New Wineskins (Luke 5:33-39)

A pastor friend of mine had been a pastor for a while at a small church that was going no where.  In fact, it had been going no where for longer than he had been the pastor there.  Oh they met on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, but he knew something was missing.  The church was really just a clubhouse for long time members, their grown children, and a few grandkids.  And despite a nice neighborhood growing up around the church over the years and a trickle of visitors, no one ever joined - or if they did, they didn't stay for very long.  And even though they tried hard to hide it and act gracious and dignified, there was always a mess going on somewhere in the church - affairs, substance abuse, child abuse, sometimes even worse stuff - if you can imagine worse stuff.  So he decided to take some classes for pastors about building the foundation for a healthy church.  After taking these classes, he begin to really preach clearly the way of Jesus for the first time.

He told them that Jesus taught us to demonstrate his love to those we wouldn't normally associate with, to serve those with our resources who didn't deserve it, to welcome outsiders into the church and treat them better than we treat ourselves, and to take care of one another by being in a deep committed relationship with one another speaking truth in love to each other.  To live holy lives walking with God and forsaking acts in our personal and business lives that hurt ourselves and others.  He begin to suggest practical ways to accomplish these things.  Their response was "We have been doing things this way for a hundred years. We like it this way." In other words, they thought their old wine tasted good and they wanted to keep drinking it. They weren't concerned that their church was just for themselves.

But Jesus comes with new wine ("This is my blood - the wine of the new covenant poured out for you") and he isn't going to put it in old wine skins. He wants to transform us completely so we can do the things he has called us to do: serve outsiders treating them better than ourselves, love each other more than we love ourselves, practice forgiveness, mercy, and grace.


Luke 5:33-39 ³³ And they said to him, "The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink." ³⁴ And Jesus said to them, "Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? ³⁵ The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days." ³⁶ He told them a parable also: "No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it upon an old garment; if he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. ³⁷ 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. ³⁸ But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. ³⁹ And no one after drinking old wine desires new; for he says, `The old is good.'"

There is a famous quote, "What is wrong with most churches today is that the members haven't yet decided to follow Jesus."  I think this is true - many of us haven't given Jesus permission to transform us - we aren't sure we will like the new wine.  We have joined a club that supports our lifestyle and makes us feel good about ourselves - we drink old wine.  But Jesus wants to change our entire way of living and being.  Let him!  Drink the new wine.