As we have pointed out, following the incident of the Lord’s feasting with tax collectors and sinners, the disciples of John, the new-time religionists, and the disciples of the Pharisees, the old-time religionists, asked the Lord why His disciples did not fast. It seems that they wanted the Lord’s disciples to join them in fasting. It was necessary for them to fast because, as far as they were concerned, the Messiah and the kingdom had not yet come. Since they were still waiting for the coming of the Messiah and the kingdom, they were fasting.
The Lord answered the disciples of John and the Pharisees not in a direct way but by using certain figures of speech. In His answer the Lord referred to Himself as the Bridegroom, and He also spoke of new cloth and new wine. The Lord seemed to be saying, “Why should My disciples fast when they have everything they need to make them joyful? They have Me as the Bridegroom, and they have Me as their righteousness, their new cloth, and also as their life, their new wine. I am everything they need. I am God and Man; I am the Physician and the Bridegroom, the most pleasant person. It is ridiculous for My disciples to fast when they have Me. I am the garment that covers them and beautifies them, and My life is the real wine that fills them, stirs them, and satisfies them. Instead of fasting, they should be full of joy. You ask them to fast. But I tell you it is impossible for them to fast, because the Bridegroom is here with them, the new cloth is upon them, and the new wine is within them.” How wise and how wonderful is the Lord’s answer, His word concerning the Bridegroom, the cloth, and wine!
Perhaps we should have a gospel meeting and tell the people that Jesus Christ today is the Bridegroom, that He as our righteousness is the cloth to cover our nakedness and to beautify us, and that His divine life is the wine for us to drink for our satisfaction. This is the real gospel—a living Person with righteousness and life. Hallelujah, we have the Bridegroom, and we have Him as righteousness outwardly and as our life inwardly!
In 2:21 the Lord speaks of unshrunk cloth. The Greek word rendered “unshrunk” also means new, raw, unwrought. The Greek word is agnaphos, formed with a-, which means not, and gnapto, which means to card or comb wool; hence, to dress or full the cloth. Thus, the word means uncarded, unfulled, unfinished, unshrunk, untreated. This unshrunk cloth signifies Christ, from His incarnation to His crucifixion, as a piece of new cloth, untreated, unfinished. The new garment in Luke 5:36 signifies Christ, after being treated in His crucifixion, as a new robe. In Mark 2:21 the Greek word for new is kainos. First Christ was the unshrunk cloth for making a new garment, and then through His death and resurrection He was made a new garment to cover us as our righteousness before God so that we may be justified by God and acceptable to Him (Luke 15:22; Gal. 3:27; 1 Cor. 1:30; Phil. 3:9).
The old garment here signifies man’s good behavior, good deeds, and religious practices by his natural life, the life of the old creation. If a patch made of unshrunk cloth is sewn on an old garment, it will take away from it, the new from the old, and the tear will become worse. To imitate what the Lord Jesus did in His human life on earth can be compared to putting a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Some try to imitate the human deeds of the Lord Jesus in order to improve their behavior, instead of believing in the crucified Jesus as their Redeemer and the resurrected Christ as their righteousness so that they may be justified by God and acceptable to Him. We should take the crucified and resurrected Christ as our new garment to cover us as our righteousness before God. We should not try to improve our behavior by imitating the Lord’s human deeds.
In 2:22 the Lord Jesus goes on to say, “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the wineskins, and the wine and the wineskins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins.” The Greek word for new in this verse is neos, which means new in time, recent, young. The new wine here signifies Christ as the new life, full of vigor, stirring us to excitement. The Slave-Savior is not only the Bridegroom for our enjoyment; He is also our new garment to equip and qualify us outwardly for attending the wedding and also the new life to excite us inwardly for the enjoyment of Him as our Bridegroom. To enjoy Him as the Bridegroom, we need Him as the new garment outwardly and as the new wine inwardly.
The old wineskins in 2:22 signify religious practices, such as the fasting held by the Pharisees of the old religion and the disciples of John of the new religion. All religions are old wineskins. New wine put into old wineskins bursts the wineskins by its fermenting power. To put new wine into old wineskins is to put Christ as the exciting life into any kind of religion. Instead of trying to put Christ into different religious rituals and formalities, we should put the new wine into fresh wineskins.
The Greek word for fresh here is kainos, which means new in nature, quality, or form; unaccustomed, unused; hence, fresh. The fresh wineskins signify the church life as the container of the new wine, which is Christ Himself as the exciting life. As those who believe in the Lord, we are regenerated persons constituting the Body of Christ to be the church (Rom. 12:5; Eph. 1:22-23). This Body of Christ as His fullness is also called “the Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12), the corporate Christ. The individual Christ is the new wine, the exciting life inwardly, and the corporate Christ is the fresh wineskin, the container to hold the new wine outwardly. What we have today is not fasting or other religious practices; instead, we have the church life with Christ as our content. We have Him, the living Person, as our Physician, Bridegroom, unshrunk cloth, and new wine. He is our full enjoyment so that we may be the fresh wineskin, His Body, the church, to contain Him.