33. Wineskins Old and New

Someone said to him, “Why do John’s disciples often fast and pray, likewise also the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink?”

He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast, while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast in those days.” He also told a parable to them. “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old garment, or else he will tear the new, and also the piece from the new will not match the old. No one puts new wine into old wine skins, or else 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 wine skins, and both are preserved. And no man having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’”

Reflections

As leather wineskins age, they become less flexible. New wine, as it continues to ferment, expands and stretches the skin. If the skins are too brittle, they rupture and the wine is lost. Jesus was speaking here of religious traditions. What new ideas or new people have you seen create tension in old churches? What can be done to help the old and new work together?

Prayer: Help me treat with dignity and respect, Lord, those whose ideas and traditions are different than my own.