READ: Luke 5:33-39: … But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast … No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one … And new wine must be put into new wineskins … And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’
Jesus answers the question of why others fast (abstaining from food as a sign of repentance), while His disciples do not. In the Old Testament, fasting was only obligatory on the great Day of Atonement. Outside of that, with a few exceptions, it was a human rule, with the danger of outward religiosity while the heart was not directed toward the LORD and there was no true repentance. In Isa. 58:1-5, the LORD strongly rejects fasting as an expression of hypocritical piety.
But now there is also the fact that Jesus, as the long-awaited Messiah, the Bridegroom of God’s people, has come. In Him, all kinds of shadowy ordinances are fulfilled (Col. 2:16,17), without doing away with God’s commandments (Matt. 5:17-20; Belgic Confession, Art. 25).
There is now every reason to receive Him and His Gospel with joy and to repent. Shadowy or old human ordinances and ceremonies no longer fit the time that has now dawned with His coming.
Jesus gives them a lesson using examples of old and new clothing, and old and new wineskins. You do not patch old clothes with a piece of cloth cut from a new garment. And you do not store new wine in old wineskins. They burst as the wine ferments.
What Jesus says also applies to us: we may not continue to cling to old habits simply because we are accustomed to them. The test is different: does it fit with Christ and His Gospel? Do we take His return into account? We too will continually have to put aside things that do not pass that test.
At the same time, this principle applies: the new is not good simply because it is new. God’s Word is the standard. At the same time, it is also important to realize that keeping rules and traditions does not save. What matters is that we love the Bridegroom and receive His Word.
Which ‘old things’ must we give up?
Sing: Ps. 50:11