The Parables of Jesus: New Cloth and New Wine

Mark 2:21-22:

[21] No man seweth a piece of raw cloth to an old garment: otherwise the new piecing taketh away from the old, and there is made a greater rent. [22] And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: otherwise the wine will burst the bottles, and both the wine will be spilled, and the bottles will be lost. But new wine must be put into new bottles. 

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Now and forever. Amen.

In Mark chapter 2, a series of events are recounted wherein Jesus is seen departing from the customs of the Mosaic Law. First, a scribe, in his heart, accused Jesus of blasphemy for saying to the man sick with palsy, "Son, thy sins are fogiven thee," because it was understood that only God could forgive sins. Next, His disciples were confronted by the scribes and Pharisees because Jesus was eating and drinking with publicans and sinners, which was a problem because under the Law, publicans and sinners were to be social outcasts. After that, the disciples of John and the Pharisees asked Jesus directly why neither He nor His disciples fasted, which was a practice proscribed by the Law. Finally, the Pharisees accuse Jesus directly of breaking the Law by plucking ears of corn on the Sabbath.

It was in the middle of these events, specifically after Jesus is questioned about fasting, that Jesus gives these two analogies (yes, I know, these aren't parables, properly speaking, but I'm treating them as such for the purpose of this series). On the face of it, one might be tempted to think these are just a couple of practical proverbs. They make sense, they're good advice, but in the context of the rest of the chapter, they might seem out of place. What does advice about patching a rent garment, or putting wine into bottles, have to do with fasting, or anything else that's going on in the chapter?

This is why I call them analogies, because Jesus is making a more meaningful point. In answering the question about fasting, Jesus says, "Can the children of the marriage fast, as long as 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 from them; and then they shall fast in those days."  This answer supplies us with the proper context with which to understand these analogies. The reason they weren't fasting is because they were in the midst of a momentous event, though the scribes and Pharisees didn't know it. That is to say, a wedding was taking place.

Jesus likens Himself to a bridegroom. This symbol is used throughout the New Testament. It signifies the union of God with man, firstly in Jesus Christ, the Incarnation, who was Himself a hypostatic union of the divine and human natures. Secondarily, it was the wedding of Jesus to His Church, the Bride--all of us. This imagery of marriage is important because it well qualifies the nature of Christ's coming. In this wedding event, a new family is made. By wedding ourselves to Christ, we become sons and daughters of God the Father. That is to say, sons- and daughters-in-law, and this is effectuated by our baptisms, and in this union, all that belongs to Christ (the treasury of merit and grace that He won on the cross) belongs to us.

What happens at a wedding? Well, I've already alluded to it: a new family is created, but how? It is through the covenantal vows professed by the spouses. In other words, Jesus came to establish a New Covenant (a marriage covenant), and this is principally what is meant by "Old" garment and "New" cloth. The old garment is the Old Law, or the Old Covenant, and the new cloth is the New Covenant.

It's important that we understand what Jesus is saying here. The new covenant cannot be "sewn" or grafted onto the old. Why? Because the new covenant would take away from the old, and a new tear would occur. What does that mean? It means it would cause confusion and division. The new covenant didn't merely add new ideas, or new ways of understanding the old law, or new precepts, or new customs, to the old. The new covenant is completely new.

In Matthew 5:17, Jesus says, "Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." What this means is that in Jesus, the whole of the Law and the Prophets was fulfilled. That is to say, the Old Garment's purpose had been completed, fulfilled. After Jesus, the Old Covenant no longer served a purpose. People who think that this covenant is still in place with the Jews are wrong, otherwise they must deny that Jesus fulfilled it.

No, indeed. The New Covenant is entirely new, and the old has been fulfilled, and come to its end. But this is only the first of the two analogies. The second is about new wine and old bottles. The wine is that which is poured into and fills up a container. The bottles here are us, people, and the wine is the Holy Spirit, and the sanctifying graces of the Sacraments that He pours into our souls. The old bottle is the old man spoken of by Paul in Romans 6:6, Ephesians 4:22, and Colossians 3:9, and the new bottle is the spiritual man, reborn by baptism in Christ, to be His bride.

Notice, Jesus says of the new wine put into old bottles, "otherwise the wine will burst the bottles, and both the wine will be spilled, and the bottles will be lost." That is to say, you cannot confer the sacramental graces upon the man who is not yet made a member of the Church (except Baptism, which is that very entrance into the Church and the life of grace), the graces will be to no effect (the wine will be spilled), and the soul of such a one will be damned (the bottle will be lost). "For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord." (1 Corinthians 11:29)

It must be stated strongly that in order to receive the grace of salvation, one cannot live according to the Old Covenant, but rather one must become a new man in Christ through baptism, and live according the new law of Christ. And what is the principal difference between the Old Law and the New Law? Under the Old Law, all was done according to restraint, according to prohibition or mandate. Under the New Law, all is done according to good will, through the love and fervor and joy of the Holy Spirit. Anyone who lives according to right virtue, but only because it's required of him, and not out of the generosity of his heart, for the love of God and his fellow man, is living not according to the law of the New Covenant, but as the Old Man, according to the Old Law. It isn't so much that the moral precepts of the Old Law are to be abandoned, but rather that they be done according to the right spirit.

So, what we learn in Mark chapter 2 is this: under the Old Law, only God could forgive sins. Annually, at Passover, the sins of the people were put on sin offerings and sacrificed to God, and this action was completed by the high priest, but it wasn't the action of the high priest that forgave the people their sins, it was God alone. In the New Law, Jesus is revealing that this may not be the case. Jesus is both God and the High Priest, and in the establishment of the priesthood among the Apostles, He conferred His power to forgive sins upon them (John 20:23). Instead of men going to the Temple for forgiveness, the Temple, Who is Christ, Who is His Church, goes out to them to offer forgiveness.

In the Old Law, sinners and publicans were social outcasts, and if they repented and wanted forgiveness of their sins, and to be brought back into the public life of Israel, they had to go to the temple, and follow the instructions of the priests. In the New Law, Jesus goes out to the sinners and publicans, in order to call them to repentance and conversion. Thus, we are to go out and evangelize all people, calling them to turn away from their sinful lives, to repent and be baptized, and to become sons and daughters of God. Under the New Law, we are to be physicians of souls, because all men are sick with sin. Instead of leaving sinners to find it within themselves to repent and convert, we are to go out generously to call them to repentance with encouragement and love.

According to the Old Law, one was required to fast on appointed times and days as a matter of restraint, of submission. According to the New Law, we feast and fast from the good will of our hearts, feasting to rejoice in all the good things that God has given to us, and fasting in sorrow for sin and death, and in remembrance of what Jesus endured for us.

Under the Old Law, all work was prohibited on Sabbath, in order to rest from work in imitation of God. Under the New Law, the charity of man, which is love for God, impels him to do necessary work on the Sabbath in order to care for the needs of his fellow man, especially his Christian brother, who is also yoked to Christ, and of whom Jesus says, "as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me." (Matthew 25:40)

Let us rejoice in this New Cloth, which is the Church, and of the New Wine that is poured into our hearts, the grace of the Holy Spirit and His Sacraments. We are truly blessed!

God bless you, and thank you for reading.