The New and Flexible You

Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”

And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”

Then He spoke a parable to them: “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. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.  But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.   And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’ ”  Luke 5:33-39 

Jesus was the master of teaching the profound with simplicity.  He helped simple people see clearly by using what they had already clearly seen with their own eyes.  He didn’t invent new illustrations. He used what they had already seen.

The people of Jesus’ day had seen weddings, old and new clothing, old and new  wine and old and new wineskins.  They had certainly seen people drinking wine!  They had already drawn conclusions from what they had seen.  Teaching them something new  meant helping them see Him in the things they had seen.  

Jesus’ questioners needed to see Him as the bridegroom, the new cloth and the new wine. They need to see Him as a cause for celebration. They needed to see that trying to sew Him on the Old Testament would not last.  They needed to see that trying to pour Him into the limits of the Law would not give Him the space He needed to be all He came to be. They also needed to stop comparing His “taste”  to the “taste” of the old.

“Celebrate while you can”  may not seem profound, but it is.

“New must be completely new”  may not sound profound, but it is.

“New needs a flexible environment to succeed”  may not sound profound, but it is.

“People who have acquired a taste for something do not change easily” may not sound profound, but it is.

When you see Jesus with your own eyes you will see the truly new Jesus looking for the new flexible you.

Bud McCord

Abide International