WineskinCOMMENTARY ON MARK
LESSON NUMBER 25
“ Mark 2:21 No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse. 22 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.” (Mark 2:21-22; Matt 9:16-17; Lk 5:36-37).
THE NEW AND OLD CANNOT MINGLE
INTRODUCTION
Jesus has been asked concerning the matter of fasting – fasting as a regular procedure, or form of religious discipline. He has candidly told His inquirers that fasting is not even possible when the Bridegroom is with His friends. His presence is not conducive to fasting, while His absence is. The Lord is going to elaborate on this matter with two very pungent observations. Both of them have to do with trying to blend the new with the old. This is an especially critical area of thought, and we do well to endeavor to take hold of it with both hands. One of the grand distinctions between the Old and New Covenants is found in their emphasis. The Old emphasizes DOING: “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD” (Lev 18:5; Neh 9:29; Ezek 20:11,13,21). Jesus and the Apostles also draw attention to this basic requirement of the Law (Luke 10:28; Rom 10:5; Gal 3:12). The New, however, emphasizes RECEIVING. Things “received” include the Word (Matt 13:20), the kingdom of God (Mk 10;15), honor from God (John 5:44), the Holy Spirit (John 7:39), remission of sins (Acts 10:43), abundance of grace (Rom 5:17a), righteousness (Rom 5:L17b), the things of the Spirit (1 Cor 2:14), and the adoption of sons (Gal 4:5). The New Covenant is an economy driven by the grace of God, which is realized through the faith of men – “by grace through faith.” We will see that when we are walking in faith, and grace is discerningly operative, it casts a new and refreshing light upon all doing – including fasting.
PATCHWORK RELIGION WILL NOT WORK
“ 2:21 No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse.”
Jesus is still answering the question regarding fasting – still explaining why His disciples are not fasting as were the disciples of John and the Pharisees. Nor, indeed, did Jesus teach His disciples that they ought to fast. He did assume there would be times when they would fast, but told them, “Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly” (Mat 6:18). That is quite different than outlining a fasting-procedure, or declaring the necessity of fasting. Luke refers to our text as “a parable” (Lk 5:36).
“NO MAN.” By saying “no man,” the Lord is introducing a totally unreasonable scenario. What He is going to say will be readily recognized as the truth, and will not be contradicted by any person of sound mind. This is what Paul would call being “approved of men” (Rom 14:18), or things that are “honest . . . in the sight of all men” (2 Cor 8:21).
There is a dimension of spiritual reasoning that appeals to things that are generally understood by men. These are ordinarily areas of practicality that parallel “the things of the Spirit of God.” Thus Peter, on the day of Pentecost, appealed to the consciences of the people, referring to the miracles Jesus did among them, when, said he, “ye yourselves also know” (Acts 2:21). It is important to note that the things of God at no point contradict sound thought or good reasoning.
A PIECE OF NEW CLOTH. Both Mark and Matthew refer to “a piece of new cloth.” Luke refers to “a piece of a new garment” (Lk 5:36). In this case, a “new cloth,” or a piece of cloth from a “new garment,” refers to a piece of cloth that was newly woven. It had not yet been processed by the “fuller,” who washed and prepared the cloth for use. The word “new” literally means “rude, undressed, not fulled.” The idea is that “new cloth” had not yet been made wet, which process would cause a natural shrinkage in the fabric.
Luke adds yet another dimension to this “parable,” saying that the “piece” of cloth used to mend the old garment was actually taken from a “new garment.” In that scenario, the “new garment” was spoiled in favor of maintaining an “old” one.
ON AN OLD GARMENT. The picture is of an old piece of clothing that needed to be patched. “No man” would take a piece of unshrunk cloth, and stitch it on to an old piece of clothing that had already been shrunk, even being washed multiple times.
THE RENT IS MADE WORSE. The first time the “old garment” was once again washed, the piece of new cloth would shrink, pulling the threads apart, and making the garment worse than it was in the first place. Matthew says, “it taketh from the garment” (Matt 9:16). Mark says, it “takes away from the old.” Luke says the first garment was spoiled, and the piece taken from it “agreeth not with the old” (Lk 5:36). Now, therefore, neither garment can be used – both have lost their utility.
PATCHING THE OLD WITH THE NEW. The point Jesus is making is that He did not come to refurbish the Old Covenant, or to add some secret spiritual ingredients that would assist men in fortifying their weak points. He did not come to add some new rules, and to merely elevate the matter of obtaining life by doing.
