Show Don't Tell: Mark 2:18-22

Instead of saying "Jesus taught about fasting and new wine," picture the wedding feast. John's disciples and the Pharisees are fasting. People ask Jesus: "How is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?" Jesus answers with a party: "How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?" There's a wedding happening. The groom is present. Fasting comes later—"when the bridegroom will be taken from them." Then two images: no one sews a new patch on an old garment—the new will shrink and tear away, making the hole worse. No one pours new wine into old wineskins—the wine will burst the brittle skins, ruining both. New wine requires new wineskins. What Jesus brings cannot be patched onto the old religious system. Something fundamentally new is here.