Mark 2:21

Mark 2:21, in plain English

Jesus said, 'Nobody patches an old piece of clothing with brand-new fabric. If you do, the new patch will shrink and tear the old cloth even worse.'

Why it's here

Jesus wasn't just tweaking the old religious system—He was bringing something entirely new. You can't force the new thing God is doing into old, rigid containers.

Who's speaking

Jesus uses an everyday illustration to make a profound point about the nature of His ministry.

Where it sits in the story

If you've ever tried to patch old jeans with stiff new fabric, you know what happens. Jesus was saying: what I'm bringing is too new, too alive, too powerful to be squeezed into the old religious structures.

The scholarly reading

Jesus used the parable of unshrunk cloth patched onto old fabric: the new patch (epiblēma rhakoUs agnaphou) shrinks and tears the old garment worse, illustrating the incompatibility of His new message with old forms.

Language and setting

This parable and the next (new wine) together argue that the kingdom Jesus brings cannot simply be added to existing religious structures; it requires entirely new forms of expression.

Voice

Jesus teaches through a domestic metaphor familiar to His audience, illustrating a theological principle about the newness of His kingdom.

Significance

The old garment represents the existing religious system, and the new cloth represents the kingdom reality Jesus was inaugurating. Trying to patch the new onto the old would damage both.

19Jesus replied, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while He is with them? As long as He is with them, they cannot fast.

20But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.

21No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, and a worse tear will result.

22And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, new wine is poured into new wineskins.”

23One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick the heads of grain as they walked along.

Read all of Mark 2 — Jesus forgives sins, eats with outcasts, and lets his disciples skip fasting. The religious leaders can barely keep up with the offenses.