SCRIPTURE: Mark 2
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.” [Matthew 2:22] Jesus did not come to start a new religion; Jesus came to replace religion (what we do for God) with relationship (what we do with God). This is something new, something better, a new wineskin.
Jesus uses the fascinating analogy of a wineskin, to make the point that He is introducing something new, something different. The only wineskin served a purpose in its time, but now something better has come along. The four friends seek this something better for their friend, and they find it; the Pharisees cannot let go of their old religious concepts. They fail to see God in Jesus, and accuse Jesus of going against God – in His claim to forgive, His failure to fast, and His failure to honour the Sabbath. Jesus in turn challenges the religious leaders that THEY are going against God. Their religious practices are actually going against what God is really all about. They fail to understand that the religious practices mandated in the OT were no the goal, but gifts for humanity.
From the beginning, God’s desire is to bless His people, not burden them with religion. God wants to set the prisoners free; God wants to heal the sick; God wants to rescue those enslaved by greed; God wants to help those who are poor, needy, oppressed. That’s always been what God has wanted, but people turned it into religion, doing religious things for God.
The new wineskin is a new way of relating to God – not law but grace. He loves us, He forgives us, He welcomes us, He asks us to join with Him. He graciously calls us as sinners, but treats us as sons and daughters. He does not love us because we do good; we do good because He loves us! His gracious love comes first. Being religious does not earn a special place for us with God. We have a special place with God because He loves us, period.
People have poured religion back into the way of Jesus. Christianity, for many, is a religion, something that we do to get on God’s good side. So many rules are imposed on people, manmade rules intended to make us the kind of people God can love. This is why Christianity has become bad news for so many! We need to rediscover the new wine, the new way of Jesus. We need to experience God’s free, forgiving grace and love, and then respond with our own love and gratitude.
PRAYER:
Lord, this wine is wonderful, I have tasted it, and it is very good!