Matthew 9

The Pharisees and John’s disciples both had questions about why Jesus was doing things differently. Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners? Why don’t His disciples fast?

Jesus answered with images. The guests at a wedding don’t mourn while the bridegroom is with them. The time for mourning comes later. You don’t patch old cloth with new cloth. You don’t put new wine in old wineskins.

Something new is happening. And old containers can’t hold it.

I’ve watched people try to hold new things in old structures and have them burst. The new community growing faster than the old systems could contain. The new understanding of God that the old categories kept distorting. The new season of life that the old identity couldn’t accommodate.

The wineskin isn’t bad. The old cloth isn’t evil. They’re just not designed for what’s coming. Recognizing when a container needs to change rather than when the wine needs to stop is one of the harder forms of discernment.