Tearing
Read Luke 5.
This chapter begins and ends with tearing. At the beginning, Simon is the boat owner who finds himself confronted with a rabbi who is a better fisherman than he is. "We've fished all night," Simon complains, "and we didn't catch anything." Yet, when they put their nets out again (in the daytime, not the usual time to go fishing), they catch more than their nets can handle. The nets begin to tear. The whole thing scares Simon. Suddenly he realizes this rabbi is more than he appears to be. Something new and unexpected is happening here, and it changes Simon's life. In fact, it changes him so much that he leaves behind everything he has known in order to be part of the new. As the nets lay behind him, torn, so Simon is torn from his former life and hurled into a new one.
At the end of the chapter, some group ("they") comes to Jesus and asks questions about the sort of things faithful people will do. At least it's assumed that faithful people do these things. Fasting and prayer are supposed to bring you closer to God. Why wouldn't faithful people practice such things? But Jesus reminds them that you don't have to do those things when God himself (in the person of Jesus) is right in your midst (though they will be useful again later, after he is gone).
Then there is this sort of confusing parable about wine and wineskins, old and new. I've struggled with what Jesus says here, because on a surface reading, he seems to be first affirming the "new" and then affirming the "old." It seems pretty obvious that Jesus is the "new," that he has brought "new wine." Why, then, does he make the statement he does in verse 39?
What we often miss here (what I have missed for a long time) is that Jesus is quoting a known proverb. "The old is better" is something that people who are stuck in the old ways would say. They wouldn't even try the new because their minds are already made up. "The old is better," even though it's not. And yet, the two don't mix well. You don't put the new in an old container. The old can't contain the new. The new will tear the old. But, in contrast to Simon, these folks "prefer" the old and aren't interested in what Jesus has come to do. In some ways, Jesus is saying, "Leave them be. You follow me into the new life I came to bring."
As Jesus is bringing new life and new hope to the world around us, we have to ask ourselves if we're willing to be like Simon and leave behind the old in favor of the new. Are we willing to follow Jesus where he leads, or will we stay at home convinced that "the old is better"? The world around us, the "old," is passing away; the new world and new hope has come in Jesus!
This chapter begins and ends with tearing. At the beginning, Simon is the boat owner who finds himself confronted with a rabbi who is a better fisherman than he is. "We've fished all night," Simon complains, "and we didn't catch anything." Yet, when they put their nets out again (in the daytime, not the usual time to go fishing), they catch more than their nets can handle. The nets begin to tear. The whole thing scares Simon. Suddenly he realizes this rabbi is more than he appears to be. Something new and unexpected is happening here, and it changes Simon's life. In fact, it changes him so much that he leaves behind everything he has known in order to be part of the new. As the nets lay behind him, torn, so Simon is torn from his former life and hurled into a new one.
At the end of the chapter, some group ("they") comes to Jesus and asks questions about the sort of things faithful people will do. At least it's assumed that faithful people do these things. Fasting and prayer are supposed to bring you closer to God. Why wouldn't faithful people practice such things? But Jesus reminds them that you don't have to do those things when God himself (in the person of Jesus) is right in your midst (though they will be useful again later, after he is gone).
Then there is this sort of confusing parable about wine and wineskins, old and new. I've struggled with what Jesus says here, because on a surface reading, he seems to be first affirming the "new" and then affirming the "old." It seems pretty obvious that Jesus is the "new," that he has brought "new wine." Why, then, does he make the statement he does in verse 39?
What we often miss here (what I have missed for a long time) is that Jesus is quoting a known proverb. "The old is better" is something that people who are stuck in the old ways would say. They wouldn't even try the new because their minds are already made up. "The old is better," even though it's not. And yet, the two don't mix well. You don't put the new in an old container. The old can't contain the new. The new will tear the old. But, in contrast to Simon, these folks "prefer" the old and aren't interested in what Jesus has come to do. In some ways, Jesus is saying, "Leave them be. You follow me into the new life I came to bring."
As Jesus is bringing new life and new hope to the world around us, we have to ask ourselves if we're willing to be like Simon and leave behind the old in favor of the new. Are we willing to follow Jesus where he leads, or will we stay at home convinced that "the old is better"? The world around us, the "old," is passing away; the new world and new hope has come in Jesus!
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