36 And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.
37 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish.
38 But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.
39 No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.
Introduction
I once read an article in Reader’s Digest that I wasn’t able to forget. It emphasized in a new and fresh way something I had known for a long, long time, and that is that every new idea has to fight for its existence and for its acceptance.
The article’s title was “They Created the Jet Age.” In the article was the story about two men—one an Englishman and the other a German—who proposed the idea of jet propulsion many years before World War II began. But like all new ideas, their idea was met with ridicule, rejection, and unbelief. As a result the countries these men represented went without jet airplanes for much longer than they had to. Having jet planes would have provided a distinct advantage in World War II, and the country with the “jet advantage” probably would have won. In the end, the coming of jets was delayed, which delayed the ending of the war and cost both nations thousands of lives.
In 1929, 10 years before World War II was to have its beginning in Europe, a 22-year-old British air force officer named Frank Whittle proposed the idea of jet propulsion. He would develop an engine that had no propeller, and this would enable airplanes to fly faster and higher than any other airplane that man had ever developed. But when he proposed that idea, almost no one took him seriously.
When it was presented to the officials of the British air force, they scoffed at the whole concept and they rejected it completely. He tried to interest private business owners in his concept, but no one was willing to take a chance. There were no takers, so for a long, long time, the very idea of a jet airplane was neglected. In 1935 when his patent came up for renewal, Whittle was not even able to furnish the 25 dollars necessary to renew it.
It would have all been forgotten if two British businessmen had not finally accepted the idea with reluctance. The British air force allowed Whittle to work on the project for six hours a week, with the promise that 25 percent of the profits that he might make one day would go to the British government. If Britain had bought that idea, if they would have accepted the new concept of jet propulsion and if they would have gone to work on it immediately, they would have had a distinct advantage when World War II came, and surely they would have won the war much sooner. But new ideas have a way of being rejected and suspected for a long, long time before anybody buys them.
Just about the same time that Whittle’s idea was being rejected in Britain, there was a man in Germany named Hans von Ohain who also came up with the same concept. He probably knew something of the reaction of England to what Whittle had said, so he decided he would keep his experimenting secret so that the bureaucrats would not get hold of it and hinder his work. So he began to work in secret and at his own expense in order to develop the concept of jet propulsion. In 1939 he finally had developed an engine that he thought would work. He presented the idea and the engine to Adolf Hitler, and Hitler was fundamentally opposed to it. He rejected the idea altogether. So once again this German scientist worked in privacy and at his own expense, and he continued to develop the jet engine to make it useable in the war.
With the fall of France, Hitler was persuaded that it wouldn’t be long until England surrendered completely, so he and other German officials ordered that all experimenting and all work on weapons and on machines that would take at least a year to develop be suspended. That included the work of the jet airplane. But this German scientist ignored the orders, directives, and proposals of the German government, and finally in July 1942, he had developed an engine and an airplane that was admittedly superior to anything that the world had ever known. When he presented it to Adolf Hitler the second time, Hitler saw immediately that it was a good idea, but he was not willing to produce jet fighter planes. He rather ordered that the jet engines be converted into bombers. This was one of the most fatal mistakes that Adolf Hitler ever made, for it delayed the advent of the jet airplane for at least 11 months. It was perhaps the finest thing that could have happened to the Allied forces. If the Germans had had that superior air power when we landed in Normandy, it no doubt would have changed the whole complexion of the world. But because Hitler delayed—because he wanted a conversion that took at least 11 months—we were able to make the invasion. When those planes were finally ready for battle, it was too late. The war ended two months later.
The article ended by saying this: “If either of the scorned visionaries could have found enough listeners, the fate of our world would have changed.” The article impressed me because it confirmed something I have always believed, and that is that every new idea is met with resistance. It has to fight for its acceptance and for its existence.
That has been true down through the ages, because the fact is that people just don’t want to change very readily. Galileo was branded a heretic because he held to the fact that the Earth revolves round the sun. Joseph Lister had to fight for antiseptic techniques in surgical operations. Sir James Young Simpson had to battle against opposition for the merciful use of chloroform. You would think that ideas like these would be readily accepted, but because they were new ideas, these men had to fight for them.
It has been true down through the ages that when there is a new idea, there will be resistance and opposition to it, and it simply has to fight for its survival. Someone has said, “The only person who is interested in change is a wet baby.” I think that is probably a true statement.
There is a danger then that all of us face, and it is that we might be tempted to join that mighty host of people who always resist change—that we might look upon new, fresh, and innovative ideas with skepticism, and that we might delay to the very last moment believing or accepting those ideas. The danger is that we might die at age 30 and be buried at age 60 because we have ceased to dream, we have ceased to believe, we have ceased to risk, we have ceased to try, and we have ceased to change. And I do not know of any area of life where people are more hesitant to change than in the church.
