Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 9 verses 16 and 17:
16 "No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. 17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved."
In both examples from today's teaching we have the case of something new and immature damaging and even destroying something old.
Jesus was speaking in the context of religious practice and the difficulty old ways have in accepting new ideas. Jesus himself brought fresh thinking and fresh ways.
And at the same time, Jesus also showed concern for the preservation of the old. What good, he seemed to wonder, does it do to try to bring something new into an old system when the end is not reform but ruin?
The old is tried and true, but it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. The new is fresh and exciting, but it hasn't always had time to mature. They both have their place; but their place isn't always together.
New wine needs a new wineskin; and the last thing an old garment needs is a new patch that won't make it through the wringer.
In other words, no matter how much fun you thought you were going to have, it just ain't much of a party when your favorite jacket is ruined and all the wine is on the carpet.
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