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Today's Little Lift
by Jim Bullington
“Then He spoke a parable to them: 'No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, “The old is better.”'” (Luke 5.36-39).
Luke alone refers to the sayings quoted (above) as a parable. Actually, as A. T. Robertson observed in his New Testament Word Pictures, there are three parables here. The Love of the Truth demands that the reader openly and without bias look at these parables and determine from the wording and from the context what they mean. We will attempt to do that in today's message.
The question to Jesus had been, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink.” His response was actually an appeal to common sense. His immediate answer drew a parallel between the current failure of His disciples to fast with the impossibility of the friends of the bridegroom fasting while they yet had the bridegroom with them. When the bridegroom was taken away, fasting would then be appropriate, but it certainly was not the time to fast during such a joyous and festive period. Had common sense prevailed, they could have understood this principle about fasting.
Jesus continued His same point with the three parables contained in today's text. Each of the three short parables begins with the phrase “No one.” No one patches an old garment with a new cloth. No one puts new wine in old wineskins. No one wants inferior wine after having tasted the superior. Each of these pithy statements simply makes the same point as He had already made about the principle of fasting. Specifically once again, this principle was this: There are times when common sense ought to dictate what the truth is regarding a particular manner; common sense should not be abandoned when one embraces the truth. Or, as we stated it earlier, “The Love of the Truth does not cause one to abandon common sense; it embraces it!”
No one [with common sense] patches an old garment with a new cloth. No one [with common sense] puts new wine in old wineskins. No one [with common sense] wants inferior wine after having tasted the better. The force of these parables is an appeal to reason when interpreting the scriptures and making application of them to one's life. There really is nothing mystical about these sayings, nor do they readily lend themselves to the interpretation that many have given them which forces them to have some reference to the Mosaic Covenant and the Christian Dispensation.
The Love of the Truth demands that the truth be correctly handled, or as Paul put it, rightly divided(see 2 Timothy 2.15). God does not need our editorial help to make the scriptures teach what He intended to say; He just needs us to cooperate with Him and see them for what they are; He needs us to use our common sense in interpreting them!
Questions:
1. Why would one not patch on old garment with a new piece of cloth? Where do you think this was learned?
2. Why would one not put new wine in old wineskins? Where do you think this was learned?
If common sense can help in reaching such mundane truths/axioms, could it be wrong to give it a voice in loftier matters? Should we abandon reason when reading scripture?
4. Does the love which the truth produces think reasonably? Why or why not?
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