The introductory material about Jesus
birth is now behind us. Today he begins His public ministry. He does so by
going into the Wilderness following His baptism to spend time in prayer,
fasting, worship, and simply connecting with God. As He begins His public ministry
He does so in unusual ways.
He starts with calling disciples. He
also begins to perform miracles. He does things that are far from the normal pattern
of new Rabbi’s on the scene. He even does things that anger the religious officials
of the day. They are upset that he forgives sins. They are confused as to why
he eats with scum (the NIV calls them sinners). Jesus does not do things the
way He was supposed to do things.
To conclude this section Luke shares
with us Jesus’ words about all this …
Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment. “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins. But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.” Luke 5:36-39 NLT
Jesus has basically come and said the
old system is about to be finished. I am bringing something new. There will be
people who do not accept it, because they are fine with the old way. But we
know new against old does not always work. New wine in old wine skins will
break the wine skins. A new patch on old clothes will tear the old clothes as
the new patch begins to shrink while washing. New sometimes has to go with new …
and that is ok.
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