I moved my office this weekend, and it got me thinking about one of Jesus’s lesser-known sayings: “Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”
As I moved, some old things were broken and needed to be thrown away. Some old things needed cleaning or repair. Some old things no longer held the same value. Some old things I rediscovered and came to appreciate more deeply.
And some new things could be incorporated that couldn’t be before.
Scribes of the Kingdom of Heaven sometimes do all of these things with their theological understanding. As the new ways of Heaven are ushered into our lives through the guidance of the Spirit of Jesus, the old begins to shift. Some of our old theology was broken. Some of it needed cleaning. Some of it no longer holds the same value. Some of it is appreciated more than ever.
And some new elements can be incorporated into our understanding that couldn’t before.
Jesus did a new thing, and new wineskins are necessary to process all that he did. It’s tempting to stick with the old familiar territory, but Jesus beckons us into relationship with him to discover how the old makes fuller sense in light of him. All true wisdom and understanding is found in him, where our old and new treasures are rightly organized.
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