S = Luke 5:34, 36-39 And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?... He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”
O = There is a strong repetition in this parabolic answer, “No one”…(used three times) puts the new into or onto the old. New must be put into new. Those who were criticizing Jesus’ disciples (and by extension Jesus himself as their master), were continuing to try to squeeze this new Kingdom of God message/life into the old paradigms of rabbinic Judaism. Jesus made it clear that fasting in the presence of the bridegroom would be inappropriate. Jesus, in this metaphor is seen to be the One they had been waiting for, the Bridegroom, the Messiah. Another statement by Jesus taught that for those trying to combine new and old it would only look stupid (not matching) and be wasteful of the new (both garment and wine).
A = Why is it Jesus says we desire the “old wine” more than the “new” (v.39)? It is because of its history, tradition, and cultural richness, or because of its familiarity…because it doesn’t change, because we always know what to expect? Or is it because it doesn’t stretch us and cause us to grow and change? I know that I personally prefer the familiar routine to constant change. Yet, seeing who Jesus really is radically changes our lives. We will never be the same. He doesn’t just want a patched up me, but wants to make me new. While the old me might not have considered “new wine” on my own, by His love being poured into my heart by his Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5), now I don’t want to settle for less and I don’t want to draw back in fear from the adventure before me in Christ!
P = O Lord, let me not wear you like a patch on my jeans, or try to stuff you into the tired paradigms of my understanding and experience. May I live by faith, allowing you to be all that you are… in my life. May I, by grace, be flexible enough that I don’t burst and waste any of the new wine of the Spirit you pour into me! Amen.
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