33 They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.” 34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.” 36 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. 37 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. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’” (Luke 5:33-39)
From the parallel passage, we know that John the Baptist’s disciples came to Jesus and said: “we and the Pharisees always fast, but your disciples eat and drink, and do not fast.” We know that the Pharisees fasted twice a week. Jesus then said that while the bridegroom was with his friends, his friends did not fast, but when the bridegroom left them, they would fast. Here, the bridegroom was Jesus himself. After his death, the disciples would fast. Jesus was not against fasting, but rather that the time did not yet come. Jesus continued with a parable: “No one patches an old garment with new cloth. For the patch only damages the garment, making the tear worse.” Here, the new cloth represents Jesus’ new teaching, and the old garment represents the old life under the law, and also our old life. Jesus’ teaching is not about reforming the old life, but about putting on new clothes, becoming a new person, and living a new life.
22 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; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)
Here, the Apostle Paul tells us to put on the new self, to wear new clothes, not patched old clothes. The Lord Jesus continues: “No one puts new wine into old wineskins. If they did, the new wine would burst the skins, and the wine would spill out, and the skins would be ruined.” Here, the new wine represents the Holy Spirit, and the wineskins represent life. The Lord fills the new self with the Holy Spirit, not the person under the law or the old self. People prefer the old life to the new life.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!(2 Corinthians 5:17)
When a person believes in the Lord, is baptized, is born again, and he receives the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit dwells in his heart, it is like the new wine in the new wineskins.
May God bless you and your family!
