Jesus: A Taste of New Wine

"And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins" (Mark 2:22)

I will readily admit that I know next to nothing about wine, beloved, other than participating one time in a Passover Seder. But you do not have to be on speaking terms with wine to discover and appreciate a wonderful lesson Jesus taught His disciples using the wine of their day as an illustration.

In Palestine wine was commonly made at home by families. This "fruit of the vine" when fresh was stored in new animal skins so that both the mixture and the skins themselves could expand together. The wine gave off gases as it hung on the wall in the animal skin bag and, thus, caused it to stretch. New wine that was stored safely in the animal skins could be enjoyed by the family, then, to the last drop.

But as Jesus so clearly stated the obvious, no one who knew anything about making and storing wine would ever store it in an old animal skin bag. Animal hide that had become dried out and brittle had lost its capacity to change and to expand and would only rupture with the inner action of the wine and cause its contents to be spilled and lost.

So what was Jesus' point for His listeners and what does this verse reveal to us about our own lives today as Christians? It should be apparent to all of us, beloved, that Jesus is Himself the "new wine" about which He was speaking. When He comes into a believer's heart by faith, He is the "new wine" that is given to us as a sacred deposit. He is the "treasure" stored in our "earthen vessels" (2 Corinthians 4:7) and as such His working within us is to cause us to spiritually "stretch" and "expand." He comes in with a new vitality and needs for us to be so in harmony with His divine presence within that our thoughts and words and deeds are as one. Do you recall what the Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Rome?

"Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4)

"Newness of life" is what the "new wine" of Jesus' life within is all about! We as believers must be in harmony with Him, then, as He seeks to bring about within us this newness of life.

By contrast, I believe that the Pharisees were themselves clear examples of the "old wineskins" about which Jesus cautioned His listeners. They had become so ceremonially religious that their spirits were "brittle" and their hearts "dried out" by their many man-made traditions and by their estimation of their own piety. They could not see Him as their Messiah, God's gift of "new wine," because they were not looking for One who would change them, but for One who would change for them. Consequently, the "new wine" that He brought for them would do them no good. They wanted no part of who He really was!

Today, beloved, we discover a much needed emphasis on the "new creature" (2 Corinthians 5:17) Jesus wants to make us as He comes into our hearts by faith. We cannot be saved and remain the same people we were before we met Him! He is looking for us to change and grow, to stretch and expand in our faith and to be transformed by the presence of the "new wine" that He is within us. We have this Treasure in earthen vessels, beloved! Is yours soft and pliable and moldable, or is it brittle and dried out?

Ron