New Wine, New Skin

 "One day, when the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist were fasting, some people asked JESUS, 'Why is it, that both the Pharisees and the disciples of John fast, but YOURS do not?'  JESUS answered, 'How can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?  As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.  But the day will come, when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.

No one sews a piece of new cloth on an old coat, because the new patch will shrink and tear away from the old cloth, making a worse tear.  And no one puts new wine into old wine skins, for the wine would burst the skins, and then both the wine and the skins would be lost.  But new wine, new skins!'" - Mark 2:18-22 

(Many religious leaders sympathized with JESUS.  How they would have liked that HE rekindle the faith of the nation!  JESUS HIMSELF did not feel that HIS primary task was to reorganize worship and bring people to the synagogues.

The Pharisees were fasting.  Fasting, a sign of repentance, supported their prayers that GOD come and liberate HIS people.  GOD comes in the person of JESUS: joy and celebration are more appropriate than fasting.  The prophets had announced the wedding feast of GOD with HIS people when HE would come to visit us [Isaiah 62:4-5].  Because of this, in presenting HIMSELF as the bridegroom, JESUS identifies who HE really is.

What is the new wine?  It is of course the Gospel, and the enthusiasm because of the Holy Spirit that leads the disciples to every kind of madness to manifest the love of the FATHER and the freedom that they have acquired.  In order to understand this, let us read the Acts of the Apostles and the lives of the saints, who have marked Church history.

Old skins: The Gospel does not fit into the molds of religion and likewise does not enter into those persons who hold onto them at all costs.  Mark wants us to catch the Gospel's novelty.  We have just seen JESUS welcoming sinners, now we wonder that HE doesn't come like religious groups with prayers and fasting.)

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