New Cloth and New Wineskins
Read the parable
- Mark 2:21-22 Primary account
- Matthew 9:16-17 Parallel account
- Luke 5:36-39 Parallel account
Context
Jesus gave these twin images when asked why his disciples feasted while John's disciples and the Pharisees fasted. Wine was stored in whole goatskins; a new skin stretched as the wine fermented, but an old, hardened skin would burst under the pressure. Likewise everyone knew that a patch of unshrunk cloth sewn on an old garment tears away at the first wash. Both were homely, kitchen-and-cellar facts of village life.
Meaning
The gospel of the kingdom is not a patch sewn onto the old garment of Pharisaic religion, nor new wine to be contained in its hardened forms. With the bridegroom present, fasting gives way to joy; the new life Jesus brings demands new forms and cannot be reduced to a supplement to the old system. The parable explains why Jesus' ministry kept breaking expected religious patterns, while Luke's wry addition — "The old is better", says the drinker of old wine — acknowledges how naturally people resist the new work of God.
Go deeper
Two free lessons walk through the parables as a whole: The Parables of Jesus and Interpreting the Parables.