Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Psalms 18-20
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Matthew 9:15-17
Jesus: When you celebrate—as at a wedding when one’s dearest friend is getting married—you do not fast. The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them. Then My friends and followers will fast. You would begin by washing and shrinking a patch you would use to mend a garment—otherwise, the patch would shrink later, pull away from the garment, and make the original tear even worse. You wouldn’t pour new wine into old wineskins. If you did, the skins would burst, the wine would run out, and the wineskins would be ruined. No, you would pour new wine into new wineskins—and both the wine and the wineskins would be preserved.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
Why would Jesus tell us about shrinking patches and bursting wineskins? Especially right after talking about fasting? Do they go together? If so, how? I think it’s easy for us to figure out the fasting part. His followers would fast soon after His departure. In fact, they probably fasted while He was here. They just didn’t announce it to the world like the Pharisees did. They paid attention to the sermon Jesus gave those folks at the beginning of His ministry when He said to put oil on your head, brighten your face, don’t let others see by your appearance that you are fasting. Only your Father in heaven needs to know. He’ll reward you, not people on earth who see you fast.
But what about the pre-shrunk cloth and the new wineskins? What about those? What does that have to do with anything?
Sometimes we put too much into putting symbolism and mystery into what Jesus says and lose the meaning all together. If we just look at what He says, He could simply be telling these city boys some important truths about things they know nothing about. Some of them may never have mended a shirt themselves in their life. Kind of like teaching your kids how to do laundry or how to cook. When they go out on their own for the first time, you don’t want them to stare at the washing machine and wonder what to do next or put everything in a single load and assume hot water is better to get everything cleaner. Suddenly the budget breaks and someone will need to bail them out!
So maybe Jesus was just giving good advice. More than likely, He used these two common knowledge pieces of advice as metaphors for a more profound teaching. If we think about the previous statement about fasting after He leaves and celebrating while He is with His disciples. Perhaps Jesus uses the metaphor to help explain this new life His followers enter into.
This new love Jesus talks about, this new way of life, this writing of God’s law on the heart makes us new from the inside out. It changes a person. It transforms a person completely. It means the old habits, the old haunts, the old friends, the old language, the old everything stops. A new way of life begins transformed by the power of God’s Spirit in us. Trying to hold God’s Spirit in us while living the ways of the old life are as fruitless as sewing a new patch on an old garment. When it’s washed the new patch shrinks and rips the whole more making the tear worse than it was to start.
Trying to put God into an unrepentant life is like putting new wine in an old wineskin. As the wine ferments, the expansion causes the air to expand, but the wineskin doesn’t expand with it, but bursts instead. Following Jesus means taking on a whole new lifestyle. It means turning away from the old life and sin and following His directions, His commands, His rules. His laws become more important than my desires. His will overrules my will and my desire.
This transforming power He brings to life cannot be adequately explained. It can only be experienced. No matter how much I might talk about it, until it is absorbed into your life by faith in Him, you cannot know what it is like. You cannot know the joy and peace God brings until you surrender your life to Him. Only then can you realize the legacy of peace He leaves with us.
Does Jesus’ metaphor fit with His dialog about fasting? I think so. As long as Jesus walked the earth with His disciples, they would not be seen fasting. No one needs to see you fasting. You don’t need to show anyone your piety. All you need do is let Christ live in you and let Him transform your life. Others will know you are His follower. Others will see the difference in you if He truly lives in you.
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