New Wineskins for the New Wine

Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms" (1985) is reported to be the world's first CD single, issued in the UK in two separate singles as a promotional item, one distinguished with a logo for the tour, Live in '85, and a second to commemorate the Australian leg of the tour marked Live in '86. Containing just four tracks, it had a very limited print run.

CD singles were first made eligible for the UK Singles Chart in 1987, and the first number 1 available on the format in that country was I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) by Whitney Houston in May 1987.

What was the first single you ever bought?

Mine was “My camera never lies” by Bucks Fizz in 1982. It was a beautiful vinyl 7” single.

Being typical little girls, my friend Susie and I subjected our mothers to endless “shows” in which we danced around singing clearly better than the band themselves. It got played so much, it inevitably got scratched – such was the weakness of vinyl records. I loved the sleeve though and had it pinned to my wall.

I can remember being a teenager and hearing for the first time about CDs. They were quite expensive and I felt, unnecessary. I loved vinyl records. I loved the cover art, the sort of scratchy needle sound, the endless hours searching through market stalls for rare editions.

I clearly remember turning to my friend Sarah and vowing to never abandon the vinyl record – it was, I felt the only way to really hear a song. Then, my mum bought a new stereo system. It was huge – a stack of different bits and pieces – cassette player, radio, record player and to my horror, a CD player. We still bought vinyl but as time went on, CDs became the norm.
I held on for many years, as did my husband Nik (the enormous vinyl collection in our house is testimony to this!) but inevitably CDs took over. In all honesty, they are better – the artwork is not, but the sound quality is.

Fast forward a number of years, and I was presented with an iPod. Looking back now, my reaction to this iPod was ridiculous. I simply could not understand how it worked. I could not get my head around how the music got into it! It took a few weeks and I must confess that I’m still not really very adept at using iTunes.

If you think that’s silly, you should have been there the day I tried to figure out where the internet ‘lived’…!

Changing technology is now an accepted part of my life. I have to adapt, learn new skills, un-learn old skills.
I remember the day a Smart Board appeared in my classroom with no training manual and my white board was gone – it was a case of learn to turn it on and use it, or have nothing to write on. Many of you, like me have to turn to your kids to find out what to do!

All technology that was once new and exciting, cutting edge becomes old hat at some point.
Our old software no longer works. You send an email with an attached document and it can’t be read by the recipient as their computer has software that no longer recognises yours.
All the icons in Microsoft word move or vanish with newer versions and you can no longer do what you used to do. It can be so frustrating!

A new thing that is never outdated

We do live with this tension that what is new now will soon become old and then that will become old as the next new thing comes along and so on and so forth.
But what if the new thing would come once and for all and never be outdated? For me, this is a strange idea but it is one that was familiar to Jesus’ followers.

Were they thinking about technology? No; they were talking about a new age – God’s age, God’s Kingdom.

It was their expectation and hope that the old age would pass away and the new would come and that would be that – a one-off transition, never to be repeated.
And unlike the vinyl record, the CD, the iPod, this new age could not be improved upon – yet maybe some would resist its introduction just as much.

I’ve been talking about music being put into new containers as technology develops - Jesus told a story 2000 years ago that spoke of new wine needing new wine skins.
It is a parable that makes most sense when read in context of what Jesus was doing at the time he said it and so we need to read the whole event.

Our recent teaching series has focussed on the parables of Jesus, his stories that drew on the everyday experience of the people around him to make a profound point. Parables were a common teaching method of the time and what we read in the Gospel stories shows us that Jesus taught them in such a way that people travelled miles on foot to hear him, to hear the new things this Rabbi was teaching. In this story, Jesus uses parables to explain a new perspective.

The story is found in Luke’s Gospel chapter 5 verses 27-39. I’m reading from the New International Version.

Luke 5:27-39

Jesus Calls Levi and Eats With Sinners
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Jesus Questioned About Fasting
They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”
Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”
He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”

So let’s look a bit more deeply at what is happening in this story.

Luke, who we believe wrote this Gospel, wrote it with a purpose in mind.
He wanted all the stories of Jesus to be recorded in an orderly manner – a practical purpose, but also so that his readers would understand that the Gospel, meaning the Good News of Jesus, is for everyone – Jesus had a mission to seek and save the lost.
All are invited into what Jesus is doing, including gentiles – non Jews. It is within this context that we should understand Jesus’ actions. This theme of ‘inclusion’ is really important in this story.

So, we know Luke was showing how Jesus came for all people and if we look at this story through this lens, we can see some interesting dynamics:

The story starts with the phrase “After this”. I immediately want to know “after what?” – What has Jesus been up to?
If we flick back to the beginning of Chapter 5 and then move forward to where this story begins, we see that Jesus:

• Has just called the first disciples – some hardworking fishermen. Not the most educated of people, their education probably stopped at around aged 13.

