OLD THINGS AND NEW, PART 2

In Luke 5:36-39 we read - "Jesus also told a parable to them: 'No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old garment, or else he will tear the new, and also the piece from the new will not match the old. No one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved. No man having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says, "The old is better."'"

Matthew 9:22-23 and Mark 2:17-18 tell this same parable of Jesus, but they omit that last sentence: "No man having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says, 'The old is better.'" This raises an interesting question: is the point of the parable that the new wine (the Gospel) is better - Matthew's and Mark's versions, or that the old wine (the law of Moses) is better - Luke's version?

The question goes deeper than that: should Christians worship in ways that stick to old forms of dress, language and music; or should they adopt new forms - blue jeans and Hawaiian shirts, recent slang expressions, and rock music? Certainly, Jesus Christ did not have the latter in mind when He spoke this parable! But to rephrase the question, is the Gospel of Christ a complete break with the Old Testament law, or does it carry over some aspects of the law of Moses? Let's take a look at some of the relevant Bible passages and writings of the Church Fathers:

Concerning Luke 5:36-39, St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote: "Those who live according to the law cannot receive the institutions of Christ. These institutions cannot be admitted into the hearts of such as have not as yet received the renewing by the Holy Spirit. The Lord shows this by saying that a tattered patch cannot be put upon a new garment, nor can old skins hold new wine. The first covenant has grown old, nor was it free from fault. Those, therefore, who adhere to it and keep at heart the antiquated commandment have no share in the new order of things in Christ. In him all things are become new, but their mind being decayed, they have no harmony or point of mutual agreement with the ministers of the new covenant." (Commentary on Luke, Homilies 21-22)

This week I've been reading the book of Leviticus: in chapters 1-23 Moses prescribed very detailed laws not only about the priesthood, worship and sacrifices of animals and grain, but also property rights, health and disease, sexual conduct, planting crops, weaving fabrics, treatment of slaves and resident foreigners and so on. We have incorporated some of the underlying basic principles into Christianity: the clergy must be held to stricter standards of purity, worship should occur in a specific holy place, no incest or marriage between close relatives, treating foreign refugees as equals if they adopt our culture and laws, etc.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught that He is the fulfillment of the law of Moses, that His Gospel exceeds the O.T. law's righteousness: “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill. For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished. Whoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." (Mat. 5:17-20)

St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote: "Whoever sets aside one of the least of the commandments of the law should expect to be set aside as an inventor of laws opposed to God." St. Jerome commented: "Teachers’ learning, even if tainted by a small sin, demotes them from the highest degree. It does not profit them to teach a righteousness that they undermine by the slightest fault." And St. John Chrysostom penned these words: "After the coming of Christ we are favored with a greater strength than law as such." All of these Church Fathers understood that the Gospel did not do away with the O.T. law, but rather has set a higher standard.

St. Paul that the O.T. law is holy, righteous and good, but unable to change human nature: "Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good. Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin." (Rom. 7:12-14) He goes on to describe the inner struggle that humans experience, and the resolution in Christ:

"For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice. But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present. For I delight in God’s law after the inward man, but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin." (Rom. 7:19-25)

Paul thanked through Jesus Christ, Who in chapters 5, 6 and 7 of Hebrews is called "a priest forever, after the order of Melchizidek," that is, Christ instituted a new priesthood, not from the line of Aaron and his sons, who needed to cleanse their own sins before they could intercede for the people of Israel. Thus we see that the New Testament and the Church Fathers clearly saw a carry-over of some elements from the Old Testament, not discarding them completely, but transforming them into something new, higher and greater.

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 06 Feb. 2016.)