We are more comfortable with the way things were.
The Pharisees were upset with Jesus and His disciples and why they were not doing things as they did.
Jesus tells them two parables.
Luke 5
36 He told them this parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old.
Here, we see that if we try to fix the old with the new, we will destroy the new, and the old won’t be repaired.
Jesus tells them it won’t work that way.
Verses 37-39
37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, 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 he says, ‘The old is better.’ ”
Here, we see Jesus go even further, saying that the old can’t hold the new. The new needs room to grow, and the old cannot expand.
In order to have the new, you must use new.
But people will say the old way is better. But new things need time to develop before they can be appreciated.
Here Jesus is telling the leaders of Judaism that it is going to be changed to Christianity. That it won’t be fixed with a patch, but a transformation. It must be new for it to grow.
We see this as there would be no more sacrifices as Jesus would be our sacrifice, as the writer of Hebrews tells us – once and for all. The worship of God would no longer be about the temple and the priest but a relationship with God through the life/death/resurrection of Jesus, giving us direct access to the Father. We see this being described to the women at the well in John 4.
John 4
However, the Pharisees could not grasp how the new would look as they were so committed to the old way.
One day, He will make all things new, including a new heaven and a new earth. No more sin or sickness or disease and death will be no more.
Revelations 2:15
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
But while we wait for Him to come again. His first coming changed everything about how we relate to God. No longer through the law, but through grace.
The new has come and we can enter a relationship with God, because He sent His Son. We might want to hold onto the old as it is familiar, but Jesus invites us to join Him in this new life He offers.
Let’s embrace the new and follow Him.
