New Year, New Wine

We start out the New Year with a teaching of Jesus on the newness of the kingdom and how it was, in many ways, incompatible with the Old Covenant traditions of the religious leaders of his day. In Matthew 9:14-17, Jesus offers three responses to his disciples not partaking in the religious traditions of their day. Through the parables of the bridegroom, old garments, and new wine, Jesus confounds his audience with the truth of the new kingdom and the New Covenant he came to establish.