Jesus’ First Parable – The Old Garment
The first parable Jesus spoke when he started his ministry was about an old piece of clothing.
“No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old” (Luke 5:36).
Jesus said when an old shirt gets a hole in it, a patch of new cloth can’t fix it. A piece of new cloth sewn to the old shirt will shrink when it is washed. When the new patch shrinks, it will tear the old garment (which has already shrunk). This will create more holes in the shirt, and the shirt will end up worse than it was before.
As he did with all his parables, Jesus used everyday things to make a spiritual point. In this parable he was talking about spiritual nakedness.
After the Fall, Adam and Eve knew they were naked. They were naked because they had sinned and had lost the covering of the glory of God. They tried to cover their nakedness by sewing fig leaves together and making shirts for themselves (Gen. 3:17). Their fig leaf shirts withered and ended up with a lot of holes. Their own covering didn’t work.
God then killed an animal and made leather coats for them (Gen. 3:21). The death of this animal is the first instance of physical death in the Bible. Like other sacrifices, it symbolized the death of Christ on the cross. God clothed Adam and Eve with these leather coats. They were a covering from God. Not only were they more durable than fig leaf shirts, they symbolized that God had covered over Adam and Eve’s sins through the shedding of blood.
We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We need a covering that can cover our sins so we can connect to God.
Throughout history, people have tried to cover themselves with religious practices so they can connect to God. The Jews had a very elaborate system of religion. It was originally inspired by God, but it was later corrupted by the additions and subtractions of people. When Jesus came, the old Jewish religious system was “decaying and becoming old” (Heb. 8:13). It was not able to take away sins (Heb. 10:4). It was full of holes and had become dominated by corrupt leaders like the Pharisees.
Jesus didn’t come to patch up this old religious system. He didn’t offer a few tweaks to the Pharisees. Instead, he came to bring a totally new way of approaching God. He said that if you want to be reconciled to God, you have to have faith. Then your sins will be gone and you will be clothed with the free gift of righteousness. Jesus didn’t come to patch up the old religious coverings, he came to give us entirely new garment – just like God replaced the fig leaves with leather in the Garden. But this time it was his own blood that gave us eternal righteousness and life.
When we trust in Christ, the old things pass away, and all things become new. Christianity is not about reforming parts of our lives in small ways, nor is it about reforming man-made religion. It’s about our entire lives becoming new by the power of Christ. Then our sins are gone, and we can approach directly to God.
Jesus’ Second Parable – New Wine and New Wineskins
The second parable Jesus told was about wine and wineskins. Jesus said that new wine can’t be put in old wineskins because the new wine will break them. This is because new wine will bubble and expand, and an old, brittle wineskin will break when this expansion happens. Instead new wine must be put into new wineskins, because these are flexible and can expand along with the new wine.
Jesus came to bring the new wine to us. He came to give us the Holy Spirit.
Our hearts are like wineskins which are to hold the new wine of the Holy Spirit. Jesus came to change our hearts. He came to take away the stony heart out of our flesh and give us a heart of flesh. This soft heart is able to hold the new wine. Our old, hard hearts are incompatible with the new ways of the Spirit of God. Our old sinful self cannot be repaired, we must be made completely new. When we are born again, we become vessels that can hold the new wine of the Spirit.
The new wine of Jesus not only comes to individual Christians, but it also comes into the church. In order to contain the new wine of the Spirit, a church must be according to the word of God. Then it will be a new wineskin that can contain the new wine.
The first two parables that Jesus ever told emphasize the incompatibility between Christ and man-made religion. And they show that Christ came to make us new in order that we can receive the Spirit of God.
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