In the Gospel reading today from Matthew 9, Jesus tells a parable. “No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined.” Now, I’ve never used a wineskin, and today clothes are pretty much disposable, so we’re not too familiar with patching clothes. So what’s the point?
Jesus is saying that when we put on the new, when we become a new creation in Christ, there is no room for the old bad stuff. It doesn’t fit. In other words, if we’re living for Christ (the new cloak) but we want to hang on to some of our old sinful ways ( the old cloak), it will do more harm than good. This is a great reminder to me that walking with Christ, living in the Spirit, is an all or nothing proposition. Time to get rid of the old wineskin and the old cloak. Behold, new things have come!
Father, you know that we so often want to hang on to parts of our old selves. Rid us of those sinful and selfish things that we might become the new creation you are calling us to be. Amen.
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