Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 9:17

"Neither do [men] put new wine into old wine-skins: else the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins perish: but they put new wine into fresh wine-skins, and both are preserved." — Matthew 9:17 (ASV)

His teaching and spirit could not be associated with the Pharisaic order of things. Judaism in its degenerate condition was an old skin bottle which had seen its day, and our Lord would not pour the new wine of the kingdom of heaven into it.

John’s disciples were trying to emulate the Pharisees and make common cause with them to save the old Church. Jesus would have nothing to do with this project. He would have a new Church for His new doctrine and for His new spirit.

There was to be no amalgamation. Christianity was not to be an outgrowth of Rabbinism. There was to be a severance between Jesus and the scribes and their school of thought, for He who had come was resolved to make all things new.

There is rare teaching here and guidance for the present crisis. Compromises are often proposed, and we have good people, like John’s disciples, who would have us conform to what they think good in things established, but we had better act consistently and begin anew. The old cloth will always be tearing, and tearing all the worse because of our new pieces; therefore, let us leave the old garment to those who prefer antiquity to truth.

The mixing of wedding feasts and funeral fasts, the patching of old cloth with pieces unfurled and unshrunk, and the putting of new wine into old bottles are all pictures of those mixtures and compromises, which cannot, in the nature of things, serve any good and lasting purpose. If we follow the rejoicing Bridegroom, let us not try to keep in with the fasting Pharisees or the sacramentarian legalists of the day. Let the scientific Doubters also go, for faith is not of their mind. She knows, and can never be, Agnostic. Let us have done with the doubts which make us fast, and let us hold high festival while the Bridegroom is still with us by His Spirit.

Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.

Do not expect from a young beginner what would be unsuitable for him, even though it should be most fitting and proper in a mature Christian; and do not expect to see in a mature Christian all the vigor and alertness of spirit that you look for in ardent souls in all the fervor of their first love to Christ. Let us be mindful of these distinctions.