New Cloaks and New Wineskins

In Matthew 11.14-17 Jesus answers a question about why his disciples aren't fasting when lots of others are. I know that his answer has to do with a re-working of traditional Jewish expectations about the Messiah and the end of the exile. Jesus is saying that fasting is for those who still consider themselves to be in exile. The further claim, of course, is that the exile is over for those who follow him, that there's a new way of being Israel. Fasting will still have a place, but not the place it used to have, as a commemoration that all was not well, that the exile was not over, that Israel awaited a hope yet to be fulfilled.

On the other hand, a related theme always seems to leap out of this passage at me. The question was about fasting; Jesus answer is about patches and old wine on old, damaged cloaks and old, weak wineskins. Note that in both cases we're talking about normal wear and tear. Nothing unusual here. Cloaks tear in the course of fulfilling their function. Wineskins erode because of the acid content of wine. The point is, this kind of wear and tear is a normal part of life in the kingdom of God and neither patches nor new wine are solutions to the problem. As a matter of fact, they just make the existing problem worse. This is a great example of something I say a lot at my church: Jesus doesn't stop at the symptoms, but goes deep, all the way to the real problem. What's needed is not a patch or new wine, but an entirely new cloak or a brand new wineskin. The old ones are no longer serviceable.

This is what fasting, or any spiritual discipline, is about: getting deeper than the God-eclipsing behavior that is the symptom of the real problem. Spiritual disciplines are all about rejecting patches and new wine, and instead placing ourselves before God to receive new cloaks and new wineskins. This is something God has to do from the inside out; this is not a matter of altering external behavior or simply changing a habit. God must change who we are; he must address the desires that motivate our behavior.

Spiritual disciplines are about solving problems and rejecting temporary fixes. To quote Thomas Merton:

"To desire a spiritual life is, thus, to desire discipline. Otherwise our desire is an illusion...if we are not strict with ourselves, our own flesh will soon deceive us. If we do not command ourselves to pray and do penance at certain definite times, and make up our minds to keep our resolutions in spite of notable inconvenience and difficulty, we will quickly be deluded by our own excuses and let ourselves be led away by weakness and caprice." (pg. 117, Asceticism and Sacrifice, No Man is an Island)