1. Mark 2:22 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Why should the images of old and new wineskins be unexpected after the question of fasting?

Mark 2:22 (ESV)

22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

The choice of images is unexpected after the question about fasting, unless we reflect on the association of the disciples’ eating and drinking with festal garments and the wine of happiness. Jesus is new in Israel: the joy of new feasting is appropriate (a new garment and new wineskins). His presence on earth and his coming entrance into the kingdom determine the new feasting and fasting. An ecclesiastical year remains, together with a calendar of feast days, but we must make a new one now that Jesus has appeared.1