The New Is Here (Luke 5:33-39)

He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’” (Luke 5:36-39)

Is the old wrong and the new right? Almost everything we use and live on is old. There is nothing new under the sun. The old is essential and inevitable in our lives. Name a few examples of old: old scriptures, apostle’s old traditions, and old family values.

However, it may be hindrance and burden to the new. A case is illustrated in this parable. Here the old does not indicate those things mentioned above which shouldn’t and cannot be changed as time passes. Here the old means human traditions and regulations which were invented to hallow and advance the name of God.

Fasting was the issue the Pharisees brought up to Jesus. To their eyes, the disciples of Jesus were breaking the norms and standards of practices according to the traditions of elders and fathers. They accused Jesus of going on eating and drinking while the disciples of John and of the Pharisees often fasted and prayed (Luke 5:33).

Jesus went to a great banquet for Him invited by Levi and ate and drank with many publicans and sinners who were also invited. The Pharisees criticized Jesus that He ate and drank with sinners. They couldn’t accept this new practice of having dine with such a people who were like the outcasts.

Jesus answers them with a parable which reveals how the human traditions and regulations hinder and interrupt to adopt the new teachings of God. The teachings and revelations of Jesus Christ is so explosive and revolutionary because it always involves blood and death.

Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32)

Jesus healed the people because He was wounded and smitten on the cross in our place. He forgave the sin of the world because He paid the ransom payment for our sins through His bodily death with blood. We have been healed and blessed for He suffered much and shed His blood and died in an obedience to the Father.

Without blood and death there are no healing, forgiveness, and blessing at all. Without blood and death there are no life and resurrection at all. There is no other way to be healed, forgiven, and blessed by God than the way of the cross of Jesus Christ in Calvary.

The old here indicates our flesh which opposes any submission to the way of cross at all. The flesh refuses to yield and die but stubbornly thinks that they can keep the law if they try harder and harder like fast and pray. They rely on the flesh and its dedication and commitment rather than the work of another, Christ Jesus who has already paid the full price to release us from the bondage of slavery.

“For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.” (Galatians 5:17)

We in Christ are no longer in the old because it has gone and the new has come. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

There are two natures in man but they don’t exist at the same time. Only one exists depending on what we choose. In Christ, we are made new and joined to the family of God. So, we can choose to be the new self by rejecting the old self. Yes, in order to choose the new self in Christ, we must first reject the old self as Apostle Paul says.

“That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:20-24)

Some seven hundred years before the coming of Christ, Prophet Isaiah prophesied that God would do a new thing for His people through the Son Jesus Christ our Lord. We have graciously been redeemed by the blood of Christ Jesus, so we praise the Lord of glory now and forevermore. Amen.

“Forget the former things;

do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness

and streams in the wasteland.

The wild animals honor me,

the jackals and the owls,

because I provide water in the wilderness

and streams in the wasteland,

to give drink to my people, my chosen,

the people I formed for myself

that they may proclaim my praise.” (Isaiah 43:18-21)