New And Old

"No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out, and the wineskins will be ruined." (Luke 5:36-38)

New and old are the operative words here. Jesus has brought the new, which simply can't be patched onto the old. The old law and the piety it evoked cannot hold the gospel joy bursting on the scene with Jesus. It will require a new garment, or it will tear, and the old one will not match. This is Jesus' reflection on the rupture with the synagogue and temple Judaism that He saw clearly before it happened. 

St. Cyril of Alexandria, in the fifth century, wrote: "The first covenant has grown old, nor was it free from fault. Those who therefore adhere to it and keep at heart the antiquated commandments (meaning ceremonial law) have no share in the new order of things in Christ. In Him, all things have become new."

You can't squeeze the Christian gospel joy into the old forms without destroying them and spilling the wine. Isn't that exactly what happened? As the gospel joy got poured into those old ceremonies, they began to creak and tear, and before long, they were deflated and empty, and the gospel joy spilled out from them upon the earth for all people. 

St. Luke chronicles this happening in the Book of Acts as temple, synagogue, circumcision, and dietary laws are all burst open by the gospel itself, which spread out to all the world. It creates a piety suitable to it, a piety that is clearly indebted to the old form but also uniquely transcends them. But instead of Passover, paschal or Easter, and the Eucharist. Instead of the old Pentecost, the new Pentecost - the giving of the Spirit in Baptism. Instead of tabernacles, Christmas, when God tabernacled in our flesh. Instead of circumcision made in the flesh, baptism. Instead of sacrifice, confession, and absolution. It just rolls on and on.

-Pr. Will Weedon