What Jesus came to give did not blend with the Old Covenant manner: “This do and live” (Lk 10:28). He did not come to extend the ancient agreement, “but the doers of the Law shall be justified” (Rom 2:13). The Law clearly affirmed, “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD” (Lev 18:5). Jesus did not come to patch that system, which was “weak through the flesh” (Rom 8:3).
To attempt to superimpose “newness of life” on the Adamic nature would only make the human situation worse. What is required by those who are in Christ Jesus far transcends the requirements of the Law. Love, for example, must of the same kind as that of Jesus Himself (John 13:34). Whoever is angry with his brother “without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matt 5:22). Forgiveness of one who has sinned against us extends to “seventy times seven” (Matt 18:22).
Also, to attempt to put “new life” into old procedures, and “newness of life” into fleshly regimens would only diminish new life, and total wreck the old procedures. An “old garment” can only be repaired with an “old” piece of cloth, and even that cannot be permanent. In Christ, the very concept of “newness” demands the ultimate abandonment of “oldness.” This is because “the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life” (2 Cor 3:6).
THE OLD WAY CANNOT CONTAIN THE NEW WAY
“ 22 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.”
The first parallel – attempting to repair an old garment with a new piece of cloth – dealt with trying to maintain the old way. This parallel shows a slightly different picture – trying to maintain a new way within an old framework. In the first, only a fragment of the new was taken and used to patch the old. In this example, the whole of the new is taken, and an attempt is made to maintain it within an “old” setting. It is like exchanging an old Law for a new one; or, exchanging an old discipline for a new one. “Newness of life” is thus viewed as merely a different “way of life” – life that is lived out in much the same way as before.
WineskinNEW WINE INTO OLD BOTTLES. The “bottles” here described were not containers of glass or clay, but were “wineskins,” leather bags that were used as bottles, and is so translated in most other versions. When “new,” the skins were supple and able to expand. When old, they became brittle and were easily broken.
Here the nature of “new life” is seen. Like fresh fruit of the vine, rather than waning in strength, it grows greater, becoming more potent with time. Here, “new wine” is the fruit of the vine in the process of fermentation. It is fresh and sweet at the first, but becomes more potent with time – like something being “sweet as honey” in the mouth, but “bitter” in the belly (Rev 10:9-10; Ezek 3:1– 14). Unlike a procedural religion, true spiritual life becomes stronger and stronger, going “from strength to strength” (Psa 84:7), and changing “from glory to glory” (2 Cor 3:18). The question now becomes whether or not this life can be adapted to lifeless manners and apathetic procedures. Can you, for example, take “newness of life” and pour it into the mold of “fasting?” Is it possible to advance spiritual life by this means, moving into higher plateaus of Divine fellowship? Is it possible to reform dead religion by pouring new life into it? Can a body of people take a dead routine, renewing and empowering it with life from God? Is such a thing possible? Can flesh be made the better by making it spiritual? Can alienation from God be resolved by pouring spirituality over it? Is it possible for New Covenant life to be maintained in old religious procedures and ways?
Jesus answers by saying “no man putteth new wine into old bottles.” This is even against good common sense, to say nothing of being contrary to the mind of the Lord and the nature of the New Covenant itself.
BOTH THE NEW AND THE OLD WILL BE LOST. “New wine” eventually ferments, causing an expansion within the “old bottles” that they are not able to withstand. The result is twofold: first, the old bottles break, and they can no longer be used. Second, all of the new wine is lost, spilling from the ruptured bottles.
Mingling spiritual freedom with the ceremonies of the Law, and disciplines created by mere men, will yield no good. The old procedures will not be able to contain newness of life, and they will break, causing confusion and losing all of their meaning. In addition, fresh life will be lost, and a lapse into religious tradition and other lifeless procedures will take place. New “systems” will be invented that will be considered capable of maintaining new life – but they will not be able to do so.
This was the reason for the direction given to early Gentile converts. “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell” NKJV (Acts 15:28-29). They refused to pour new wine into old bottles – to put newness of life into the old procedures of the Law.
When Paul asked the Colossians, “Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances” (Col 2:20), he was asking why they were attempting to pour new wine into old bottles – new life into lifeless procedures? They were not the last ones to struggle with such a tendency.
