The old and the new - don't we love it - the old sometimes is good when it's gone, and the new usually is pretty good.
Lots of weird and strange things happened in the old times, and lots of good and easy things happen in the new times.
Well, not all the time, unfortunately. Things today can be so far away from what we believe. Jesus's teaching was always and still is amazing. Today, so many things have gotten out of hand, but in Jesus' time here on earth, things really did need to change and quickly.
In those times, things were pretty gruesome. The Roman Empire had taken over Israel, and they had made it their life's ambition to completely dominate Israel to the extent of cruelly murdering as many people as possible. Sounds so familiar, it's scary!
In the middle of all this happening in Israel, here was Jesus, born of a virgin, delivered in a disgusting, dirty old stable with both parents penniless and so so tired after a very long journey with an old donkey. Poor Mary must have been totally exhausted and filthy dirty as well - poor girl.
BUT...Jesus was extraordinary. The son of Mary and also of the Lord God, the only begotten of the triune. Father God, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amazingly and totally awesome in the real sense of the word.
Growing up with dad being a carpenter and mum having more children, Jesus would have been really busy doing lots of work to help pay for the family's needs. It certainly wouldn't have been a delicate and gentle upbringing. But regardless of all this, Mary must have been in total awe watching the very Son of God growing up, sinless and so different from everyone else around her.
As Jesus grew, the more and more He knew what was in store for Him. He knew He had to let as many people as possible know the truths of what was going to happen and how dramatically things were going to change and change entirely throughout the universe.
Jesus knew that His life here was going to be short-lived, and because of this, He had to get the message of salvation out to the crowds, knowing that it was actually going to change the entire world.
He told lots of parables, which are stories He made up to explain things to the crowds and also to the people in the temples. Today, some of these parables, as they were known then, can be confusing, but when we think them through, they are really quite mind-bending. Jesus was truly awesome with his messages.
Number two parable/story "No one puts new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the new wine will burst the skins and the wine will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed." hmmmm again!
OK Let's think about this and tear it apart - what does Jesus mean? Well, I can imagine you don't patch a hole in an old shirt with a brand new piece of cloth, apparently, because it shrinks and it doesn't match anyway. Jesus is talking about pre-Christ and post-Christ, amazingly awesome.
Jesus was born into the old ways of Israel, where if you sinned or you were accused of sinning, you had to confess your sins, you had to wear sackcloth and ashes, you had to make a blood offering, you had to sacrifice whatever you could get your hands on, including lambs or doves, or other things for the atonement of your sins.
Before He came to be the total perfect sacrifice, everyone who sinned (and that included everyone) had to say "I repent, I repent" and had to obey all these amazing rules and regulations.
He knew this wasn't working at all. There was really no answer. Father God couldn't and certainly wouldn't look at sin at all, so there had to be a special price to atone for anyone's sin-life.
Jesus came to pay the price for our sins by his death on the cross. Why? Because He took sin on Himself and He killed it there on that very cruel cross, nails through his hands and his feet, and a spear in His side. How gruesome, and yet he had to die dramatically to show us that His death all those years ago actually saved us, and all we have to do is to accept His love for us and take Him into our lives.
Jesus rose again after they brutally killed Him, and through His death and resurrection, He brought us salvation and new life. If we accept Him into our lives as Lord and Saviour, then we enter into the joy of the Lord, and even if we still live here on earth, we are actually due to be in His kingdom when we pass over, which is extraordinary.
In the parables he told about patching the new and old garments and then the new and used wine caskets, what was He saying to us?
Jesus was actually comparing the old and the new wines and the old and new garments as a way of explaining how things have changed now that He was here with us on earth, and that He was going to pay for our sins on that day of His crucifixion.
Okay, let's think about these two amazing stories he told us - apparently (I know nothing about wine and sewing patches on clothes) using new wine in old caskets explodes the old casket because of the fermenting, etc., and if you sew a piece of new cloth into old clothes when you do a wash, then the new cloth shrinks. Sounds terrible. A lot to think about there!
Here, Jesus is talking about and referring to the parable about the new and old garments. The old ways where people there had to wear sackcloth and ashes, and all those rules when they had to repent. Jesus says he now brings us new life in Him. In other words, the old has gone. He is there to give us all new life. He compares this to the old and new garments.
He brings everyone into a place of confession and repentance, because He came to bring us all into the kingdom of God, as long as we accept Him as our Lord and Saviour.
This was entirely new, so the people were a tad confused by the whole thing. They didn't realise, probably at this time, that Jesus was going to die for us all, and those two stories about wine caskets and old and new clothes really meant that He was taking all of our sins upon Himself and killing them on that cross.
Pretty amazing when you think of those two parables He got through to us all those years ago, and really all we have to do is to accept what He did and ask Him to come into our lives and save us for eternity with Him.
Have a great day and hope to see you next time.
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