Congregational Pulpit Mark 2:21-22 No man also sews a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up takes away from the old… Christ gave his replies to John's disciples and the Pharisees. The first had a temporary application; the other a permanent one. 1. Fasting was a sign of sorrow; but how could these disciples sorrow while Jesus was with them? it was like trying to weep in the midst of a wedding feast. Christians have alternations of experience. Sometimes the Bridegroom is with us; sometimes far away. 2. The other answer sets forth the essential difference between the new dispensation and the impossibility of confining it by the old forms and ceremonies of religion. Now, these bottles represent religious forms, and wine represents religious spirit or life. Consider — I. The SUPERIOR ENERGY of Christianity over Judaism. It is new wine. Judaism was wine; but this is newer, and also better. But this is not the point of comparison. The point is, that the gospel has a freshness, expansiveness, and power, beyond what we find in Judaism, so that it is like new, working and fermenting wine as compared with old acetic wine, now cold and still. See it in a few particulars: — 1. Its earnest aggressive spirit and aim. It was meant for the world, to go out to all nations. Judaism was for the Jews, or if for Gentiles, it was by these coming to the Jews as proselytes. Its agency is the same. 2. Its potent and stimulating motives. Christ's love and death constrain us; and the apocalypse of the eternal world is made more impressive and influential. Compare these with Jewish types, etc. 3. The ardour of affection awakened in the followers of Christ. Their whole nature is elevated and vivified by a new love and a new hope. 4. The accompanying energy of the Holy Ghost. II. The UNSUITABLENESS OF OLD JEWISH FORMS to the new Christian spirit. All are too narrow, cold, and cramping. As fastings, sacrifices, priestly exclusiveness, and even the Sabbath. III. Yet CHRISTIANITY HAS ITS OWN FORMS. The wine is not spilt on the ground, but kept in bottles — the Christian Church in its New Testament simplicity, the ordinances, the Lord's day, spiritual modes of worship. All these naturally come out of the spirit of the gospel. The life makes its own body. Truly, this law has been tampered with most grievously by men, and the energy of the gospel has suffered; its freedom has been trammelled, and its life deadened. Lessons: 1. Our supreme concern should be to get the life of the gospel into our souls. 2. We should avoid a superstitious stickling for mere forms, however old and elegant, if they are but arbitrary and mechanical. 3. We should be willing to endorse and adopt the simple, natural, and living forms of the New Testament — joining the church, engaging in worship, etc. 4. We should apply it to our whole deportment and life — all must be renewed, and new wine put in new bottles. Let all our habits be determined and controlled by the inner spirit of piety. Things once pleasant to us will now be unpleasant and irksome. Many amusements and pleasures will be instantly abandoned, when we have got the right spirit within us; whereas, otherwise, it would be vain to contend and argue against them. (Congregational Pulpit.) Parallel Verses KJV: No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse. |
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