New Wine, Old Skins, and a Wedding Feast Text: Mark 2:18-22
Introduction: The Clash of Two Worlds
We come now to another in a series of confrontations between Jesus and the religious establishment of His day. It is crucial that we see these are not minor disagreements over secondary matters of piety. This is not a debate in the faculty lounge. This is a clash of two entirely incompatible worlds. On one side, you have the religion of man, a religion of earnest, grim-faced duty, a religion of outward performance designed to manage God and keep Him at a safe distance. On the other side, you have the religion of God, which is the invasion of our world by the Lord Himself, bringing with Him a joy so explosive it cannot be contained by the old structures.
The Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist were the serious ones. They were the ones who fasted, who prayed, who tithed their mint and dill. From their perspective, Jesus and His disciples looked like a traveling party. They were feasting with tax collectors and sinners, and now we learn they are not even keeping the customary fasts. The question they bring to Jesus is, from their point of view, entirely reasonable: "We are mourning for the sins of Israel and longing for the Messiah. Why are you and your men having such a good time?"
Their question reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of what was happening. They thought the Messiah's arrival would be the great culmination of their religious system. They thought He would come and give them all gold stars for their diligent fasting. They failed to understand that His arrival meant their entire system was now obsolete. You do not long for what you have. You do not fast in anticipation of the bridegroom when the Bridegroom is standing right in front of you, pouring the wine. Jesus's answer, therefore, is not a simple defense of His disciples' behavior. It is a declaration that the entire framework of their religion has been superseded. A new world has dawned, and it requires a new way of living.
The Text
And John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they came and said to Him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the attendants of the bridegroom fast when the bridegroom is with them? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise that patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”
(Mark 2:18-22 LSB)
The Inappropriate Fast (v. 18-20)
The question is posed by a coalition of the pious. John's disciples and the Pharisees were on different teams, but they agreed on this: true religion is a somber affair.
"And John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they came and said to Him, 'Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?'" (Mark 2:18)
The Mosaic law only required one fast a year, on the Day of Atonement. But the Pharisees, in their zeal, had added many more. It was a mark of spiritual seriousness. The disciples of John were fasting as well, likely in mourning over the nation's sin and in expectation of the Messiah's judgment. Both groups were looking for God to do something. Their fasting was a posture of longing, of absence. And so, they look at Jesus's disciples, who are not fasting, and they see spiritual laxity. They see a lack of seriousness.
Jesus's answer reframes the entire situation. He does not say fasting is wrong. He says it is inappropriate. It is a category error.
"And Jesus said to them, 'Can the attendants of the bridegroom fast when the bridegroom is with them? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.'" (Mark 2:19)
This is a staggering claim. The image of God as the bridegroom of His people Israel is all over the Old Testament. Jesus is taking that title for Himself. He is saying, "The wedding has begun. I am here." To fast at a wedding feast is not pious; it is insulting to the host. It is to act as though the central event is not happening. The presence of Jesus Christ, in the flesh, is the consummation of all the hopes of Israel. Therefore, the only appropriate response is feasting and joy. To be glum in the presence of the incarnate God is to be blind to who He is.
But then Jesus introduces a shadow that falls across the celebration.
"But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day." (Mark 2:20)
The phrase "taken away" is a violent one. It points directly to the cross. Jesus is telling them that this feast will be interrupted. The Bridegroom will be seized and killed. And when that happens, His disciples will indeed fast. They will mourn. They will grieve His absence. But notice the shift. Christian fasting, after the cross and resurrection, is not the fasting of the Pharisees, trying to earn God's favor. It is the fasting of a bride who loves her husband and longs for his return. It is a fasting fueled by hope, not despair. It is a strategic fast, a wartime fast, as we engage in spiritual battle, looking forward to the great wedding supper of the Lamb.
The New Reality Cannot Be Patched (v. 21)
Jesus then gives two parables to illustrate why His new way cannot simply be incorporated into their old system. The old system is not just incomplete; it is incompatible.
"No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise that patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results." (Mark 2:21)
The old garment is the religious system of the Pharisees. It is a religion of external righteousness, of rule-keeping, of self-justification. It has become worn out, brittle, and threadbare. The new patch is the vibrant, living reality of the gospel of grace. The Pharisees wanted to take a piece of Jesus's teaching, a bit of His power, and use it to patch up their failing system. They wanted to add Jesus to their program.
Jesus says this is impossible and, in fact, destructive. The new patch of unshrunk cloth, when it gets wet and shrinks, has a strength and vitality that the old, brittle garment cannot handle. It will not reinforce the old garment; it will rip it to shreds, making the hole even worse. You cannot patch a system of works-righteousness with the grace of God. You cannot tack the Sermon on the Mount onto the end of the Mishnah. The gospel does not come to improve the old man. It comes to kill him and raise a new man in his place. Trying to add a little "Jesus patch" to your life of self-reliance will only result in a greater spiritual disaster.
The New Power Cannot Be Contained (v. 22)
The second parable makes the same point but with a different emphasis. The first was about structure; this one is about dynamic power.
"And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins." (Mark 2:22)
New wine is alive. It is still fermenting, expanding, releasing gases. It needs a container that is flexible and can expand with it, a new wineskin made of supple leather. Old wineskins have become dry, hard, and brittle. If you pour new wine into them, the pressure of the fermentation will build until the old skin bursts. The result is a total loss: the wine is spilled on the ground, and the wineskin is ruined.
The new wine is the explosive, effervescent life of the Holy Spirit, the life of the kingdom of God. It is a dynamic power. The old wineskins are the rigid, man-made religious forms of Pharisaism. Their system was designed to contain and control, to manage religion through meticulous rule-keeping. It had no capacity for the wild, joyful, expansive life that Jesus brings. The gospel of grace cannot be contained by the structures of legalism.
When the new wine of the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, it did not flow neatly into the existing structures of the Temple. It burst them. It created a new structure, a new wineskin, which is the Church. The gospel is a living, growing, expanding force. It is always creating new forms, new songs, new institutions, new cultures to contain its power. Any attempt to force this living power back into the dead, brittle containers of a past generation is to court disaster. It is to despise the wine and destroy the skins.
Conclusion: Feasting in the New Creation
The implications for us are straightforward and profound. First, we must recognize that the Christian faith is not a patch for our old life. It is an entirely new life. You are not just a slightly improved version of your old self. You are a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come (2 Cor. 5:17). To attempt to live the Christian life by patching the grace of God onto your old habits of self-reliance and sin-management is to guarantee a "worse tear." You must throw the whole rotten garment away.
Second, we must understand that the life of the kingdom is the new wine. It is a life of joy, power, and expansion. The Bridegroom was taken away, it is true. But He rose from the dead, ascended to the Father, and has sent His Spirit to be with us and in us. His presence is with us now in a new and even more powerful way. Therefore, the default posture of the Christian is not grim fasting but joyful feasting. We are people of the wedding feast. Our gatherings should be characterized by the gladness of the new wine. Our churches must be new wineskins, flexible and strong, ready to contain the work of the Spirit, not old, brittle institutions dedicated to preserving the religious habits of 1955.
The Pharisees wanted a religion they could control. What Jesus offers is a God who cannot be controlled, but who can be known, loved, and enjoyed. He has brought us into the wedding feast, and He Himself is both the Bridegroom and the new wine. Our part is not to mourn as though He were absent, but to feast in faith, knowing that the joy of this present feast is only a foretaste of the great wedding supper of the Lamb that is to come.