“Then John’s disciples came and asked him, ‘How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ Jesus answered, ‘How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast. No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.’” (Matthew 9:14-17)
Jesus came challenging deeply held beliefs and traditions. What He was offering could not be accepted and just become a part of the old system, the old way of approaching God. It was something totally new and required a radical shift in thinking and in life.
The Jews struggled with that because their roots in the old system were so deep. They couldn’t envision approaching God any way but the way of their fathers, the way they had been used to for generations. Because they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, let go of the past, many of them missed what Jesus was offering, the peace, the joy, the freedom, the eternity of a fresh relationship with the Heavenly Father.
What Jesus offers continues to challenge deeply held beliefs and traditions. Men continue to fall back into old belief systems. Men want to approach God in the way that seems right to them -- by something they offer Him. But nothing that we can ever offer God will put us into right relationship with Him. That is available in only one way, through the new thing Jesus offered then, and still offers today, a relationship with God through what He’s done.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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