New vs Old Wineskins- What’s the big deal. Has anyone ever made wine? My grandfather used to make dandelion wine. When I was about 16 years old, I found a bottle on his shelf in the basement. It was pretty nasty if I recall correclty after sitting down there for 40 years of so. When new wine was put in old skins, as it fermented, it would expand, stretching the wineskin. A brand new wineskin would be flexible and able to stretch without breaking but an old skin that had already been stretched, could stretch no further. To put new wine into an old wineskin would only be asking for it to burst.
When you make wine you use sugar and spices and then you put it in a place to let it ferment. Fermenting lets the yeast bubbles escape and what is left is wine that has an alcohol content due to the sugar fermenting. In the biblical times the fermenting was done in the wine skins and if the bubbles did not escape the wine skin would have to expand and be flexible or it would burst and the wine would run out on the ground. They did not have a mechanism to use a glass jug with a fermentation cap like is used today. The wine is done when the fermentation process is complete but the wine then has to age. That is usually several weeks to months later and while it is stored in a cool, dry place. So what was Christ saying in this parable?
Until Christ came, getting in to the presence of God came soley by living by the law. Under the new law which brought salvation by grace we are brought in to His presence by His redemptive act of sacrifice. In the above passage the “new wine” points to the teachings of Jesus in its evangelical newness and power in contrast to the traditions of Judaism. The “wine-skins” represent people who accept Christ’s doctrines. Jesus saw that the pharisees and scribes were fixed on holding on to their old understanding of the Law. They were blinded by their own traditions, customs, rituals, biases, and racism.
Even under the new faith we sometimes try to just patch our lives with the new cloth of Christ when in reality we need to start over and realize that the old us can no longer exist. Holding on to old patterns of living simply doesn't work when we become new in the following of Christ. 2 Co 5:17 says," Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." We can't just fit Christ into our old lives and believe it will work. There is a change that requires we take on the new life in Him. Being flexible and strong as the Holy Spirit stretches us to do more than we ever thought possible.
Let's not just try to patch our lives but put that new wine of Christ in a new vessel that can grow and hold all that the Holy Spirit has for us.
Much love
Preach