The poet put it this way: “Our fathers have been churchmen nineteen hundred years or so; and to every new proposal, they have always answered, ‘No!’”
I suppose every preacher has experienced some of this in his church. It is not a new thing for people to be against new things. Jesus is encountering resistance to the new in this passage of scripture that we have before us. The very context of this experience is that Jesus has broken away from some of the old ways of doing things, including the laws of fasting and some of the other rituals of the Jewish faith. He is severely criticized by the scribes and the Pharisees who want to hang onto the old ways, the old customs, and the old rituals.
So Jesus presents two very simple parables to them. He says, “First of all, no man takes a new patch and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise, that new patch will split the old garment. And besides, it won’t even match the old garment.” In those days, the material was not preshrunk as ours is. Old material would have been washed many, many times, and the cloth would have shrunk to its proper size. If you were to add to that old material a new piece of material that was not yet shrunk, when you sewed it on and washed it, it would begin to shrink up. Now being smaller in size, it would tear a hole in the old garment. The new patch wouldn’t match the old material. It would look out of place. So Jesus said, “A man doesn’t put a new patch on an old piece of material because it will tear that old material to pieces. It won’t stand it.”
Jesus used another simple illustration. He said that no man puts new wine that is not yet fermented in old wineskins. When new wine is placed in old wineskins (which are old leather bags that are cracked with age), the wine begins to ferment and to form a gas. It will expand and the old hard bags will crack and split. The bag will be ruined and the wine will spill onto the ground. So Jesus explained that if you have new wine, you will put it in new wineskins that have some elasticity to them, so when the wine begins to ferment, and the gasses begin to form and expand, then the leather bag will expand with it, and that’s how you can save both the wine and the bottle.
He is simply saying that you cannot tie Christianity down to the old rules, regulations, and practices of Judaism. The Gospel message is new and fresh, and it must have new forms, and it must have new methods, and it must have new ideas attached to it. He is essentially saying to us, “I did not come simply to end Judaism. I came rather to end the past and to start something entirely new. I came to start something fresh—something the world has never heard about before.”
In the midst of that teaching, Jesus says something that was probably said in sarcasm. It was very likely a word of condemnation to the Jews—especially to the Pharisees of his day. In verse 39 he said, “No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.” Here Jesus is simply pointing out that people are reluctant to change. They so easily become satisfied with the old ways and the old practices that they no longer are open to the new, the fresh, the innovative, and the creative. They cease to change. They cease to go forward and they lose their vision. They lose their mental and spiritual elasticity and they shrivel up and die.
The challenge of this passage of scripture is that we stay always fresh in our thinking, and always fresh in our acceptance of new and creative ideas. It challenges us to never get to the place where we are so settled with the way we have done things for years and years. It compels us to never become so complacent with the old that we are no longer willing to listen to the voice of God. We are to reach out and try that which is new and fresh and that which has never been done before.
Perhaps the greatest reason for changing a thing is simply that we have never done it that way before. Perhaps the greatest danger is that we find something that works and we stay with it year after year—long after it has ceased to work—because we are not willing to try that which is new and fresh. We need to change. Jesus is saying to us, “My faith and my religion are something new and different, and you cannot put it like a patch on an old garment—you cannot put it like new wine in an old wineskin.” It must have new expression. It must have new ideas. It must have new motivation. Of all the people in this world who ought to be creative and innovative risk takers on the cutting edge of society, it ought to be the people of God, because Jesus came to give us something new and fresh. He came to give us something the world has never seen before.
Let me suggest to you that this new faith that Jesus came to bring is marked by three new things. It is marked first of all by new motives. Second, it is marked by new attitudes, and third, it is marked by a new daring faith.
1. New motives.
First of all, it is marked by new motives. The old ways of the Jewish faith were ritualism and ceremony. Most of what they did, they did to be seen by men. In fact, the context of this teaching was that Jesus was being criticized because he and his disciples did not fast. The Jewish law said there was one day of fasting in the year. That was the Day of Atonement. But the Jews had so systematized their religion that they taught that a man should fast two days out of every week—every Monday and every Thursday. Usually as they fasted, they would disfigure their hair and they would put marks on their faces. They did this so that as they walked down the streets, people would know that they were fasting. After all, there would be no reason to do without food unless other people knew how devout and how consecrated you were.
But Jesus and his disciples did not practice fasting. When the Pharisees confronted Jesus with that fact, he replied, “The children of the bridechamber [that is the people in a wedding party] do not fast while the bridegroom is with them. A wedding celebration is a time of feasting, not of fasting” (Luke 5:33-35). Jesus compared himself to the bridegroom, and he said that this was a time of joy and celebration, and that his disciples would fast only when the bridegroom is taken from them.
