OLD AND NEW

No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth
on an old garment.
Otherwise, the new piece
will pull away from the old,
making the tear worse.
And no one pours new wine
into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine
will burst the skins,
and both the wine and the wineskins
will be ruined.
No, they pour new wine
into new wineskins.”

Mark 2:21-22 (read 2:13-22) - NIV

This passage is about ancient conflicts – the old versus the new or tradition against innovation. It is easy to confuse innovations with popular fads. Innovation does not have value in itself and old tradition is not necessarily indispensable.

Jesus represented the new and innovative, but he was far from simply introducing novelties and fads. The new cloth has not ceased to be cloth or new wine to be wine. Jesus was a Jew, and did not cease to be one. He did not come to establish a new form of Judaism or a new religion. He did not repeal the law. The "new" was the redemption of the essence of the law, love.

Love is the ultimate judge of all people and all institutional systems, "secular" or "sacred". Jesus simply lived love creatively within the systems of his day. His message was prophetic, if the two figures, old cloth and old wineskins which represent tradition are unable to incorporate love, they are doomed.

Old has nothing to do with the passage of time. It has everything to do with the loss of flexibility. There are people who are young in body but have a closed rigid mindset. And there are aged people with open minds that are growing and expanding their horizons.

Speaking of new cloth on old clothes and new wine in old wineskins Jesus is talking about our spirituality. We can become closed and inflexible and promote a rigid and exclusivist ideology. Being old clothes or old wineskins depends on our mindset, not our chronological age. Being restricted to an inflexible institutional set of norms and ideology is a sign of dementia.

In order to receive the new cloth and enjoy the new wine it is necessary to become youthful in spirit. It is the case of "receiving the kingdom like a child". Being young in spirit enables us to integrate into the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed.

One of the hallmarks of this century is religious radicalization which is a form of spiritual dementia. Love is sidelined in favor of the defense of "isms" in fundamentalist Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The rejection of the cloth and wine of love is a sign that the old clothes and the old bottles are weak and subject to tearing and breaking. Old clothes cannot be patched and the wineskins cannot contain the new wine.

Jesus is our example of new cloth on new clothes and new wine in new wineskins. His faith was festive like a wedding party, nothing of cold rigidity and inflexible religious practices. The Kingdom is the joy of a child receiving a present. For children, life is joyful play with each day a new adventure. Adults tend to lose that joy and become rigid and set in their ways. By becoming like children we can receive the new wine of the Kingdom and live the joyful life that love brings.

MARK 2:13-22 – NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV)

Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus Questioned About Fasting

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”

Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”