New Wineskins

-
Mark 2.18-22. Once when John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, some people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t your disciples fast like John’s disciples and the Pharisees do?”Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. They can’t fast while the groom is with them. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

“Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.”

This passage has always stumped me. I never got what the parables meant. Oh, I've been told a couple of different things, but they never really rang true.

Until now.

This morning as I was going through the Morning Office, this passage was our Gospel reading. As I almost finished the passage, the interpretation of the parables came flooding in. The parable, like so many of Jesus' parables was a retelling of the story of Israel. Jesus' Kingdom announcement was that YHWH, Israel's God was doing a new thing through him and his ministry. Jesus was inaugurating the long awaited Kingdom of God, the Rule of God. But, it wasn't going to be like Israel expected. God was not going to just let Israel keep its old agenda. God would not allow Israel to continue doing things they were doing. He was doing a new thing and they needed to get on board with that. The new thing consisted of new clothes and new wine. It wouldn't do to put new patches of cloth on an old garment, because the garment was not going to be used any more. It wouldn't do any good to put new wine in old wine skins because those wine skins were not going to be used any more. What God was implementing would need new clothes and new wine skins.

In other words, YHWH, the God of Israel, the creator God, was creating a new Israel around Jesus. I guess it wasn't really a new Israel as more of identifying the faithful Israel that was always there. Jesus was going around saying that the 'old way' of being Israel wasn't going to make it in God's new world. To be part of that New Creation Project, people would have to put aside their way of being Israel and trust him in his way. And when that happened, they would become 'new' -- new clothing, new wineskins, new people, new creation.

May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance.

+OD

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Linux Mint 5

-
Image
It's been a while since I did a technological (read: geek) blog, so I thought I would update you on what's going on. As you are aware, I am a full-fledged geek by trade and passion and I have gone from Windows to Mac to Linux.  My Linux evolution went from Linspire to Mepis to PCLinuxOS to Ubuntu .  I stayed with PCLinuxOS and Ubuntu for the longest.  However, I have always read good things about another distribution called Linux Mint .  It's based on the latest Ubuntu release but with a lot of add-ons.  The latest version is called Linux Mint 5, Elyssa.  So, at the office, I downloaded the latest iso and tried it out to see how it all worked. First of all, there are always some things I keep in mind when trying any new Linux distro, the primary thing being, 'How would the average user feel about using this OS?'  'Is it (very) simple to install?  Is it easy to use?  Is it easy to get help?  Is it easy to add or remove applications?  Is the terminal (command ...
Read more

The OS Problem

-
I recently purchased a new laptop.  It's a Gateway M-6843 .  It's wonderful!  The very first thing I did, of course, was install Ubuntu 8.04.1 .  I plugged in the laptop and booted from the Ubuntu CD and clicked the install icon.  After about a week, I saw this blog detailing how this person got a refund from HP because he didn't want to use Windows Vista.  So, I started the process with Gateway.  It's been about a week and it's going to be a long process.  Customer Support at Gateway gave me the run-around so I am in the process of writing a letter to the Corporate Office. The reason for all of this is because of the End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) from Microsoft.  According to the EULA, if I choose not to use Vista, I should contact the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM, in my case this would be Gateway) for a refund or credit.  But this begs the question: Why don't people get this option before buying the system?  That is, instead of having the cust...
Read more

Series: New Testament Eschatology

-
Image
From time to time, I hear a lot about the early church’s understanding of the “end of the world” or their belief that the “Second Coming of Jesus” would take place within their generation. And it’s usually not in a very good light. “They were obviously mistaken,” is often the remark I hear most. I know it’s hard to imagine but what if we’re mistaken? What if we’ve misunderstood what they meant? I’m hoping that this series on some of the major statements from the New Testament about the “end of the world” will show that they weren’t mistaken in their understanding of the “signs of the times.” Before we begin, however, let’s look at some terms that will have to be used. As most of you know, I try to refrain from using big “church” words. My reason for this is because those words are like suitcases where ideas and thoughts and understandings are packed into them. To explain the words would mean a long time spent unpacking the suitcases and explaining their contents. While such a pil...
Read more