With that statement, Jesus removed fasting from the category of pious acts. He said to us that it is only an appropriate response to sorrow and to crisis in a person’s life. There is no real place for fasting just as a ritual or a regulation in the Christian’s life. We ought to fast when we are in sorrow. We ought to fast when there is some crisis in our life, and Jesus came to set us free from all of those old Jewish rules and regulations. He came to say, “Now we are open only to respond to God as God deals with our hearts. We need a new motive for what we do, and that motive is not to be seen of men, but rather that we might please God.”
Jesus gave emphasis to this in the Sermon on the Mount. Perhaps you remember he dealt with three religious practices in the Sermon on the Mount: the giving of money, praying, and fasting. There was a tendency in Jesus’ day to do all of those for public display so that other people would see you. So he said, “When you give your alms [which is your money], do not do that to be seen of men. If you do, you will have your reward only of men. Rather, let not your right hand know what your left hand does. Don’t call attention to what you are doing. Just do this giving in secret and your father who sees you in secret will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:3-4).
He said the same thing about praying: “When you pray, don’t go around on the street corner. Don’t sound a trumpet. [That is, don’t try to call attention to how pious and holy you are.] When you pray, just pray secretly to the Father in heaven. When you pray, don’t try to get a lot of fancy words to impress other people with your prayers. Pray simply and straightforwardly to God, and God—who hears you in secret—will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:5-8). Then Jesus said, “When you fast, don’t disfigure your face. Don’t call attention to all of that. Do it privately unto God” (Matthew 6:16-18).
Jesus was saying to us that there is a new motive for what we do as the people of God in faith. It is not for other men to see us and to recognize us; we do it only that God shall see and know. So we serve out of sincerity, out of genuine faith, and out of genuine commitment. Jesus said, “My movement is marked by a new motive.”
2. New attitudes.
Secondly, it is marked by new attitudes toward other people. Jesus had dined with Matthew the tax collector, and Matthew was considered an outcast. The rigid law-keeping Jew would have nothing to do with a man like Matthew. And when these law-keeping Jews criticized Jesus for associating with him, Jesus said, “The whole need not a physician, but rather they that are sick. You criticize me for hanging around with sinners, but they are the ones who need me the most” (Luke 5:31). To criticize Jesus for hanging around sinners is like criticizing a doctor for hanging around sick people. That is why Jesus is here. The sinners are the ones who need him. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost, and sinners need him most of all. Jesus said, “I am with those who need me“ (Luke 5:32). By doing this he presented to us the new idea that we don’t just spend our time with the holy and righteous people of the church. We spend our time with people who need us.
There is an old jingle that goes, “I don’t dance and I don’t chew and I don’t run with those who do.” Let me tell you, you need to run with those who do. Otherwise they shall never know of the transforming power of Jesus Christ. If we call ourselves together in a holy huddle every Sunday and just associate with our own little group, how will we ever penetrate society? How will we ever share the Gospel? Jesus mixed and mingled with all kinds of people. He was true to God, true to himself, and at the same time he mixed and mingled with all.
He welcomed all people. Jesus loved little children and big sinners. He loved loose women and he loved rigid Pharisees. He loved rich young rulers and poor blind beggars. Regardless of a person’s upbringing or a person’s downfalling, Jesus Christ loved them. The scriptures say that in his sight there is neither Jew nor Gentile, bound nor free, male nor female. All are one in his sight.
Jesus came to give us not only a new motivation to please God and not men, but a new attitude toward this world. That is, we are to mix and mingle in it and to take the message of God to it.
3. New faith.
Third, Jesus was saying that his kingdom is marked by a new faith—by a new daring to trust God to care for you as you move out into the unknown world. You see, the Judaism of that day confined itself (at least religiously) to the land of Israel. The whole center of their activity was the Temple in Jerusalem. They never thought of the world out there that was lost and that needed the Gospel. They never looked beyond their own borders. The rest of the world was going to hell and they were kind of glad for it. The Jews saw themselves as God’s chosen few, and they were satisfied to remain that way. But Jesus said, “My kingdom is not going to be characterized by that narrow, limited view that you have of ‘just me, mine, and our little group.’ I want you to go into all the world and make disciples, and I want you to baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. I want you to teach them all the things God commanded you, and you can go with faith and confidence for lo, I am with you always, even to the ends of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). What Jesus essentially taught in this parable was, “It is a tragedy when people get to the place where they will not change—when they are so anchored to the old, to the past, to the tried and proven that they lose their mental and spiritual elasticity and they are not willing to move out with new motives, new attitudes, and new faith in life.”
One thing we know is that Jesus came to make us new people. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” If in Jesus Christ we are made new, and if the past has passed away and we have a new future and a new hope, then may God grant that we will stand on the cutting edge of life, ready to march forward with him into places where men have never ever gone, and into things that men have never ever done before.