NEW BOTTLES ARE A MUST. New wine demands new bottles. It cannot be preserved unless new bottles are provided. Here is one of the primary reasons for the new birth: new life requires a “new man,” “a new heart,” “a new spirit,” and a “renewed” mind (Col 3:10; Ezek 36:26; Rom 12:2). It is not possible to live a spiritual life “in the flesh,” or to fellowship with Christ within the framework of heartless procedure. That is why Jesus affirmed, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7). New wine demands new bottles, and both are the Lord’s doing. He creates the “newness of life,” and the “new man” that contains it.
IS THE OLD REALLY “BETTER?”
“No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better” (Luke 5:39).
In their narratives of this parable, both Matthew and Luke make a note of the preservation of both the new wine and the new bottles: “and both are preserved” (Matt 9:17; Lk 5:36). Both the life and what contains the life are preserved. That compares with the attempt to but the new wine in old containers, which results in both the wine and the bottles perishing. At no point can the “new” be mingled with the “old.” The Old Covenant and the New Covenant can in no way be blended. That is, a system of doing and an economy of grace cannot be put together. The “old man” and the “new man” cannot be joined together, for one is dying, and the other is increasing in both life and strength. “Flesh” and “Spirit” cannot work together. They cannot be joined together, for they are “contrary the one to the other” (Gal 5:17).
Without further elaborating on this total incongruity, it is phenomenal how much religious activity attempts to do the impossible – put new wine into old bottles. When men try to pour spiritual life into the uncrucified life, politics, education, dead religion, and the likes, they are attempting to pour “new wine into old bottles.” It cannot be done. At no point is Jesus represented as coming and effecting a salvation designed to make society better, sanctify the flesh, or dignify the offspring of Adam. All of that may sound good to the unlearned, but it cannot be true. One order is temporal, the other is eternal. One is cursed, and the other is blessed. One is rejected, and the other accepted.
The answer to productive life is clearly stated, and it covers every facet of life in this world. “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him” (Col 3:17). And again, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31). That is putting “new wine into new bottles.” To state it another way, it is “walking in newness of life” (Rom 6:4). That is, in order to “walk” in the newness of life, we must “put on the new man,” dying to the old ways in which we formerly lived, and of which we are “now ashamed” (Rom 6:21).
SOME SAY THE OLD IS BETTER. Luke adds a word that is not included by either Matthew or Mark. “No one who has been drinking old wine wants new wine, for he says, ‘The old is excellent!’” ISV This is a word delivered to the “scribes and Pharisees” who first raised the question about fasting (Lk 5:30-33). This word reveals the nature of “the flesh,” which cannot enjoy the “new things” that were being declared by Jesus (Isa 42:9).
Among those who have not actually “tasted that the Lord is gracious” (1 Pet 2:3), there is a propensity to Law – to rules, regulations, procedures, and the likes. Lifeless ceremonies are perceived as having a value before the Lord, and bring great satisfaction to these poor and uninformed souls. They perceive the shackling of the flesh to be of superior value, knowing nothing of the “liberty by which Christ has made us free” NKJV (Gal 5:1). They equate “liberty,” or “freedom,” with being lawless, and free to commit all manner of sin. They cannot see that men must be made “free” in order to come to the Lord, receive from Him, and engage in heavenly commerce in the “heavenly places” where Christ has placed us (Eph 1:3; 2:6).
“The old is better,” they say, for it has a sharper bite to it. They see more value in rebuke than in comfort, and in restraint than constraint. Their question is not “What wilt Thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6), but “What do I absolutely have to do?” They will actually assign more value to human tradition than to the grace of God. To them, “grace” is too weak, like a frail old woman that can accomplish nothing before the Lord. They prefer religious ceremonies and spectating to walking “in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7), or enjoying the “fellowship” of God’s Son, into which He has called them (1 Cor 1:9).
Invariably, those who have been steeped in a “works-oriented” religion find the grace of God and “newness of life” difficult to receive. They reason, “the old is better.” That is the invariable effect of an Old Covenant approach to life in Christ Jesus. They are like some of the ancient men who wept at the recollection of the old Temple when the foundations had been restored by Zerubbael (Ezra 3:11-13). They could not rejoice in new things!
The truth of the matter is that Christ has inducted an age of “better things.” Now we have a hope of something that is “far better” (Phil 1:23). We have a Leader who is “so much better than the angels” (Heb 1:4). We have a “better hope” (Heb 7:19), a “better testament” (Heb 7:22), and a “better covenant which is established upon better promises” (Heb 8:6). We now know of a “better country” (Heb 11:16), and a “better resurrection” (Heb 11:35). But when you try to pour it all into the “old bottles” of Law, you lose it all, for “new wine must be put into new bottles.” Blessed is the person who makes sense of these things!