Wednesday, January
23, 2019
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. 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(NLT)
Cedo and Raymond lived next door
to us in 1955. They had a grape arbor
off the back porch. It had wonderful
grapes, big, and juicy. When we boys crawled
under the vines down at the farthest place from the house, his Momma couldn't
see us...or so we thought. That woman
swung a mean wooden spoon. We enjoyed
the new wine, but if we got caught in the grapes, she also did skinning!
Wine, in modern Western culture,
is associated with substance abuse, excess.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, I
won't be as those who spend the days complaining of headache, and the night in
drinking the wine that gives it.
Wine has always been considered
part of the joy of life. Jesus turned
ordinary water into wine to save a wedding reception. Jesus gave wine as part of the symbolic
remembrance of His supreme gift of the Cross.
Wine is also pictured in the Gospel accounts as part of God's sacred
wedding reception for the Bride of Christ.
Wine plays an important role in our understanding of the Spirit-filled
life. Wine is associated with joy. Everyone wants joy; everyone wants to be
happy.
In this parable Jesus is
attempting to show the religious leaders (who were upset with His methods) that
their old, dead religion just couldn't handle the blessing God wanted to give
them. The wineskin stands for the way we
receive God and hold Him (after all, we cannot see Him). Our worship of God begins in the heart, the
center of the wineskin of our faith.
Jesus' Gospel of love and forgiveness is the new wine.
How do we become new
wineskins? How do we prepare to receive
the Savior? It is a matter of being made
new
in Christ. People have always tried to
reach up to God with their religion (be
nicer, more generous, don't smoke, drink, cuss, chew, or associate with them
that do). Jesus says that kind of
approach will just find the new wine of joy spilled all over the carpet. God is not held in what we do for
Him; He is received by a heart that is willing to make a complete surrender to
Him.
You can become a new, expandable
wineskin, ready for the new wine by completely offering yourself to Jesus. Paul said it this way:
…you have
stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature,
and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. Colossians 3:9b-10(NLT)
And Christ
lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit
gives you life because you have been made right with God. Romans 8:10(NLT)
We call him Augustine; history knows
him as Saint Augustine. But
if you read his story before his conversion it was anything
but what we’d describe as a saint. Augustine’s
life was filled with lust for women and wine…as much as he could squeeze into
every 24 hours. It was degradation piled
on top of debauchery.
Soon after being converted,
Augustine was walking down a street in Milan.
There he saw a prostitute he'd known. walking his way. They passed, and she recognized him. She called, Augustine! But he did not
answer. She called again, Augustine, it is I. Knowing the temptation before him,
Augustine simply replied, Yes, I know,
but it is no longer I. That, my friends,
is buying new wine -- putting the old wineskin of self out in the trash. It is giving up on the idea that you can
offer God anything at all. It is simply
giving up to Him, total surrender, white flag, unconditional.
If you want to give God anything
at all worthwhile…give Him YOU. The joy
will be worth it all!
You chew on that as you hit the
Rocky Road; have a blessed day.
