Luke 5:36–39

 ³⁶ Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. ³⁷ And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. ³⁸ But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. ³⁹ And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’ ”

Commentary

Jesus now tells three parables. In the first He draws an analogy from repairing an old garment with a new piece of material (vs. 36). In the second He shows that new wine is not put into old wine skins but in new ones (vs. 37-38). And in the third He says that no one who drinks old seasoned wine desires the new wine because they say the old vintage is better (vs. 39). Now let’s look at them in the first parable Jesus says that trying to put a new piece of cloth on an old garment will only destroy both because the new cloth being stronger than the old will pull away from it and ruin it, and thus make both unusable, also the new cloth will not match the old garment and will only look out of place. Now to the meaning which has long been rightly understood to mean the eras of law and grace. Under the law given through Moses Israel was bound by many religious ordinances and statutes, these were in effect for them as long as they were under the law. But when the Lord Jesus Christ came, He came not to make disciples of these, (and all of the man-made traditions born out of them), but Jesus Christ came to make disciples of God through His grace and truth (see John 1:17; 4:23-24). Therefore, in the first parable Jesus is basically describing how law and grace are incompatible. For you cannot take the law and try to sew in a piece of grace in an effort to fix its flaws which are not flaws in the law per say but flaws with sinful human flesh which can never keep the law of God perfectly, which is required by God to be justified by it. Therefore, Jesus in that brief parable is describing to us all the incompatibility of both, because the New Covenant (i.e. new piece of garment) cannot be sown into the Old Covenant (i.e. old torn garment). And thus, both cannot be mixed to try to make one repaired Old Covenant, because the New Covenant being stronger will always pull away from the Old, just as Jesus’ disciples will always pull away from the Law of Moses and justification through that to the grace of God and the justification from God found only by faith in Him.

Now in Jesus’ in following that up in His second parable says that: “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.” Again, by way of a parable Jesus reveals the incompatibility of the two. But here taking it a step further, the new wine is indeed to represent the Christ’s teachings and doctrine and thus a believer that being born again by the Spirit of the Lord is now fully capable of discerning and learning and obeying the Word of the Lord. Thus, the New Wine is all the Words and Commands found in the New Testament. And thus, Christ’s Words, and thus by default every Christian, must be placed and enacted under the New Covenant. For trying to “pour” these into Old Covenant Israel law will only ruin both. Because old wineskins cannot endure the expansive nature of new fermenting wine. And thus, pouring new wine into old wineskins only ruins both. There first must be new wineskins (i.e. regenerated peoples and lives by the Holy Spirit) that Christ’s “new wine” must go into, in order for both the wineskin and the wine to survive. Now in Jesus’ last parable here Jesus’ says that: “And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’ ”

Clearly here Jesus is describing the hesitancy of those who having been reared under the law have towards fully embracing the grace of God (consider Acts 15). For their initial response is like those who having drunk old wine have when they initially taste the new batch of wine, they always say the old is better. Similarly, the scribes and Pharisees were also either unwilling, or slow to embrace Jesus’ teachings, however later many would become followers of His, and some would become great evangelists for Him, the standout being the Apostle Paul.

Scripture Quotations

New King James Version. (1982): Thomas Nelson