Messianic Musings ~ Out with the Old

“Out with the old in with the new.”

It’s that time of year again, time to put away all the old clothes from summer and breakout that new fall wardrobe.  For me it is more a matter of necessity than anything else.  While some people look forward to trashing some older clothes for newer ones, I am just looking to get warm.  I am also not one to just completely pitch everything I have.  I tend to hold onto my favorites (like for decades) while getting rid of the items that rarely made an appearance over the last year.  I tend to keep what is best and relinquish the rest.

“Out with the old in with the new.”  I think as Christians this can be our underlying hermeneutical bent towards interpreting scripture.  We look at Matthew 9:16-17 and we see new clothe and new wineskins and the repetitive nature of the word new and we assume that Jesus is putting away the Old Law and its traditions for something entirely new.  According to my messianic commentary, there is something else going on here entirely.

“Many Christian expositors will try to make the point that Yeshua is proposing a whole new religion which cannot be contained in the existing forms of Judaism or even the Old Testament.  This cannot be the case in light of Yeshua’s (Jesus) own words about the consistency between his teachings and the older covenants. (Matthew 5:17).  Yet, in the context of his disputes with some of the Pharisees, it seems more logical that Yeshua’s (Jesus) reference to old wine and old garments are an allusion to the Mishnah (oral law) and certain rabbinic interpretations of the Torah.”  ( Rabbi Barney Kasdan, Matthew Presents Yeshua, King Messiah, p95.)

Jesus was not calling Israel to abandon the previous covenants nor their Biblical foundations but to return to a more correct interpretation of those foundations.   A beautiful example is found in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.  In this passage, the cup that Jesus is lifting is actually the third cup of the Passover seder meal in which He is using to illustrate his redemptive work.  This cup is not mentioned in the Torah (law) details pertaining to the Passover, but is actually a rabbinic idea added during the Talmudic (oral law) times.  It is equally surprising that not only are the Jewish believers exhorted to remember the lessons of this cup (Matthew 26:26-29), but also the non-Jewish believers of Corinth.

How should we than, as Christians, view the Law and the Mishnah (oral law)?  Do we pitch it or embrace it?  To quote our author “Jesus came to elucidate the fullness of the teaching in Torah, even to the point of correcting some of the errors in people’s understanding of it”. (ibid p96). 

In plain language, it isn’t so much “out with the old in with the new” but rather “keep the best and relinquish the rest”.  Jesus our rabbi, our teacher, knows what is best, follow Him! 

“When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”                   Matthew 7:28-29