• Has touched and healed a leper – considered unclean by society – an outcast, an undesirable

• Heals a paralytic by pronouncing his sins forgiven – something only God could do

• Is now sitting in the house of a tax collector named Levi who is throwing him a banquet. As a tax collector, Levi was distrusted and despised by the Jews because he dealt with the Romans who were the invading army.

By mixing with lepers and tax collectors, Jesus is actively including those who traditionally would not be part of polite society. Even healing the paralytic showed his compassion and a new kingdom approach – the sick were outcasts too, Jesus touched them and made them new.

There is a challenge to us as a community of faith here too. Are we as inclusive as this radical action of Jesus shows he was? I first joined the Vineyard as a 14 year old goth – quite an outcast amongst the fashionable people in my school! The Vineyard invitation “Come as you are” meant so much to me. It was a church where I could worship God without being judged.

The Pharisees begin to question.

The initial question is directed at Jesus’ disciples, but Jesus himself answers directly. The Pharisees clearly disapprove of his choice of company. They point out he is eating with sinners and undesirables.

It is interesting that Levi’s other guests are named as tax collectors too – they had to befriend each other – most ordinary people would have nothing to do with them. Tax collectors were collaborating with the enemy, they charged more tax than they were entitled to in order to ensure their own well-being; they were unclean and widely despised, viewed as outcasts.

No self-respecting Rabbi or Pharisee would socialise with them. Yet Jesus replies with beautiful simplicity – he has come for the sick, he is the one who heals.

His Mission Statement is to call sinners to repentance. This is about forgiveness, just like the leper and the paralytic. The Pharisees were concerned with ceremonial cleanliness; Jesus cared more about a changed heart.

A new age is breaking in and forgiveness is at its heart. The new age is about inclusion, not exclusion. Inner cleanliness came from relationship with God, from forgiveness, not from external practices.

Outcasts are welcomed in

This is great news – for those listening who themselves were outcasts, they were being invited into something new. It is great news for us too! We work very hard to be ‘socially acceptable’ to ‘fit in’ yet many of us recognise that there are parts of our character that are not right or not socially ‘acceptable’. Many people are still judged by society to not quite fit in.

A couple of weeks ago I watched Britain’s got talent – not something I usually do! There was a young man who performed with a female friend of his. She was pretty, outgoing and stylish – everything they seem to want; he was shy, a bit of a rocker with long unkempt hair. She was 16, he was 17. The judges looked none too impressed with him. But then he began to sing with the most beautiful operatic voice. It was so strong and so powerful. It reminded me of Susan Boyle; she too was judged outside of ‘normal’ and laughable. The judges still hadn’t learnt not to judge on whether people meet our criteria of acceptable.

They didn’t have Britain’s got talent in Jesus’ day, but people were judged and treated differently according to their suitability. Jesus turned it all upside down.

Jesus is inviting us all to be a part of his Kingdom Mission – the selfish, the greedy , the bitter, the worried, the anxious, the ill, the depressed – anyone usually on the outside of what is acceptable is invited in. There is forgiveness and new life. This is a message of hope!

NT Wright explains it like this:
“This is the new covenant, spoken of by the prophets; forgiveness is here, walking down the street, and when people repent it is theirs. Never mind if it upsets the tidy classifications of the old system. This is a party……and like all Jesus’ parties it is a sign of the new age. It is for those with eyes to see, a miniature messianic banquet”

This is not the time for fasting

The questioning of Jesus continues – why don’t you and your disciples fast? Other people do! I love that bit! Why aren’t you the same as everyone else? If you really were something special, you would be obeying all the religious laws and setting a holy example.
Jesus deals with this fairly swiftly; this is not the time for fasting. The bridegroom is here, this is a time of celebration!
Parables – development of Jesus theme of inclusion, change & repentance.

He continues with two parables – both very short, both to add meaning to the discussion that had just taken place. The Pharisees were trying to trick Jesus into saying something that would give them cause to arrest him and accuse him of blasphemy. They were trying to discredit him by speaking derisively of his dinner companions and his religious practices. Jesus turns the tables and develops his theme of the new thing to come and in doing so, highlights their rigidity to old ways.

Jesus begins by talking about cloth.

Cutting out a piece of new cloth to patch an old tear results in two things:

1. The new garment is injured and now has a hole
2. The old garment appears patched – In Mark’s Gospel, the point is made that the new patch will wash differently, shrink, tear the hole further and create a bigger problem.

By cutting out a new piece of cloth, you will both ruin the new coat and not really help the old one.

