"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results. No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins." Mark 2:21-22Here Jesus is saying He is not just a patch for the current mode of religion (that is the Pharisees). He cannot just be attached/fit in to their way of doing things. Jesus was bringing something completely new and it did not mesh with the Judaism He found.
It is the same today. Jesus is not a patch to be put on stale religious tradition. The only way the two mix is if we drop useless traditions and let Jesus transform other traditions into what they were meant to be. Take fasting for example. If done as God intended, it deprives us of something physically necessary (like food), teaching us to rely on Him. In the case of food, when we get hungry we are to turn to God and spend time in prayer with Him. This should then help us remember to turn to God when we are in need, even with something as basic as hunger.
A few questions to ponder:
Have I become like old skins or old cloth?
Am I trying to hold onto both Jesus and some tradition He is asking me to lay aside?
Am I blindly following common protocol, or am I truly walking with Jesus?
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