Teachers, save “Parable of The Wine Skins and Cloth” to assign it to your class.

Matthew 9:16-17 Jesus spoke this parable to the disciple: No man puts a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up takes from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Jesus also illustrated: Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runs out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. Mark 2:21-22 No man also sews a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse. And no man puts new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles. Luke 5:36-39 Jesus also spoke a parable unto the disciples; No man puts a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new makes a rent (tear), and the piece that was taken out of the new agrees not with the old. And no man puts new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. No man also having drunk old wine straightway desires new: for he saith, The old is better. What Can This Lesson Teach Us? This parable that Jesus is telling came after the Pharisees came and asked him a question about fasting. They wanted to know why the disciples of John the Baptist fasted, but the disciples of Jesus did not. Jesus explained to them that the disciples of John fasted because John was dead. However, His disciples didn’t need to fast because He was still on earth with them. He then goes into the parable. The message of both the cloth and the wine skin are the same message of patching up the old with the new. This mixing of the old and the new does not work. Jesus uses the example of putting a new piece of cloth on old garment. When your parents were younger they use to have their jeans patched, usually on the knees. Look at your jeans that are made out of heavy denim material; imagine if you had an unwanted hole in the knee and your mom patched it with a piece of new light weight cotton that looks like denim. The tear becomes worse than it was. The old denim is frayed or unraveled around the edges so when you sew that new cloth onto the old hole is made much worse. The tear becomes worse than it was.