No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.
Matthew Henry
Two things Christ pleads in excuse of his disciples ...
1. That these were easy days with them ... (20)
2. That these were early days with them, and they were not so able for the severe exercises of religion as hereafter they would be. The Pharisees had long accustomed themselves to such austerities; and John Baptist himself came neither eating nor drinking. His disciples from the first inured themselves to hardships, and thus found it easier to bear strict and frequent fasting, but it was not so with Christ's disciples; their Master came eating and drinking, and had not bred them up to the difficult services of religion as yet, for it was all in good time. To put them upon such frequent fasting at first, would be a discouragement to them, and perhaps drive them off from following Christ; it would be of as ill consequence as putting new wine into old casks, or sewing new cloth to that which is worn thin and threadbare, 21, 22.
Note, God graciously considers the frame of young Christians, that are weak and tender, and so must we; nor must we expect more than the work of the day in its day, and that day according to the strength, because it is not in our hands to give strength according to the day. Many contract an antipathy to some kind of food, otherwise good, by being surfeited with it when they are young; so, many entertain prejudices against the exercises of devotion by being burthened with them, and made to serve with an offering, at their setting out. Weak Christians must take heed of over-tasking themselves, and of making the yoke of Christ otherwise than as it is, easy, and sweet, and pleasant.
John Gill
No man also seweth, etc The traditions of the elders are meant, particularly concerning eating and drinking, and fasting, things before spoken of; and which occasioned this parable, and which were new things in comparison of the commands of God: some of them were of very short standing, devised in, that age; and most, if not all of them, were since the times of Ezra.
On an old garment; the moral and ceremonial righteousness of the Jews, in obedience to the law of God; signifying, that the former were not to be joined with these, to make up a justifying righteousness before God; which were not sufficient for such a purpose, either singly, or both together:
else the new piece that filled it up, etc for by attendance to the traditions of the elders, the Jews were taken off from, and neglected the commandments of God; nay, oftentimes the commands of God were made void by these traditions, so that the old garment of their own righteousness, which was very ragged and imperfect of itself, instead of being purer and more perfect, became much the worse, even for the purpose for which it was intendedAnd no man putteth new wine, etc By "old bottles" are meant, the Scribes and Pharisees, the whole, which needed not a physician, and the righteous, Christ came not to call; and by new wine, either the love of God, which is not shed abroad in the hearts of such persons; or the blessings of the new covenant, which are not bestowed upon them; or the Gospel, which brings an account of both, which is not received by carnal men:
else the new wine doth burst the bottles, etc the Gospel will only fill them with rage and fury, and they will despise it, and let it go; which will be an aggravation of their sin and misery, and so will prove the savour of death unto death unto them:
but new wine must be put, etc into the hearts of sinners, who are called to repentance, and are renewed in the Spirit of their minds; are newborn babes, that desire the sincere milk of the word, and wine of the Gospel; in these the love of God is exceeding abundant, and it comes in with full flows into their souls; all grace is made to abound towards them, and the word of Christ richly dwells in them; in whom these things remain and abide, and they themselves are saved with an everlasting salvation.
R C H Lenski
But more must be said. The question in regard to fasting is only a small part of a far greater subject. In order to understand fully why the disciples of Jesus are not fasting at present and also how they will come to fast in a way that is totally different from that of the Pharisees, Jesus explains that what he brings cannot like a mere patch, be fastened to an old, outworn garment, nor be confined in old, dried-out wineskin.
Jesus is not like a foolish woman who tries to mend an old, worn-out robe with a patch (epiblema) from a piece of goods (rachus) that is fresh from the loom (agnathos). The reason is that the piece used to fill in (to pleroma) tears or carries away something from the old garment (aire ap autou), the new from the old (tou palaiou, the genitive of separation), and a worse rent is made. A little of the new is worse than useless to preserve the old. Discard the old entirely and accept not merely a bit of the new but all the new in its completeness. Not a new patch but a new robe.
Jesus is uttering a great principle in figurative language, the one on which he acts and is training his disciples to act. John's disciples were perplexed when they saw Jesus and his disciples acting on this principle, for they did not understand what the principle was, or how true and genuine it was. The old robe is the Judaism of that period, namely what the scribes and Pharisees had made of it with their doctrine and their practice, all the old formalism, outward observances, and false righteousness (Matt. 5:20). It was useless to try to patch this up with a bit of the teaching or the practice of Jesus. The new would only tear the old worse than ever. The doctrine of grace and faith and the life that springs from it cannot possibly be combined even in small part, with Pharisaic Judaism, in either its ancient or its present modernistic form. Discard the old robe of works, take in its place the new robe of Christ's righteousness! ...
(22) This second illustration completes the thought. The old cannot be kept by adding a little of the new; still less by combining with it all of the new. In this respect the thought is parallel. Both illustrations speak of conserving, in the first the old robe, in the second, the new wine. The old robe cannot be conserved by adding the new patch; the new wine cannot be conserved by pouring it into old wineskins. In this respect the illustrations are opposites. The second, however, ends in a climax - both the new wine and the old wineskins are lost. A wineskin was a goatskin removed without slitting it; the openings at the feet and the tail are closed, leaving the neck as well as the mouth. In Palestine and in Damascus we saw these skins still being used by water carriers. When it is fresh, the skin stretches considerably, but when it is old, it becomes stiff and bursts under pressure. People, therefore, never put new wine into old and dried- out skins. The result would be disastrous, for the skins would burst, and both skins and wine would be lost. ...
