i’ve learnt today that i cannot take a parable out of context…parables or “parabole” meaning “placing beside” are illustrations or comparisons, intended to illuminate or clarify Jesus' teaching specifically at that time of ministry, not all the details having to bear significance, usually with one main intended point (but i believe has deeper hidden meaning for the person hungry for truth and with wide applications today), based on the message of that time.
In this parable in Luke, it should be with reference to the issue of Jesus’ disciples not fasting while other disciples of John/ the Pharisees fast - the learning is not to mix old ways with the new way. Jesus’ disciples will fast in the future for a different reason under a new covenant, but not for the old ways of the Mosaic Law…keep the old order with the old covenant and the new in the new…
My understanding of the parable of the old wineskins and the new wineskins, or rather the application: my impression (and dear Lord, please teach me the right way, and not to come up with interpretation on my own) is that the old wineskin is like our fixed idea or way of how Christianity should be…old wine could be old church traditions or old customs, how we should fast, or pray, the Christian rules of living, or perhaps the Jewish rules by the Mosaic Law in those times, that are poured into our minds/ideas… but the new wine requires a new set of thinking and new adaptability to the new rules and ways of Christian living, that is living by faith in Christ’s redemption… and we cannot cling to the old wineskin, or the old understanding of coming before God through our means of sacrifices... in order to receive and acknowledge the fullness of the new wine, we need to change our wineskin – i.e. our way of thinking, or whole being as a vessel to contain what God has planned to pour into our hearts..
Jesus brings a newness of life and radical thinking that breaks down the old order of the Jewish customs and way of life…
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