Gospel in Art: No one puts a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old garment

Parisian Rag-Picker by Vasily Perov, 1864, Oil on canvas © Alamy

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 5 July 2025
Matthew 9:14-17

At that time: The disciples of John came to Jesus, saying, 'Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?' And Jesus said to them, 'Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.'

Reflection on the painting

Compared to decades past, our attitude towards clothing has changed dramatically. Today, clothes are often bought cheaply, worn briefly and discarded without a second thought. The culture of cheap, fast fashion encourages constant consumption rather than care or repair. Mending a torn sleeve or patching worn knees has become a lost habit. In contrast, our painting, Perov's Parisian Ragpicker captures a time when nothing was wasted, and even discarded scraps were gathered with purpose. His dignified figure reminds us of a slower, more respectful relationship with material things, one that echoes deeper spiritual truths: that what the world throws away, God can still redeem.

Repairing clothing used to be an ordinary part of life. A hole in a coat or a tear in a jumper didn't signal the end of a garment's usefulness. Instead, it was an opportunity for mending. Sewing on a patch, darning a sleeve, or reweaving worn fibres. This is what the old man in our painting is doing: collecting rags and pieces of clothes in his basket to mend, and sell on. We encounter a solitary man in tattered but neatly layered clothes, standing with quiet dignity. His role in society may seem humble, sorting through others' waste, but his bearing is noble. Behind him, a widow dressed in black, veiled in sorrow, with the foggy Parisian streets in the background. She reminds us that grief, hardship, and dignity often walk hand in hand. Perov, a Russian realist, painted this scene not with irony but with deep compassion. His ragpicker is not a caricature of poverty, but a man of strength, resilience, and grace.

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus warns against "putting a piece of unshrunken cloth onto an old cloak." It is a striking image. He is challenging us to ask: is our faith merely a patch, added onto an old way of life we're reluctant to let go of? Or are we allowing Christ to weave something entirely new in us? The ragpicker, making a living from the discarded and the torn, becomes a metaphor for what Christ does with us: he takes the broken, the overlooked, and gives us purpose and value. But unlike patching old clothes, Jesus doesn't simply repair; he transforms. He does not offer a quick fix or a tidy overlay to hide the worn-out parts of our lives. Instead, he gives us a whole new garment: the seamless robe of grace, the cloak of discipleship. The question is: are we willing to take off the old and let him clothe us in the new?

LINKS

Gospel in Art: https://christian.art/
Today's Reflection: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/matthew-9-14-17-2025/(with audio)