Open 7

RR  745

"New Wine, Old Skins" 

Close 430  (Communion)



Mark 2:21  "No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old
garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the
tear is made worse.

22  "And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the
new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the
wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new
wineskins."

Our parable today may be considered more of an illustration by
some.  And while some of it may seem a little old fashioned to
us, it made a lot of sense to the people of that time.  

You see, almost everyone wore home made clothes.  Even the ones
bought in the marked would have been largely made in someone's
home.  And most of the people of that time did not have a closet
full of clothes.  As far as that goes, most of them probably did
not have a closet, if they had extra clothes.  

Under those circumstances, it was in their best interest to wear
their clothes as long as possible.  As with modern clothes, the
more they were washed and worn, the more fragile the cloth
became.  And by the time it started ripping, it's days of
shrinking were over.

Now suppose that you got a hole in your old comfortable garment,
and you decided to patch it.  Well, the cloth that you used to
patch it would have been home made too.  You had at least 2
choices to take care of the problem.  First, you could find an
old piece lying around the house and use that for a patch.  Or
you could use a new piece hoping that the patch would last
longer.

Just one problem.  The home-spun cloth tended to shrink quite a
bit during the first washings.

So what would happen?  Jesus described it.  The new piece, as it
shrunk, would pull away and make a larger tear than the one
which was the initial problem.

As we move to verse 22, we have something else that is not that
common to us, but was very common to Jesus' peers.  The wine
skin.

Jesus noted two types of skins.  Old ones, and new ones.  And
two types of wine, old wine and new wine.  Now the old skins
were good at carrying water and old wine.  But there was a
problem when you put new wine into the skins, particularly if
you were going to let it ferment.  Because, as the wine aged, it
gave off gasses that increased pressure on the skins.  An old
wine skin would rupture as the pressure increased, where a new
one would not.

Once again to understand what is going on, let us go back a few
verses.



   Mark 2:16  And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating
with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples,
"How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and
sinners?"

17  When Jesus heard it, He said to them, "Those who are well
have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not
come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

18  The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting.
Then they came and said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John
and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?"

19  And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom
fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the
bridegroom with them they cannot fast.

20  "But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken
away from them, and then they will fast in those days.

One common accusation against Jesus was that he partied too
much.  Too many meals with sinners, etc. Naturally the disciples
followed suit.  The disciples of John were concerned that the
disciples of Jesus did not fast. The Pharisees express outrage
that Jesus enjoys life.  

So here is the issue.  There are people who are fasting who are
complaining that Jesus is not fasting.  There is not really
anything too new, or too old about that.  There are many people
that think that Christians should not enjoy life.

So he answered with the parable. 

And what is he saying in the parable?   While the old was God's
plan in the beginning, a renewal, a new paradigm, having much of
the form of the old, would be the basis of the new kingdom.  

A few examples:

The Jewish ritual cleansing was transformed into baptism, the
gate of the church.

The High Priesthood would no longer be on earth, but would be
transferred to heaven.

The people no longer need an earthly mediator, because there
would be an heavenly one.

The salvation from Egypt would not be the important celebration
now, but the deliverance from the power of sin would be the
issue.

And with all of this, Jesus took the all important service of
Passover and made the new cloth and new wine into the Communion
service that we celebrate today.

As we partake of this, we look back to the deliverance of sin
that salvation brings us. We also look forward to the time when
once again Jesus takes the cloth, the patches, the wine and the
new wineskins, and remakes them.   The cloth becomes a white
robe of salvation that we wear for eternity and the cup is once
again made new in the kingdom where Jesus promises to share it
with us again...  And once again he celebrates, parties if you
will, with the saved throughout eternity.

As Seventh-day Adventists we practice open communion.  If you
have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, please join with us
as we serve each other.  If you have not accepted Jesus Christ
as your Savior, I invite you to do that right now.

As Adventists, we also follow the wishes of Jesus that he
described in John 13, where he told his disciples to wash each
other's feet as a preparation for the communion service.  We
invite you to share in that life changing experience with us. 
We will separate into two groups.  The men will go to the
fellowship hall, and the women will go to the rooms to the left
of the back door.