Jesus Burst Old Wine Skins - Day 19

"...no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.” (Mark 2: 22)
Jesus says these words to John the Baptist’s disciples and the Pharisees who are fasting while Jesus and his new friends are not. The former crowd looks kind of gloomy, whereas Jesus and his gathering crowd look like they are having a pretty good time. While John liked to scold folks, Jesus beckoned to them. While the Pharisees thought that one had to follow hundreds of rules to get to God, Jesus just said follow him. He was bringing new wine and John’s disciples and the Pharisees didn’t quite know how to hear it. His new wine was bursting their wineskins. His new message was bursting their minds. His new path was bursting their preconceived notions and theologies about God.
At some point, no, really at many points, in our life with Jesus we need to make a decision about what is most important—either his new wine or our old wineskins. Now, like the rest of you, I know what it is like to get comfortable with our wineskins, our paths, our ways, our thinking, our rituals, our rules, our, well, you name it. But Jesus is always about new wine, the new path, the new adventure, the new person to meet, the new mission to undertake, the new vision to live into. I am not saying the old is bad. Nor am I saying that old things cannot be made contemporary—they can. But his warning is clear to us. Don’t get, like John’s disciples and the Pharisees, so enamored and so settled on our old wineskins that we cannot hear and live into and drink deep upon his new wine.
Jesus wants us to make new wineskins that can hold the new wine of his love. He wants us to drink deeply. He invites us to the celebration with him. So, bring your new wineskin.