DEVOTION
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK
THE OLD AND THE NEW
Mark 2:21-22
21 "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth
on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old,
making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he
does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will
be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."
NIV
This is a continuation of the discussion with the Pharisees and their disciples
fasting, while Jesus and his disciples did not fast. We already looked into the
doctrines of the Pharisees as according to their rabbinical writings in the Ta’anit
with its thirty-five various reason and days of fasting. This is in essence
under what Jesus referred to their doctrine as the old covenant, which he is now
comparing to an old garment and an old wineskin. His doctrine is new and it
cannot be contained or matched up with the old doctrines. If his new doctrine
were to try to patch up the old doctrine it would tear it wide open making it
worse than the hole that is already in that old doctrine. It is the same with
the wineskin as it is old it is soft and already stretched out, a new wine
as it ferments would put too much strain on the old skin and it would burst.
Again the new and the old are incompatible. This is all about Jesus
establishing a new covenant with the two greatest commands of loving the Lord
our God with all our being and loving our neighbor as ourselves. If we were to
examine all the laws in the Old Covenant we would find that all of them would be
covered under the doctrine of love. We could even take the Ten Commandments,
which although we regard as sacred, are still under the Old Covenant which is
completely covered under the doctrine of love. If we loved the Lord with our
whole being, we would have no other gods, no idols in this world. If we loved
others as ourselves then we would not dare to commit adultery, besides, Jesus
actually expanded that concept as well as many others of the Old Covenant, the
Ten Commandments, by saying that if we even look at another with lust in our
mind, we have committed adultery. Again, if we loved each other, and our love
was ever on the increase as Paul tells us in his letter to the Thessalonians,
then we would not even lust, ever. When it comes to not stealing, how could we
steal anything from someone we love as ourselves? If we loved everyone as ourselves
we would never even think of testifying with a lie about them or give false
witness, that is gossip. Again, if we loved each other as we love ourselves then
we would not covet anything of theirs’ in the least little bit. On and on we
could go through all of the Ten Commandments and see how Jesus replaced them or
covered them under his New Covenant of love. It always comes down to the New
Covenant is not compatible with the Old Covenant. This does give us a reason to
ponder why we were given all the Old Testament as part of the canon, except
this Old Testament reveals who God is and how God works in his creation, with
his creation, and how his creation should live in compatibility with Him.
However, because they and we cannot possibly live under the Old Covenant and by
trying to do so we will never be compatible with God and that is why much of
that old record is showing us the need for Jesus and His New Covenant of love.
The Old was sent to show us the New.
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