Old Wineskins

The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.” Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.”

And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins. And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’” (Luke 5:33-39)

Many of us are “old wineskins.”  We have aged.  I’m one.  However, I have a problem with the claim that pouring “new wine” into me will be a bad idea.  “New wine” are new ideas and demands on my life that may at first be challenging.  I will not burst.  I suspect many of my contemporaries feel the same way. 

Luke said no one who has been drinking old wine desires new.  I disagree.  I refuse to be put out to pasture.  The old is good!  Readers of my blog will agree.  Nevertheless, we old ones do need to consider new ways and ideas especially when they are the ways and ideas of the younger generation.  We need to  drink.

Mutual respect will keep us wineskins intact and ready to pour our “wine” – our experience and wisdom – into the new wineskins of our future, especially our children and grandchildren.  They need to drink the "old wine."

Deacon David Pierce