Luke 5:39 “And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, “The old is better.”
We all get comfortable with the way things are. We are often slow to adopt new technologies. Are you still on Facebook, rather than Instagram, WeMe, or Parler? Do you do all your work on your phone, or do you have a desktop computer? Do you still like the old hymns? Should you wear a dress or suit in church? How about bluejeans on the platform? OK, I will stop before I offend someone!
We all like “the same” old things. Our “same” might be different for each person, but we will stick to it, and not give it up without a fight. We like consistency, we don’t like change. And the older we get, the more set in our ways we become, at least most of us.
This chapter in Luke is about change. The religious leaders have been doing things one way for decades, centuries. And now here comes this unknown man from Galilee who is stirring up a whole new mess. He doesn’t do things the way He is supposed to do them. That ruffles some feathers.
Jesus doesn’t follow the rules. He heals the sick without prior authorization, without the proper qualifications, without the prescribed rituals. How dare He!
And Jesus doesn’t follow the standards. He eats with unacceptable people, laughing at their jokes and having a good time. Those people are to be kept at an arm’s distance. We certainly don’t eat with them! But Jesus does.
And this raises red flags with the religious authorities. They pull our their tally sheets and find that Jesus and His disciples have not met the requirement for fasting. They don’t have enough checks in their columns. They have failed to be ‘righteous’ by the standards set by the Standards Committee. They have to put a stop to this before it goes any further.
So they confront Jesus, and Jesus answers as He so often does with a poignant picture. He talks about sewing and oenology (wine making). Now no self-respecting religious leader would engage in such mundane tasks. They have more important things to do than sew or stomp grapes.
The two pictures are these. When repairing an old garment, use old material. If you don’t the new material will shrink and completely ruin the garment. New wine expands when it is fermenting, so you have to put new wine in a new wineskin. The old wineskins are stiff and resist the expansion that happens when wine is fermenting. Your wine ends up on the floor instead of in your mouth!
And Jesus concludes this illustration with a statement about people. People get accustomed to the things they like, and they like wine that has aged, mellowed, and perfected. New wine just doesn’t have those characteristics, so new wine isn’t preferred.
The religious leaders, and we ourselves, don’t like change. And Jesus is bringing change so large that they will resist with everything within them. He is tipping everything rightside up, but we are used to upside down.
But Jesus calls us to be able to follow the winds of the Spirit. We must be able to move and adapt to meet the challenges of each generation, culture, people and language. The Gospel requires flexibility. How flexible are you?
The Arnold Journey 