For thousands of
years men have been picking grapes and allowing them to ferment into wine. The
first step in the process is picking the clusters and hauling them to a spot
where they are crushed. The resulting “must” is then allowed to go through a
violent fermentation process that can last from 14 to 21 days. At the end of
this primary fermentation most of the sugar has been used up to produce carbon
dioxide and alcohol.
Now as fermentation process begins to slow down, the skins,
seeds and yeast all settle out onto the bottom as “lees”. It’s at this point
that the sediment-free, clear “new wine” is racked off the lees and stored in
secondary fermentation vessels. The wine at this stage is the wine that Jesus was
referring to in the gospel of Luke 5:36-39.
So in this analogy, Jesus, uses the “old wine skins” to
represent Judaism and the law. The “new wine skins” represent the new covenant
that Jesus graciously came to the earth to make. After thousands of years of
trying to keep the law and endless animal sacrifices now Jesus comes and sets
all sinners free! It must have been difficult for Jews, living under the shadow
of the law, to listen to Jesus discuss God’s grace and mercy.
Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it
perfectly. In fact, He paid the sin debt that the law demands, for every man,
woman and child ever born and who will ever be born. The joy that this truth
produces cannot be contained in our old wine skins. You see, in the times that
Jesus lived, it was the practice to use animal skins for holding and storing wine
and other liquids.
As wine is moved into the secondary fermentation vessel, the
new container needs to be flexible and able to expand to compensate for the
carbon dioxide that will be given off. Putting new wine into old wine skins was
a bad idea and would end up in disaster with all the new wine spilled out onto
the ground.
Jesus actually begins
developing this idea in Luke 5:12 where Jesus reaches out to touch a leper in
order to heal him, which was forbidden by the law. Then in Luke 5:17 Jesus
forgives a man his sin, in order to heal him, which was blasphemy and also
against the law. The religious teachers of the law are now watching very closely
as Jesus dines with sinners, which was something the religious upright would never
consider doing.
It’s actually at this point in time that some of these
religious leaders begin plotting on how to get rid of Jesus. He is bringing new
wine but their old skins are just not able to contain the power of the Holy
Spirit. The new wine of God’s grace and mercy is too wonderful; it’s too joyful
to be shackled by law and what Judaism had made of it.
In Luke 6:1-5 the religious leaders watch as Jesus and His
disciples pick and eat grains of wheat on the Sabbath. They accuse them of
breaking the Sabbath law by harvesting and winnowing wheat in the palms of
their hands. However, they actually got this one wrong, as it was permitted and
allowed for in the law listed in Deuteronomy 23:24-25. Jesus doesn’t argue with them but reinforces
His point “The Son of Man is also the Lord of the Sabbath.”
What’s so amazing to me is that these are the same men who
prided themselves on knowing the law and didn’t recognize the One standing in front of
them was the very One who wrote it in the first place. They held the law higher
than the sufferings of people.
Jesus was proving to the world, by touching a leper,
forgiving a man’s sin and eating with undesirables that the grace and mercy
that He was giving to the world was a far better way to live then by the letter
of the law.
The King of Glory left us with a gift, the Holy Spirit, who now
lives inside of us, although, He can’t be contained in our old vessels. http://newwineoldwineskins.blogspot.com
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