Victor, Mt 9:16,17 shows Jesus speaking to John's (the Baptist) disciples. They come to Him asking the reason why they & the Jewish leaders fasted regularly, but Jesus' disciples did not fast. To that question, Jesus told them that while the Bridegroom was present, those around Him would be happy. So Jesus carries this thought to another illustration: of repairing clothing & reusing old wine bottles. Just as happiness & a wedding go hand-in-hand, so to using the correct repair cloth or new wine bottles were necessary if no damage was to take place.
Here, Jesus is the Bridegroom, His Coming & Teaching is the 'New piece of cloth' & the 'New wine'. Jesus is comparing His appearing & messages at this time as those that were radically different to what the Jewish leaders taught & that He came to fulfil the Law. If they tried to fuse the new cloth onto the old, the damage would be worse, as also putting new wine into old wine skins. He said that you cannot mix the new with the old or else there will be some major damage not only in defective teaching & living, but also of no eternal life in Heaven.
I am in complete agreement with everything you said. I would just like to piggyback on your comments if I may. This is just something that I was taught.
Jesus says, nobody puts a new cloth on old garments. The ladies here probably already know that. Once it is washed, the new cloth is going to shrink and it is going to pull away. You don't put new cloth, unwashed cloth, on old garments.
Neither do you put new wine into old skins. The word bottle is the word skins. What would happen is that if you have new wineskins, and you have fresh wine and you put it in, as the wine expands, the skins expand. And then when the wine is fermented and the skins harden, that is it.
Now if you turn around and put new wine in those old wineskins, and the wine starts to expand, it is going to break the skins. You got to put new wine in new wineskins, not old wineskins.
So what Jesus is saying to them is you don't put the Holy Spirit into old religious people, they will break. With Jesus it is "Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be broken!" (My own personal paraphrase/not biblical). If you are governed by the law, you won't make it. New life in new wineskins, and new cloth on new garments, the other two don't mix.
"new cloth, old garment; new wine, old bottles"?
Here, Jesus is the Bridegroom, His Coming & Teaching is the 'New piece of cloth' & the 'New wine'. Jesus is comparing His appearing & messages at this time as those that were radically different to what the Jewish leaders taught & that He came to fulfil the Law. If they tried to fuse the new cloth onto the old, the damage would be worse, as also putting new wine into old wine skins. He said that you cannot mix the new with the old or else there will be some major damage not only in defective teaching & living, but also of no eternal life in Heaven.
I am in complete agreement with everything you said. I would just like to piggyback on your comments if I may. This is just something that I was taught.
Jesus says, nobody puts a new cloth on old garments. The ladies here probably already know that. Once it is washed, the new cloth is going to shrink and it is going to pull away. You don't put new cloth, unwashed cloth, on old garments.
Neither do you put new wine into old skins. The word bottle is the word skins. What would happen is that if you have new wineskins, and you have fresh wine and you put it in, as the wine expands, the skins expand. And then when the wine is fermented and the skins harden, that is it.
Now if you turn around and put new wine in those old wineskins, and the wine starts to expand, it is going to break the skins. You got to put new wine in new wineskins, not old wineskins.
So what Jesus is saying to them is you don't put the Holy Spirit into old religious people, they will break. With Jesus it is "Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be broken!" (My own personal paraphrase/not biblical). If you are governed by the law, you won't make it. New life in new wineskins, and new cloth on new garments, the other two don't mix.
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