New Wine

 June 22, 2023

Doug Comer is a name I’m still able to pluck from years ago. We were freshmen in college, not particularly close, but friends. Doug decided one day to mix up a batch of root beer. This was Houghton College, a conservative Wesleyan college in a dry Wesleyan town. I guess since it was ROOT beer, Doug figured it wouldn’t be violating any of the college rules against alcohol. He followed the directions, mixed it all together—you know—yeast, water, sugar, and root beer extract. He scrounged around and found an old bottle capping device, a couple dozen bottles, and he was in business.

The instructions called for letting it “work” in a cool, dark place. What could be cooler and darker than his dorm closet? Two cases of virgin root beer in amongst his clothes and shoes, working away in the dark. But not so cool. After about a week, one of the bottles burst; then another and another. Doug didn’t dare go into his closet for fear he would be met with shards of glass from the exploding bottles. He just sat there, counting the explosions till it was all over except for the mess. 

I think of Doug whenever I read Jesus’ story about putting new wine in new wineskins, and I wonder how much of God’s amazing work we miss because he chooses to work in ways we aren’t willing or able to accept. 

It was fairly early in Jesus’ ministry, but already the lines were being drawn. He forgave a man’s sins, received tax collectors (that could ruin any man’s reputation) and sinners, and wasn’t abiding by the religious rituals that had been sacrosanct since anyone could remember. As we pick up the story, he is having a rather heated discussion with the religious leaders who have been watching him, tracking his every movement, and were looking for ways to ensnare him.

The presenting issue was his disciples’ failure to observe regular times of fasting. “Why?” they wanted to know. It was then that Jesus uttered one of his more famous sayings.

““And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins. But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.”” —Luke 5:37-39 

Jesus isn’t saying that his new wine isn’t better, but that most of the time, we prefer the old. We are reluctant to try new ways, and often when we do, we prefer the old, familiar patterns. Old wine is stable and predictable; the new is bursting with energy, and requires us to be flexible and pliant. I like old cars, old music, old religion. I don’t like old bones and old thinking, but I am often tempted to stick with what I know instead of taking a risk on something new and untested. But if we are to be faithful to Jesus Christ who makes all things new (1 Cor. 5:17), we must allow God to keep churning and bubbling within us like new wine. 

Keep my mind and heart flexible, O Lord; yielding to the working of your Holy Spirit within me so your work doesn’t merely make a mess.