Not sure if you can relate, but when I don’t have a set book to read through… I find it hard to get into God’s Word on a regular basis. As such, I chose Luke. Though I have spent some time here before… the Lord is revealing new things through scripture that I often pass by! Even still, there are certain passages that I have to read through several times because I do not understand what they are saying! Is that meant literally? Figuratively? And even after the fifth read through… I am thinking, “I still don’t get it.”
Instead of skimming over the passage, I chose to do a little research! I was told about the website—blueletterbible.com a while ago but never took full advantage of it. The times I have used it, I can’t seem to choose a commentator out of the 20 listed! But. Good news people. I found one I like! David Guzik!
I want to share what I learned in Luke 5:33-39. The passage reads:
“The religious leaders complained that Jesus’ disciples were feasting instead of fasting. “John the Baptist’s disciples always fast and pray,” they declared, “and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why are yours always feasting?” Jesus asked, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Someday he will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.” Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be torn, and the patch wouldn’t even match the old garment. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. The new wine would burst the old skins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be put into new wineskins. But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the fresh and the new. `The old is better,’ they say.”
So of course… the questions began. What does He mean by the clothing? And the new and old wineskins? Read through it again… still didn’t get it. But I found answers! This passage is between the religious leaders and Jesus. The first part of the passage has some significance which I could explain, but for our purposes, not important right now. Let’s discuss the parables of the clothing and the wineskins. If you have a new piece of clothing, you would not cut a patch out and sew it on the old piece of clothing. Why? For obvious reasons—but because the new one is now tainted and the old appears even more aged than before! Because there is a new, non-faded, refreshed piece of fabric to compare it to. What He was trying to communicate to the Pharisees is “You can’t fit my new life into the old forms. I haven’t come to patch up your old practices. I come with an entirely new set of clothes.” They were trying to fit Jesus in a “box” if you will—of the old law. But that is not why He came! He did not come to put the new wine into the old wineskins. The new wine (Him) must be put into fresh wineskins, as it would burst through the seams of the old wineskins. At the end he says “But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the fresh and the new. They say, “The old is better.” The Pharisees did not want the new—they were convinced the old was better.
I think we do this some times! Jesus tells us:
“… To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” –Ephesians 4:22-24
So why, at times, do we choose to walk in old ways? We in our sin believe that other ways besides the new ways will satisfy and this will never be true. Don’t try to fit your old life into the new. It will not work. Jesus makes it clear that the fresh and the new are far better. His wise words are trustworthy and true. May we do everything we can to cling to the moments we realize the new IS INDEED far better. And do everything in our power; even to the point of shedding blood (like Jesus did) to flee what is old in our fleshly desires to obey what He is telling us in Ephesians 4.
Passed on to you with the help of blueletterbible.com
