Old Clothes

Mark 2:21-22

“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse.”

In Mark chapter two, Jesus has just healed the paralytic man who had been lowered through the roof and forgiven of his sin, causing a stir among the scribes who teach that only God can forgive sins. Jesus then goes on and asks Matthew, a tax collector, to be His disciple and goes to a party at Matthew’s house, causing more consternation among the Pharisees. They then ask Jesus why He and his disciples don’t fast twice a week like the Pharisees and their disciples. 

It is in this context that Jesus makes the above comment about old clothes. Jesus had a habit of totally upsetting the traditions of His day in His teachings and actions. What He did and said challenged the norms and traditions of His day. To choose a tax collector hated by Jews to be His disciple and then go hang out at a party with all his ungodly, corrupt, and wicked friends, when Jesus should have been fasting with His disciples, was total sacrilege. All of this was punctuated by a demonstration of power that no one had ever seen before.

Jesus has not changed. He still wants to strip us of our old clothes, our old nature, mindset, and traditions that war against what God wants to do in our lives and our communities. We tend to cling to our understanding and experiences to define our future. When faced with new challenges in the wilderness, the children of Isreal kept wanting to go back to the familiar of Egypt. Egypt was not a good place but a safe place that they were familiar with and understood. The wilderness was a hostile environment where they were totally dependent upon God.

Jesus calls us to a radical change of dying to our old nature, ways of thinking, and doing things. We, in turn, would prefer a gradual reformation. We want to keep the old clothes of our past that we are comfortable with and just have Jesus patch the bad spots in our lives. But Jesus wants to strip us of ourselves, so that He can clothe us with himself and move us into our future. The only way from Egypt to the Promised Land is through the wilderness, where we totally lose control and become dependent on the Father.

Sometimes we forfeit future promises of God for the security of our present. We become so familiar with where we are. It is not the best, but it is comfortable. Allow God to enlarge your borders. New borders bring new challenges but also greater capacity. God doesn’t call us to be normal because Jesus lives in us. God wants to introduce you to your future while you are in your present. “For I know the plans (plural) I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

Andy Clark