept the very possibility of change.........

“No business could exist on outworn methods – and yet the Church tries to. Any business which had lost as many customers as the church has would have tried new ways long ago – but the church tends to resent all that is new.”
William Barclay (First published 1953)

In being new....we are not called to be reactionaries without a care but adventurers on a journey.