…This Is New.

No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old garment. If he does, he will have torn the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. (Luke 5:36-37)

There’s an old saying: “That was then; this is now.” But I’d like to put a new spin on the phrase. “That was then; this is new.” The new is superior not just in terms of chronological time, but also in terms of strength.

Jesus shares the above parable after responding to criticisms concerning fasting and prayer (or, rather, His disciples’ lack of engagement in those disciplines). It’s a challenging parable. We tend not to have a problem with head knowledge about the folly of sewing a new piece of cloth onto an old garment. But when the principle is transferred to our heart motives for why we engage in spiritual endeavors, it’s much more of a challenge to embrace this word.

There’s a bottom line to this parable: the new and the old cannot be successfully merged. It’s precisely what had been prophesied hundreds of years earlier, when Isaiah spoke as the oracle of God:

This is what the Lord says, the one who made a road through the sea, a pathway through the surging waters, the one who led chariots and horses to destruction, together with a mighty army. They fell down, never to rise again; they were extinguished, put out like a burning wick: “Don’t remember these earlier events; don’t recall these former events.” (Isaiah 43:16-18)

During the sermon, Reverend Ronald reminded us that Israel’s deliverance from Egypt was a profound watershed event. It was something that was told to children and grandchildren throughout the ages, so that they might remember the mighty works of God. It’s amazing that God would tell His people to forget about their deliverance from bondage.

But the forgetting has a purpose. It’s necessary to abandon the old. That abandonment process is our means of making room for the new things that God will do. That is, God will do amazing things that you don’t yet have room to receive, so you need to make room.

How do we make room? Let go of the old, even the old things that were good, and prepare for the new.

Why are we so reluctant to let go of the old?