New Cloth on Old Garment - Matthew, Mark, and Luke
Mat 9:10 And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.
Mat 9:11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?
Mat 9:12 But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
Mat 9:13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Mat 9:14 Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?
Mat 9:16 No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.
Key words:
Man = Jesus (Isa 53:3)
new cloth = the new covenant, his new kingdom, his church, his body of believers (Jer 31:31) (Heb 8:13)
old garment = the old covenant, Jewish priests and the temple (Mat 27:51)
In other words:
The old system of Jewish priests teaching God’s rules of conduct and sacrifices at the temple as payment for violations thereof is so corrupt he won’t mend it with his new system, his kingdom, his church, his body of believers and his sacrifice on the cross.
[Jesus volunteered this parable in response to an unrelated question urged by a group of Jewish religious leaders (scribes and Pharisees). There is no hint that they comprehended it in the least.]
Scriptural references:
Isa 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Heb 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
Mat 27:51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;