THREE PARABLES OF A NEW DAY

#304         THREE PARABLES OF A NEW DAY

Scripture         Matthew 9:14-17; Mark 2:18-22  NIV

Orig.     8/3/1966                                                                                                                              

Rewr.    4/1/1979

Passage:

Matthew 9:14-17, 14 Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”  15 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.  16 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Mark 2:18-22,  18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”  19 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.  21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

Purpose: Beginning a series on the parables of Jesus, to speak of our reason for seeking and expecting a new and better life for ourselves through faith.

Keywords:      Faith               Matthew         Mark

                         New Testament          Synoptic Gospels

Introduction

              In Matthew 9, we find in abbreviated form what Jesus will use again and again in His teaching.  A little later in His life and ministry, we will find whole blocks of chapters of the gospel filled with parables.  They give us a unique insight into the character and purpose of Christ.  These three sentence parables contain a single thread: that faith was never intended to warp and stigmatize our lives, but rather, to open new and boundless horizons to our grasp.

              Ours is a somber age, and learned people are envisioning terrible things further down the road.

·                        Just before his death, H.G. Wells said, “I predict that the generation in which you and I live is the last generation upon the earth.”

·                        Professor Albert Webber said, “It is clear that we are at the end of the world’s history.”

·                        Arnold Toynbee added,  “The stable characteristics of the past six thousand years are falling apart.”

·                        Though R.L. Hudson also adds a very somber word, yet because it is declared from a stand-point of Christian clarity, it contains a message of hope.  He wrote, “Man is not a green apple to be perfected by mere growth, but an apple with a worm at the core, and if left to itself, will rot and die.”

·                        Hear R.G. Lee (1962 Louisiana Baptist Convention):  “Standing now on an ever-moving present between an irretrievable past and a challenging future, I would have you reach a colossal conclusion that you must be linked to . . . :  Jesus Christ, Son of Man without sin and Son of God with power.  He only is Literature’s loftiest ideal, Philosophy’s highest personality, Criticism’s supremist problem, Theology’s fundamental doctrine—and personally, socially, politically, religiously, educationally, scientifically, nationally, [and] internationally, the only hope off  our head-dizzy, body weary, soul-sick, war-wounded, sin-smitten world.”

I.                       Parable of the Sons of the Bride Chamber.  The setting for this series  of parables  is most important.  Jesus had passed Matthew, the tax-collector, at his tolling place.  He stopped and asked him to join them.  Mattew, not a popular man, was so over-whelmed by this that he gave a feast (Luke 5:29) and invited other men out of the fold of Israel (Publicans and sinners).  The Pharisees then questioned the disciples about Jesus, and why he is not teaching his disciples to fast.  Thus, the first parable speaks to the question directly.  V34, And Jesus said to them,  Can the friends of the bridegroom fast, while the bridegroom  is with them?  As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.  But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away.

              This parable speaks, first of all, to the traditions surrounding the fast,  Unquestionably, it was an important spiritual reckoning.  Leviticus 16:29/31, in connection with “Day of Atonement” they were to  “afflict their souls”  (Jeremiah 36:9, Ezra 8:21, Nehemiah 9:1, Joel 1:14).  Isaiah defines the fast 58:6, “Is not this the fast that I have chosen:  To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?”

              The orthodox Jews, like orthodox Baptists, believed that religion was something that was supposed to make you appear uncomfortable without pain.  They endured the Sabbath; they fasted on Monday and Thursday (from 6am to 6pm); they ashened their faces to appear fasting. Fasting is a vital requisite of faith.  The prayers that we do for someone or some thing, that are done with such intensity that we forget—or refuse—to eat, are [the kind of] praying that will get the job done.

              This parable speaks also to the traditions of the wedding feast.  The Christian  life is likened to a wedding feast.  We are not here compelled to do things we wish not; we are not denied the things that are pleasurable; we are promised that living the life of faith on the basis of the Word is what will bring true happiness.

              It is not a New Testament concept only.  Hosea 2:19, And I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto  me in right.  John 3:29, He that hath the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the (John) bridegroom which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice.

              His one special duty was to guard the bridal chamber until the arrival of the bridegroom.  He could open the door to no other.  So John had come to guard the bridal chamber where the bride, Israel, awaited the bridegroom.

              Paul adds another significant thought.  II Corinthians 11:2, For I am jealous  over you with a godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

THE NEW ORDER DEFINES JOY IN RELATIONSHIP

II.          Parable of the New Cloth.

              V16, “No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse.”

              First, examine the content of the parable.  The cloth is a raw piece of woolen material (unsanforized).  It would be foolish, even a man would know better, to attach untreated cloth to treated.  It would rip loose with a worse tear, from the weakened cloth.  The word “rend” (σχίσμα, or schism) [also means] “to tear asunder.”  The patch does more harm than good. 

              Consider, then, what Jesus was saying with this parable.  The old covenant, the old way of thinking about faith, and their relation to God, was just that: old and worn.  It could not be repaired by attaching some new ideology over a tired and worn error.  Engine with a busted block cannot be repaired with a new set of spark-plugs.  House with termite-eaten floor joists can’t be helped with a new roof. 

              In the endeavors of Israel to patch over the worn spots of the old covenant, they had used material that was foreign to what they were doing.  It is as a surgeon doing a skin graft or transplant.  He must be careful to use [healthy] material.

THE NEW ORDER DISPELS OUTWORN IDEOLOGIES AND COMPELS TRUTH.

III.         Parable of New Wine in Old Skins.  V17, Neither do men put new wine in old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish.  But they put new wine into new bottles and both are preserved.

              First, we need to understand the problem relative to the skins,  They were actually not bottles, but goatskins.  The Latin equivalent of this Greek word is bota, or “boot.”  When the wine is put into an old container, as the fermentation process is carried out, the container is too weak to sustain the pressure.

              In the understanding of people of Jesus’ day, a great parallel was established.  No man who knows will favor the new wine.  No doubt it is the aging process that brings out the fullness of flavor.  But they were to remember that it was of the new wine that there came the old.  Jesus’ purpose was not to disdain “new wine,” but, rather, “old wineskins.”  He was saying to these people that they should not let their minds become like old wineskins, so brittle that every new thought would be traumatized with prejudice.

              As the juice of the current year’s crop becomes the favored “old wine,” so staying current on “thought” will achieve truth.  You remember that Galileo was hounded as a heretic because he openly proclaimed that the sun was the center, and the planets revolved.  We have only to read about such men in medicine as Lister, and Simpson, to know that changes did not come easily even when human lives were at stake.

THE NEW ORDER DEMANDS GALLANT ADVENTURERS, NOT HIDEBOUND REACTIONARIES (Acts 28:31)

Conclusion

              Rudyard Kipling leaves a story relative to General Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army.  On board a ship for a world tour, Kipling watched in resentment as Booth came aboard, as his associates saw him off with noise and beating of tambourines.  Kipling’s orthodoxy was repulsed at such a show of religiosity.  Later, on the journey, they became acquaintances and Kipling told Booth how he felt.  Booth’s reply was not forgotten.  “Young man,” he replied, “if I thought I could win one more soul by standing on my head and beating a tambourine with my feet I would learn how to do it.”