A sweet wine worth preserving!

Reflecting on Mark 2:18-22

“No one pours new wine into old wineskins.” (Mark 2:22)
As a Jesus follower, I am drawn to what is new in Jesus.
To a world saturated in the old, stale win of religion, Jesus is a treat!
The stale rituals and empty creeds of religion do not bring joy.
Neither does praying, or fasting, or church-going out of religious duty.
Jesus represents the Way of Love, loving God and loving people.
This is the new wine, which is not actually new, but is from the beginning.

“Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.” (1 John 2:7-8)

Some people were wondering why Jesus didn’t practice religious traditions.
Religious people pray, or fast, or kneel, or wash their hands or…
What are the rituals and traditions you think of as part of religion?
All of these are ways that people have used to express their faith.
They are not bad in themselves, but they are not required for love.
Some may refuse to eat out of love (like when someone you love dies).
Some will pray for love’s sake (like when someone you love is sick).
Wedding guests do not celebrate because the rules say so.
They celebrate because they love the bride and bridegroom.

Jesus did not come to start a religion.
Jesus came because of God’s love, and to restore us to love.
We are motivated by love; we love because God first loved us!
We gather with other Jesus followers because of love.
And sometimes we stop gathering with them because of love.
(It was for love’s sake that we stopped gathering during COVID).
Love is the new wine, which is the old, original wine.
This is what God is looking for from religious people.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27)

For most of my life I have been a part of a worldly religious system.
It was all about following the right rules, doing the right things.
People would ask you ‘why’ if you didn’t follow their way.
‘Why do you attend this, or do that, or keep this rule, like we do?’
Following the religious rules and traditions mattered more.
I found that system old and stale, like old wine.
I found it weak and torn, like an old wineskin.

Jesus to me is refreshing, thirst quenching, sweet to the spiritual palate.
And being free from the religious system also feels good.
I am not bound by creeds or rituals, but compelled by love.

“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” (Galatians 5:13-15)

That last part (‘if you bite and devour each other’) is like the religion I left.
It is the wineskin of evangelical christianity as I experienced it.
But the first part is what following Jesus is to me.
A sweet wine and a solid wineskin!
People can stick to their religion if they want, but I do not want it.
I choose to celebrate love with groom and bride, at God’ wedding feast.
Let’s raise a glass and toast Jesus and the Jesus Way!

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, having tasted You and Your Way, and discovered that God is good, I desire this wine more than anything else. Thank you for releasing me from the yoke of religious slavery. Help me to use my freedom to serve others in love! For this is the wine and wineskin You have established for us!