Spilled Wine?

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved." (Matthew 9:14-17)

The Pharisees as a group were concerned with purity; that is, with the fulfilment of the law so as to be pure, living without sin. It is this obedience to the law upon which the Pharisees based their assumption of purity.  But Jesus knew living without sin was impossible, thus the need for mercy and not sacrifice.

We can pretend to be pure, like new wine, but in reality, that wine is still being poured into our old wineskins.  It doesn’t work. We still are “impure” and guilty of continued misdeeds, lying, and all that goes with self-deception and old habits that die hard.  Those around us see that new wine spilled on the floor revealing we remain hypocrites.

Change is hard.  Old bad habits tend to return.  We must become fresh wineskins, and that requires much self-reflection and soul-searching.  Jesus has warned us not to burst and to repair the tears in our fabric [might call that our integrity] before they get worse.  And they will.  The thread for repair is honesty, self-awareness, and mercy.  Fortunately, Jesus is our tailor.

Deacon David Pierce