New Wine

The Passage

One day some people said to Jesus, “John the Baptist’s disciples fast and pray regularly, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why are your disciples always eating and drinking?

Jesus responded, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment. “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins. 39 But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.

~ Luke 5:33-38

Thoughts

I am been pondering this passage for quite a while. My overarching thought about it is that the way of Jesus is such a completely counter intuitive, scandalous, antithesis to religion, that the religious are threatened by him. One is a system full of expectations, the other a way of life full of grace. The guardians of the Jewish tradition lost the concept of mission and, instead got hung up on their privileged status. The guardians of the Christian tradition, likewise lost their sense of being a part of the kingdom and mission of God, making the church the end in itself.

I really liked the old wine. I was an addicted drunk! It has taken considerable time for me to detox from my addiction and I am just now beginning to see that this new wine goes very well with (real) life.

I started playing around with an old wine/new wine list. Admittedly, it is a little generalizing and simplistic, but you cannot deny that there is a contrast. Do you have anything to add?

Old Wine / New Wine

• Faithfulness to the church / Faithfulness to the way of Jesus
• Using personal gifts and abilities within the confines of the church / Using personal gifts and abilities within their community
• Giving of finances to keep the church running / Giving of finances to demonstrate the Gospel
• Emphasis on externals / Emphasis on the heart
• Emphasis on avoiding sin / Emphasis on representing Jesus to others
• Fitting into a system / Being who God made you to be
• Seeing people as saved and unsaved / Seeing people as individuals whom God loves
• Discipleship is about learning / Discipleship is about living
• Retreating into a subculture as a place of safety / Diving into culture as a place of mission
• Worrying about what people think / Just trying to follow Jesus
• Praying in public / Living life as a prayer
• Corporate, musical worship / Life as worship
• The Gospel is about believing facts and the hereafter / The Gospel is about belief and life, us and others, this life and the hereafter
• Faithfulness is rewarded by being a church leader / Faithfulness is rewarded by being a people server
• Easily offended / Understands people are just being normal
• Clergy/laity division / Everyone trying to live life in the way of Jesus
• More… Bible reading, prayer, etc. / Fewer meaningless exercises, more heart for God
• Majoring on guilt / Majoring on grace
• Faithful attendance in church meetings / Involvement in the community and in peoples’ lives
• Support the pastor / Support one another
• Criticize the pastor/ Cut each other some slack
• Get involved in a church ministry / Get involved with people
• Dependence upon the pastor’s teaching / Learning from personal study, asking questions and discussion
• Emphasis on a weekly service / Emphasis on daily service
• Expectations of God because of faithful service / Acceptance of the mystery of God
• Tenaciously holding on to our doctrinal beliefs as non negotiable / Realizing that if something is true it can withstand questioning
• A place to gather with friends / Making friends in the natural course of life
• Needing a building / Gathering anywhere
• Professional staff / Anyone can convene and facilitate the group
• Fellowship / Parties