Mark Chapter 2 has a series of stories that I think are summed up in Jesus’ little story of wineskins and new cloths:

²¹ “No one sews a piece of new, unshrunk cloth on old clothes; otherwise, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and makes a worse tear. ²² No one pours new wine into old leather wineskins; otherwise, the wine would burst the wineskins and the wine would be lost and the wineskins destroyed. But new wine is for new wineskins.” (Mark 2:21-22, CEB)

I think Mark uses those words to describe the events around that encounter in Chapter 2. God is bringing something powerful to the people of God and they just aren’t ready for it. Their old systems aren’t going to handle it. It’s not a “new” thing, necessarily. It is a GOD thing.

One of the old systems had to do with “unclean.” When someone had a skin disease in the Old Testament they were quarantined. If the “clean” were to touch the “unclean,” the “unclean” would infect the “clean.” The solution was to separate the two for a time and allow the “unclean” to become “clean” again.

Religious leaders had then extended that to Gentiles and other people they didn’t like. You just don’t hang out with “that kind.”

Here comes Jesus calling “unclean” people like tax collectors and then going to their homes for dinner! To share a meal was a sign of acceptance. The religious leaders were furious!

Jesus’ answer was simple:

“Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. I didn’t come to call righteous people, but sinners.” (v. 17)

The Kingdom of God was reversing the Old Testament paradigm. NOW it is when the “clean” touches the “unclean” it is the UNCLEAN that gets “infected” with the clean. Healing dwells in the Kingdom of God. Healing dwells wherever the Kingdom of God moves. Healing dwells with the people of God.

When we choose to move out and “infect” our world with the power of the Kingdom, we will find our wineskins are adequate for the Kingdom of God.