Old Minds & New Wine

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

One day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, “Why don’t your disciples fast like we do and the Pharisees do?”  Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom?  Of course not.  But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.  “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth?  For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.  “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.  For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins.  New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”  Matthew 9:14-17

The older one gets, the more one looks back on the chapters that were, instead of looking ahead to the chapters yet to be written.  Perhaps too much!  It’s difficult to look ahead when your mind is full of the past.  Yet, there is something to be said for meditating on what has happened, if the future is going to make any sense.  For instance, a pastor’s unquestioned task is always to preach God’s Word, in God’s timing, so that the true wisdom of God can bless and direct God’s people.  So a pastor must face what’s ahead while keeping the past in mind.  To let the future have sovereign reign is to fall prey to some of yesterday’s mistakes, spilling the new wine of tomorrow before it has time to mature.  To let the past reign (especially in an old mind) is to turn your back on the promise of all things new. 

We make choices, many without thinking; we are conditioned so, and life demands choices and changes.  And, in the wisdom that unfolds with time, we know everything of the past was not entirely evil or entirely good, as well as we know everything new will one day be in the past.  We live, we choose, we learn.

If our minds are the wineskins of which Jesus taught, then the possibilities of the wine of yesterday or tomorrow are what goes in.  Jesus said you can’t put the new wine (of tomorrow’s experience) into old skins (an old man’s mind, perhaps).  The common reasoning is that the fermenting of the new wine creates growth action that will expand (and burst) the old, stretched-to-the-limit skins.

As it is with old minds and new wines, so it is with the church and her ebb and flow of serving Christ’s Kingdom.  The more churches dwell on the past, lamenting the loss of those good ol’ days, the less fit we become for the new wine of Christ’s promise…behold, I make all things new.[1]  And when God is moving in the hearts of young people to stretch and accept his growth to expand the Kingdom, we do well to make room for that which is coming, or risk the judgment of Pharasee-like hardened skins, ready for bursting.

I know of only one remedy for that, and Apostle Paul made it simple:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.  Romans 12:1-2

Renewed minds…new wineskins for what’s coming, made possible by the kind of faith that presents body, mind, and soul to Christ…the surrendered life.

For You Today  

Old wine is best in taste, but it is strong, and is meant to be savored and sipped.  New wine is best in promise, meant to be expanding and changing.  There is room for both…no, there is necessity of both in the Kingdom of God. 

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

The Tear in the Fabric  and  Drinking the Pastor's New Wine

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Revelation 21:5

The Taste of Change

 

Wednesday, January 19, 2022

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 5:33-39

Jesus brought plenty of change to contemplate, and sometimes confuse.  That can be good or bad, depending upon which side you settle.  If you’re confused, it’s ok; not everything Jesus said is for immediate understanding and implementation.  However, if you’re just going to contemplate (with little intention of diving-in and doing), you’re always going to be a little empty...that is, until you finally get it, that the interruption of life you’re feeling, over what Jesus is bringing to your table, is exactly what Jesus came to bring.  In short, He came to change everything.  He came to turn everything that needs turning on its ear.

In the case of new wine vs. old wine, there is problem with neither.  The problem exists in how you treat it.  New wine is going to expand.  The older the wineskin, the more possibility it won’t hold…the container will go bust!  Old wine has done its expanding, but still needs attention…a cool, protected place where disturbances are minimal.  In that scenario old wineskins will do.

The mistake Jesus was pointing-out in this conversation with disciples, was the focus too many of us have on the wineskins.  We become attached to that which we’ve come to hold dear.  That’s seen in everyday life, from cradle to senior living homes.  A child loves his favorite toy or “blankey” which give security and comfort.  An elder wants quiet and predictability – also the hallmarks of safety.  A twenty-something wants none of the above, only that everything should change.    

Giving up a comfort zone is something that rarely happens when you’re talking about church.  Hymns, choruses, loud-clanging cymbals, and guitars will be at war in the rehearsal rooms.  Praise teams will push choir-seekers to the side, and the quiet of yesterday’s prelude will be replaced (changed) into whatever new thing hasn’t yet been done.  And the old (I can use that because I am that) will lament about the discarding of old skins, while the young push back with get a life…we’re here to show you the NEW you’ve been missing. 

The saddest thing (to me) about all the pushing and shoving is that, at times, both sides are right.  There is a time for the new to be held in expandable minds, and a time for young minds to venerate what stands forever.  The target, lest we forget, is the wine…not the skin in which it is held.

For You Today

Got a little judgmental in you about new or old wineskins?  Better check out the wine before you berate the Wine Master.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Fresco Tours via Wikimedia Commons   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©