New Wineskins for New Wine

 

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.” (Mark 2:18-22 ESV).

 

In Jesus’ day, wine was stored in soft bags of sheepskin. The problem was that as the wineskins aged, they became rigid and brittle. Because newly fermented wine gives off gas, it needs to be in a flexible container. Putting new wine into old, brittle skins would be disastrous.

 

Jesus uses this imagery to show the radical new nature of his mission and ministry. The gospel message is dynamic and lively, not static. Jesus’ very presence would eventually burst the old, traditional ways of the Jewish religion. The old structures of temple worship, animal sacrifices, and Levitical priesthood could no longer hold the new work God was doing.

 

The new wine of the gospel is still being poured out today. Those who have tasted it, who have put their trust in Jesus, have been transformed. Old sinful patterns are broken, and a new freedom in Christ is experienced. That’s what spiritual conversion is about.

 

God’s Spirit is on the move today. So individual Christians and Christian churches need to remain flexible and ready to be stretched. Some of our old time-honored ways and cherished patterns may not hold the new work of the Spirit very well. So, they may need to be transformed or even discarded. New traditions may need to be established so that we can continue to be effective vessels for God in our world today.