Drinking New Wine

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.” And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 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. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, “The old is good.” Luke 5:33-39

It is difficult to understand how bizarre Jesus was to the first century Jews and Jewish leadership. We can be pretty hard on the Pharisees and scribes, and for good reason. The gospel writers do indeed cast these guys in a pretty bad light. Jesus had very hard words for the Pharisees and scribes, calling them at different times: ‘sons of snakes,’ ‘tidy tombs,’ ‘blind guides,’ liars, hypocrites and thieves. We need to be careful, though, that we not point a bony self righteous, pharisaical, finger at the Pharisees. I think a broader intention of the Spirit’s purpose in presenting the Pharisees to us is so we might point the finger at ourselves. The best villain in a story is one deeply hated not simply because he is a caricature of evil out there, but the embodiment of evil in here-- in our own heart and in our own soul.

Luke draws us into Jesus’ incredible public ministry beginning with his rejection in Nazareth, the deliverance of a demonized man in Capernaum, the healing of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law and many others, the calling of the disciples, the cleansing of a leper, the healing of a paralytic, and the salvation of tax collectors and sinners. We are meant to be a bit breathless at the glorious display of Messianic power and grace by the time we get to the different exchanges between Jesus and the Pharisees in 5:21, 30 and 33. We are also meant to be angered by the unbelief and hardness of heart in these leaders who should be hailing Jesus as Messiah and Lord, not calling him a blasphemer or wondering why he is feasting with sinners. How can they ask questions about fasting while the blind see, the lame walk and the captives are freed?

I am reminded of a worship service several years ago that was particularly sweet. There was an outpouring of grace and an acute awareness of the Spirit’s power and the Savior’s love that night. As people sat in the sanctuary in prayer, and as others trickled out in quiet reverence, a man walked briskly up to me and told me that he was offended by how loud the music was. I stood there deeply disappointed as the cold water of his criticism dripped off me.

The essence of what the Pharisees are asking Jesus in Luke 5:33 is, “Why aren’t you doing it the way things used to be done?” There is another question buried in there as well: “Why aren’t you doing things the way there supposed to be done?” And a third: “Why aren’t you doing things the way we do them?” The truth is, we all ask these questions in different ways and in different contexts. Why is the music so loud? Why are their hands raised? Why is he talking to her? Why is she wearing that? What’s with the robes and organs? That service was too long. That service was too short. I didn’t like …I am concerned with …Go ahead and fill in the blanks.
We must be careful here. I believe the lesson in Luke 5 is not, ‘don’t judge people in worship’. That lesson is found in Scripture, and we must heed it. There is also a time for discernment; for a wise, Spirit-filled testing of the spirits. There are appropriate times and opportunities to ask questions about how we worship and how we live. But this is not the truth being pressed in upon us here.

The question about fasting is in many ways like the question of the Samaritan woman about what mountain God’s people should worship on. God is not concerned with mountains; outward forms of worship, such as fasting or feasting; or with days and months and seasons (Col.2:16-17). With the coming of the Messiah, and the inauguration of a new covenant, the ‘new wine’ is poured out -- where the law is written upon the heart (Jer.31:33), the heart of stone is turned to a heart of flesh (Ezek.36:26), and where we are washed with pure water (Ezek.36:25). And the new wine was flowing everywhere in this inaugural season of Jesus ministry. The wine flows and brings healing. The wine flows and opens the eyes of the blind. The wine flows and opens the hearts of tax collectors and sinners. The wine flows and crushes the power of demons. The new wine fills us with a whole new perspective, a whole new mind, a whole new heart, a whole new life. And the old questions, the old concerns, and the old constraints are ‘exploded’ by the power of the Spirit, the new wine of Jesus. With the power of the Spirit’s work, with the transforming grace of the Savior, we come to see all these questions as completely and entirely secondary.

As I read of the Pharisees trying to pour the new wine into their old, stretched and tired wineskins, I think of my own self righteous, Pharisee heart. I think of how much of my time and energy is consumed with self-oriented concerns, questions and conflicts. I too often have measured and gauged the new wine of God and tried to contain it in my own flesh-fashioned vessels. I think of how sad it was that Jesus and his disciples are feasting and celebrating while the Pharisees are trying to affix these new patches of Spirit-filled worship to their old worn out jeans.

Jesus wants me to come inside with the disciples, tax collectors and sinners, and eat the feast he has set before me. He has given me a fresh, new heart -- ready to stretch and flex and grow as he calls me to drink deep of the new wine.