The Butcher, tailor and the pinot gris maker

Alan Collins from Hibiscus Bible Church
30 Nov 2025

Mark 2:13-22
Had we been living in the first century, we probably would have aligned ourselves with the Pharisees, who wanted to see good reforms in God’s kingdom and cared greatly about God’s law.
In V16, we see that in asking, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” they did not see themselves as sinners. However, by answering them V17, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick,” Jesus compared good morality with wellness and sin with sickness. By so doing, He was in fact pointing out that everyone is a sinner, just as everyone falls sick.
V18 tells us that the Pharisees and John’s disciples were fasting. Fasting was another hedged that they have erected to protect themselves from straying away from the law. We see in V19, Jesus said, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.” Jesus was the Messiah and the Bridegroom. Wedding guests cannot fast. So Jesus implies that the Pharisees are not the wedding guests.
This would have blown their minds, because, although they regarded Yahweh as their Husband, they had no concept of the Messiah coming as a husband to wed the nation. (For a brief time when the Bridegroom is taken away to be crucified, the disciples would mourn and fast.)
New Clothes V21. Clothes were very expensive. Thieves would steal clothes off people’s backs. Most people only owned one set of clothing, which they mended as best as they could. You cannot patch an old garment with a new cloth.
New Wine V22. Grape juice did not stay grape juice for long with no refrigeration or pasteurization. It would slowly turn into vinegar that was disgusting. Or you could put it in a wine skin, that you would get from the butcher, sealing off the juice so it would not get oxidized. This way, instead of turning into vinegar, it would turn into alcohol, which was rich and tasty, and fit for a wedding.
The Pharisees saw that the covenant of works was broken, we were failing to keep it, and their plan to fix it was to add new Pharisaical traditions. This was what Jesus compared to the attempt of fixing an old garment with a new piece of fabric.
The new wine represents us. Babies are considered as being innocent, but as we grow up we are corrupted by the world and become vinegar, fit only to be spat out. We need a wineskin. But old wine skin cannot handle the expansion caused by the gases produced in the fermentation process, and it will burst. Jesus is saying that there needs to be an animal that is slain, a new wine skin, which will turn us into something that is acceptable for a wedding. In order to be regenerated, what is needed is not becoming more religious with new rules, but Someone had to die.
We so easily forget the importance of the atonement of Christ. We should be reminding each other of the gospel in our thoughts, words and deeds. 1 Pet 3:18a For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. Jesus kept the 613 laws. He kept the Covenant of works. He earned salvation for all of us. If we feel at any point that we have lost God’s favour, it is anti Gospel. Our favour with God has been won by the finished work of Jesus. Like grape juice is turned to the finest Pinot Gris, 2 Cor 5:17 tells us that Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. Rom 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. The reason the world looks on us thinking that we believe and practice moralism is perhaps because we have forgotten how important the death of the Lord Jesus is not only for our Justification (saved from the penalty of sin) but also for our Sanctification (being saved from the power of sin). The atonement should be central in our thinking, our words, and actions, and we should constantly remind each other of this, and the Lord will produce in us good works, a fine wine.