They put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved

 As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office.  And He said to him, "Follow Me."  So he arose and followed Him.

Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples.  And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"  When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  But go and learn what this means:  'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.'  For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?"  And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?  But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.  No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse.  Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined.  But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

- Matthew 9:9-17

Yesterday, we read that, after healing the Gergesene demoniacs, Jesus got into a boat, crossed back over the Sea of Galilee, and came to His own city.  Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed.  When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you."  And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, "This Man blasphemes!"  But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts?  or which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise and walk'?  But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins" -- then He said to the paralytic, "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."  And he arose and departed to his house.  Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.

 As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office.  And He said to him, "Follow Me."  So he arose and followed Him.  Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples.  And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"  When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  But go and learn what this means:  'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.'  For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."   My study bible explains that Matthew (who is the author of this Gospel) is also called Levi (see Mark 2:14).  It says, "Roman overlords assigned specific areas to Jewish tax collectors, who were free to collect extra revenues for their own profit.  Their collaboration with the occupying Romans, their fraud, and their corruption caused other Jews to hate them and to consider them unclean (11:19).  Jesus dining with them and accepting a tax collector as a disciple ('Follow Me') offends the Pharisees, yet Christ's defense is simple:  He goes where the need of a physician is greatest.  'I desire mercy and not sacrifice' (verse 13; Hosea 6:6) is not a rejection of sacrifice per se, but shows that mercy is a higher priority (see Psalm 50)."

 Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?"  And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?  But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.  No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse.  Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined.  But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."  My study bible points out that fasting practices among Jews typically included fasting twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays (see Luke 18:12).  There were also public fasts that were regularly observed or proclaimed on occasion (my study bible cites 2 Chronicles 20:3; Ezra 8:21; Esther 4:16; Joel 2:15).  Fasting was especially significant on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:31-34) and in times of mourning (Zechariah 7:5; 8:19).  However, the coming of the Messiah was seen as a wedding feast; that is, a time of extraordinary joy and celebration.  My study bible says, "Jesus here proclaims that day, declaring Himself to be the Messiah/Bridegroom.  For Christians, fasting is not gloomy but desirable, a bright sadness, for by fasting, they gain self-control and prepare themselves for the Wedding Feast.  The old garment and old wineskins stand for the Old Covenant and the Law, viewed as imperfect and temporary; the new wineskins are the New Covenant and those in Christ.   The new wine is the Holy Spirit dwelling within renewed people, who cannot be constrained by the old precepts of the Law."

What does it mean to think here about New Wineskins?  I think we have to remember that "Tradition," in terms of the language of the Church, doesn't mean "the past."  It means much more than that.  "Tradition" implies the sum total of all that has gone before, across not only the centuries of Christianity but even in the way our Bible includes also the books of the Old Testament, of Jewish spiritual history.  And yet, that's not enough to describe what Tradition really means in the context of Christianity and the Church.  Tradition also expands to include the new.  Tradition has to include both what has come before and what is required now -- and stretches into the future beyond our understanding.  Therefore the New Wineskins have be to those which are, as my study bible puts it, that which is capable of containing "the Holy Spirit dwelling within renewed people, who cannot be constrained by the old precepts of the Law."  The New Wineskins have to be those that can include all and everything, all the Church will expand to incorporate and all that is to come and has been.  If we think about it, it must also include those who are passed and living in Christ as well, and those who will do so into the unforeseeable future.  This is what a "new wineskin" has to be all about:  something that can expand to include that which is ever-present in spiritual reality, and which has manifested throughout history, and will do so for all time to come. That's a great and tremendous capacity for expansion!  If it seems paradoxical to you, something we cannot reconcile within the differing elements all that seems to incorporate, let us be assured that Christ and the story of Christ is full of paradox; and this is because God expands far beyond our understanding.  The great place of reconciliation is beyond what we can contain; there are simply things of which we are not aware -- and such is the creation of paradox, one example of which is a Man who is both human and also God.  In this New Wineskin we must remember that we are called upon to expand, to be expansive, to learn to include all the things of God, that which has been revealed and which remains unrevealed, and those who come today in new forms of the sinners who need saving, the sick who need doctoring, and how that doctoring must manifest to be also a part of Tradition.  Let us remember who we are and where we are, and what a glorious expansion it is to think of, indeed.