Mark 2:18-22

[Preachers12]

Peace be with you.

This was the Gospel reading last Sunday.  In the RSV it reads:

(18) "Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, 'Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?' (19) And Jesus said to them, 'Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?  As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. (20) The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. (21) No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old garment; if he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. (22) And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but the new wine is for fresh skins.' "

I seem to have some mental block relating verses 21 and 22 to the context of 19 and 20.  I don't know that I fully see the relationship.  Each seems to stand on its own and I can see many meanings in them, but the context indicates that there is a relationship between them that I don't fully appreciate.

Our priest had to read a letter from the bishop and didn't spend much time on the readings.  I may be over analyzing this, but it has bothered me since Mass (saturday night).

Any thoughts?

God Bless and stay safe.

 

[Angelus00]

Preachers,

Could it possibly be relating to not trying to fit the new into the old way? That there can't be a "seamless" meshing of the old with the new?

Our priest related it something like that. The images of new wine fermenting and expanding in an old, dried, wineskin. The old wineskin isn't supple enough to contain the expansion and therefore splits and all is lost.

That would kinda relate to the old covenant under the law would not have the flexibility to expand to include non-Jews w/o losing themselves, perhaps losing the new AND the old.

Just a thought.

Peace

 

[panterapat]

Just as the verse that states, "If a man plows is field and keeps looking back, he is not worthy of the Kingdom of God.

In Christ, everything is new. Jesus brought the new law, which goes beyond the old law. The new law contains the old law but the old law does not and cannot contain the new law. (new and old wineskins).

In Christ, Patrick

 

[Didymus]

Christ is the bridegroom and is referring ti His coming death in 19 and 20. 21 and22 are to show that the old Jewish faith by keeping the law cannot co-exist with the new faith of grace,and that grace destroys the law.

 

[Preachers12]

Peace be with you.

Thanks! I had similar thoughts, but the articulations helped me. Thanks for the responses!

God Bless and stay safe.