When the Pharisees ask why Jesus’ disciples eat and drink while others fast, Jesus answers with a parable about new cloth on old garments and new wine in old wineskins. The lesson first describes the religion behind the question: honoring God with the lips while the heart is far away, cleaning the outside of the cup, and forsaking the fountain of living waters for broken cisterns. True religion is set beside false. The questioners also failed to discern the times, because the Bridegroom was with them.
The new cannot be stitched onto the old, and mixing them does harm to both. The gospel’s central theme is the re-creation of all things. Anyone in Christ is a new creature, and God has promised a new heart, a new spirit, newness of life and a new heavens and earth. That new creation dawned when Christ rose on the first day of the week. It is already at work spiritually in God’s people and awaits its full, bodily completion.