New Wine -New Wineskins

Barnabas

I was reading St. Luke's Gospel and came across a passage whose meaning seems a little obscure to me. The passage is a defense Jesus makes for his disciples not fasting like the pharisees and their disciples. And Jesus speaks of wine and winesskins, of old wine and new. It's Luke 5:36-39
Now I know that different people will have a different way of understanding what the Lord Jesus means here but is there any broad consensus as to what he intends to say. Maybe I'm the only one who doesn't quite get it - but maybe not. Suggestions?

Needless to say - if you don't believe that Sacred Scripture is the inspired Word of God then your interpretation will be as a literary critic and that's not what I'm looking for. I'm interested in it as a spiritual text, a word from the Lord that has something important to communicate to us today. But what?

Perhaps this could be an idea for a separate thread - a discussion on difficult or more obscure passages of Scripture whose meaning might not be immediately evident to everyone.

gosimeon

"New Wine in Old Wineskins (5:37-38)

While we aren't familiar with the details of wineskins, Jesus' hearers are. He didn't have to explain fermentation and the aging of leather. They know what he means.

"And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, 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." (5:37-38)

Here's the same contrast of old and new that we saw in the parable of the patched garment. His point is the same: you can't join the new to the old or you'll ruin both the new wine and the old skin. The gas pressure from the fermentation is eventually so great that the inflexible old skin ruptures, and the new wine gushes out onto the ground and is wasted. His hearers all know not to use old skins with new wine. They understand.
The Old Is Better (5:39)

But why talk about the contrast between old and new? What is new that would be ruined by being attached to the old? What's he getting at?

Jesus has come with a radical gospel of Good News to the poor, the disenfranchised, the oppressed, the sick, the brokenhearted (4:18-19). He speaks with authority, rather than the casuistry of the scribes of his day. Their man-made rules of who he can eat with and how he should fast would just get in the way. They are externals, that is all. Jesus, on the other hand, is aiming to expose afresh the heart of the ancient faith. He helps them to return anew to love for God and for one's neighbor, to do mercy and love justice and walk humbly with their God. These are the core of the Hebrew faith -- its life, not the dead Pharisaical external traditions that offer an appearance of piety but don't change the heart (see Colossians 2:23).

You may think that this is a dead issue, but it has a way of raising its head again and again. Paul, trained as a strict Pharisee, grasps the radical nature of salvation by grace through faith, and goes preaching it boldly throughout the Mediterranean. Soon he is called on the carpet to explain why he isn't imposing the familiar Jewish regulations on his Gentile converts (Acts 15). Again and again he has to insist that we are free in Christ, so we must not become entangled again in a legalistic religion trying to pass itself off as Christianity (see Galatians 5, for example). The Judaizers try to infect church after church with their legalism; the recipients of the Letter to the Hebrews are tempted to turn again to the regulations of Judaism. Yes, legalism and an external faith are problems of every generation.

Why is that so? At the close of his parable of the wineskins, Jesus puts it this way: "And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better' " (5:39). It is easier to fall back to what is familiar and comfortable, and justify that, rather than launch out into a life guided not by laws and regulations but led by the Voice of the Spirit of God. The two are opposites, the old and the new. You cannot combine them without destroying both.

No, Jesus, insists, the Gospel of the Kingdom must not be hindered by the man-made rules of the Pharisees' religion. It must be free to work its power unfettered. The New Wine may not be as smooth to the tongue, and finely aged as old wine. It may be a bit sharp and unrefined. But it is alive. You can't contain it in old structures. You must find new wineskins for it or none at all.
Integrating the New with the Old

That is not to say that Jesus' threw out the Old Covenant. He makes it very clear in the Sermon on the Mount that he comes to fulfill the Law, not to abrogate it:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:17-20)

He doesn't come to set aside the law, but to strip away the Pharisees' precious oral tradition so people can see the power and spirit of the Law, and repent, preparing for the coming of the Kingdom. The Spirit Jesus sends now fulfills the law within us (Romans 8:1-4; Galatians 5:16-23).

Neither was Jesus always critical of the old. He tells his disciples, "Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old." (Matthew 13:52)" http://www.jesuswalk.com/lessons/5_33-39.htm

In a nutshell, Jesus is addressing the Pharisees and trying to get idea across that the new covenent had begun with him, that Gods way was not just a set of rules - far from it:
"Christianity cannot be comprehended by any system of rites and ceremonies. It must not be interpreted as a set of rules and requirements; it must not be confused with any ritual. It controls men, not by rules, but by motives. Its symbol is not a fast but a feast, for its pervasive spirit is joy" (The Gospel of Luke Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, p. 73).

That was the message Jesus gave here in parable form.

Scofflaw

I would argue for a slightly different interpretation - more spiritual, and less legalistic.

I think Christ was saying that to fully receive His message, you need to 'make yourself anew'.

cordially,
Scofflaw

mymind

I agree whole heartedly with gosimeon.

I might add that yes we are to become a new creature in Christ Jesus leaving the old things behind. the key to this that gosimeon brought up was Jesus came to fulfill all the law and prophets. If we look back to Leviticus 23 we have all the 7 feast to be kept in coralation to the law. Why is it we do not offer up lambs, goats or birds? Jesus has fulfilled everything we would be looking back rather than forward to the promise. Now when we have communion taking from the loaf of bread and drinking the wine we now are embracing what Jesus has finished. We are new creatures in Christ Jesus and have now are eyes are open and recognize the messiah. Therefore we believe in Jesus finished work on the cross, not to go back in time and keep the feasts that had become very cumbersome to Isreal.

Before there was an appointed high preist Jesus has taken that place forever and is also our advocate to the Father adding the sweet smell of His sacrifice to God. A sacrifice so precious, that the sacrifice of many bulls, goats or lambs could never make the full atonement for sin that Christ Jesus did once for all eternity. A sacrifice that God fully accepted and has complete pleasure in daily for all of Gods children.