Wineskins

 Jesus comes from the Wilderness where the Spirit has driven him for testing, announcing the imminent coming of the Kingdom of Heaven. His message to the crowds calls them to repent because the “Kingdom is at hand.” The kingdom or the effective rule of God has come upon Israel and Israel’s expected response is to return to her God. A number of passages tell us the sorts of things God has against Israel or at least her leaders. They have the form of the People of God, but not the substance. He will call those opposed to him “white-washed tombs” to describe their religious and moral corruption. They look good but are dead. He calls these people to repentance, to return to “their first love,” to actually live as though they are the People of God. In another place, he will tell them that while they do well to tithe mint and cumin, they have missed the larger point of caring for people. In the judgment scene, he describes sending into a place of gnashing of teeth those who failed to give a cup of water. He says this to people who no doubt were keeping the larger sacrificial system well.

In chapter nine of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus uses new wine in old wineskins to illustrate the almost complete incompatibility of how they were living and the way God had called them to live. Paul will tell some of his readers that he cannot address them as adults because they are not ready to hear it; to understand it. 

Jesus is saying something similar with his wineskins allusion. What he had to tell them—what he was telling them—was so foreign to them, that they would never be able to fit it into their current system. Something new was happening and it was not going to be possible to cobble it onto their current religious system. It cannot even be a corrective to it. It is something new. We might hear if we listen well, the details of the new covenant that had been promised. A covenant that would be starkly different than what they thought they knew.

Paul again will tell us that their religious system was an addendum to the promise made to Abraham. It is the promise, Paul tells his readers that is being fulfilled through Jesus—the innumerable descendants of Abraham as faithful disciples of God. Paul will go on to say that while the Law was good, it could never have saved anyone because Law serves to condemn behavior rather than reward the righteous. In an odd and ironic turn of events, the new wineskins that Jesus speaks about actually hearken back to pre-Law times when the Patriarchs lived with God, following his lead. While largely overshadowed by the Law, Micah reminds Israel and us that what God has been after are those who would love mercy, act justly, and walk humbly with God. These are themes similar to what we can discern in the Gospel. Trust God, follow his lead, and live as his disciple. This is so simple, it really cannot be combined with the Law. What is needed are new wineskins to hold the new wine.

We are on this side of Jesus’s earthly ministry and the recipients of this new wine. We are called to the same sort of life as Micah described. We, both Israel and the Gentiles who have been grafted in are called to be disciples of Jesus and dispensers of grace for the sake of the world.

How are we doing?

Photo by Apolo Photographer on Unsplash