To harmonise with / be like-minded

Is Jesus into dressmaking in his spare time? Probably not, he is making a deliberate point. Jesus has not come as a patch for the old practices of Judaism, neither is it right to try and makes bits of his Kingdom teaching fit into the practices of John or the Pharisees. Jesus has come to bring something utterly new and it needs to be taken as a whole.

The Greek for the phrase “will not match” is sumphoneo. It means to harmonise with, to be like-minded and is the root of our word symphony. It’s not a fashion thing – it’s about two world views that do not belong together and do not work together. The old ways cannot mix with the new.

This same theme of newness and change carries on into the parable of the wineskins.
"And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’” [Luke 5: 37-39]

Wine bottling – old ones burst with expansion & fermentation.

Jesus' illustration derives from wine bottling. In those times, "bottles" were made of animal skins—sheep, goat, or ox—and, after being properly prepared, filled with wine or water. These skins came in various sizes—an ox-skin held as much as 60 gallons (about 4 beer kegs worth). Horses and camels could carry glass or ceramic bottles or wooden kegs only with difficulty, but two skins tied together and laid across a beast's back could be carried a long distance.

After a time, an animal skin became brittle and ruptured easily. New wine put into an old skin would ferment, expand, and burst them open. New skins, however, were strong enough to stretch without bursting.

NT Wright explains Jesus’ point like this: Explosion
“Try to fit Jesus’ new work into the thought-forms and behaviour-patterns of John’s movement or the Pharisees’ movement and all you’ll get is an explosion”

A message of transformation

Jesus’ message would have been very shocking to those hearing it. He was preaching an “all-in” Gospel. His Good News was for everyone and now, he adds another dimension – it seems to be a message of transformation. It isn’t about mixing his new ideas in with the old – it was and still is about moving forward, grasping the transformational truth of what God has done and is doing.

Jesus is doing a new thing and this new thing still forms the basis of Christianity today.

Jesus Himself would be the ultimate sacrifice for sin, so the sacrificial system would no longer be necessary.
The Pharisees were used to a religious system that was based on animal sacrifice to deal with their sin and the sin of the people.

Jesus turns up and starts talking about Bridegrooms and feasting and then bridegrooms being taken away – he is referring to his death. The parables that follow are referring to the new thing his life, death and resurrection mean for us all. The Pharisees would be appalled by his language.

Luke finishes the story with Jesus making a comment that sounds like many people I have met:
"And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’” [Luke 5: 39]

Living in the old way?

Can you imagine still sacrificing goats and bulls when Jesus has paid the price for our sins? The Pharisees liked the old way better. They didn’t want to let loose of the old way. Ever met anybody like that?

It’s interesting to think about this in the context of our own lives – are we still living as though the new life of the gospel had never happened, isn’t happening? Are we trying to patch up our old way of living with a bit of Jesus’ message but aren’t willing to surrender ourselves completely to his mercy, grace and wonderful forgiveness?

He doesn’t want to “patch-up” your old lifestyle or just be used as a temporary patch. He wants to give you a brand new lifestyle! Are we still bound by shame and sin and old habits? For some of us, we have been approaching life in a way that is similar to trying to play vinyl records on an mp3 player. It is just about possible and I have it on good authority that you need a lot of patch cables, little boxes and software. However, it is not the best and the two things do not easily go together. It is not their design.

A new wineskin for the new wine

• In this story, Jesus reveals that his Good News of forgiveness and a hope for the future is available to all, it is a message of inclusion – we are to welcome all people.
• He points out that we cannot take bits of this new message and patch it onto what we have previously lived – the new does not sit alongside the old.
• Jesus tells us that some will be resistant to this new age, this new way of living, claiming the old is better. Nostalgia is a powerful thing!
• There is a challenge here to ensure we are not resistant to what God is doing in our church and our lives.

God loves to help us make a fresh start. He came to call sinners, outcasts, the broken.
This is not just a 2000 year old story, it is a living message.

If you want to be part of this Kingdom story, this life of being transformed to what God designed you to be, of being welcomed in, forgiven – act on it today. We would love to introduce you to Jesus.

These parables are a challenge to all of us to be transformed, to live our lives in a new way, to acknowledge that our old ways of living and our old attitudes need to change. We are Kingdom people living in the power of the resurrection of Jesus. We can pray for the sick, stretch out a hand to the lonely, take a risk and pray for our friends, invite people to come and hear about Jesus. We can let Jesus show us the root of our old habits and old ways and we can let him transform us.

We’re on a mission to be a new wineskin for the new wine. Not patched up, but transformed; not set in our ways, but willing to be challenged and guided by God.