"How's .....the .......wine....?

Mucha

And John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting:
and they come and say unto him,
Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but thy disciples fast not?
And Jesus said unto them,
Can the sons of the bride–chamber fast,
while the bridegroom is with them?
as long as they have the bridegroom with them,
they cannot fast.
But the days will come,
when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them,
and then will they fast in that day.
No man seweth a piece of undressed cloth on an old garment:
else that which should fill it up taketh from it,
the new from the old,
and a worse rent is made.
And no man putteth new wine into old wineskins:
else the wine will burst the skins,
and the wine perisheth,
and the skins:
but they put new wine into fresh wineskins.
Mark 2:18-22 RV

I have been on holiday for the past few weeks, hence no daily reflection blog activity. I started this one the other day, but internet connections became sporadic once more.

In the above reading, Jesus gives the Pharisees three parables; two of which are about the "new way".

The first consists of the idea of using new cloth to fix an old garment, and how it won't work:

No man seweth a piece of undressed cloth on an old garment:
else that which should fill it up taketh from it,
the new from the old,
and a worse rent is made.
Mark 2:21 RV

The new material won't stay with the sold, in fact, it will make it worse if it is joined together. The fasting of the pharisees is the old way, and Jesus and his disciples do not need to do this. I also think this stands for the new religion having to remove itself from the old. Whether readers at the time would have seen this I doubt.

The next parable expands upon this idea:

And no man putteth new wine into old wineskins:
else the wine will burst the skins,
and the wine perisheth,
and the skins:
but they put new wine into fresh wineskins.
Mark 2:22 RV

One cannot hold new spiritual and religious values and practices while remaining within the old. They need new values and practices. The old no longer fit, or are worthy.

I am a huge fan of Liszt. His music is fantastic, and he was obviously a very spiritual man. When he started to compose the symphonic poems, he said he was using new forms because his new ideas and harmonies could not be restricted to sonata form. He said "new wine demands new bottles", paraphrasing the above reading. Being late to all this Christian stuff, I read the Liszt quote thinking it was his own work, and a clever one at that.

This leads to the above picture. Liszt was a huge absinthe drinker. A slight connection, but my wife like Mucha, so there it is.