Am I An Old Wineskin?

The use of metaphor in the Gospels is rich and complex. We see that first hand in today’s Gospel passage. We are presented with the image of the bridegroom along with that of wine and wineskins. Upon first encounter to a 21st century hearer these metaphors can be a bit confusing. The images used are not familiar to with us. However, as we unpack them we begin to understand their meaning and receive the eternal truth that they point to.

The Question about Fasting – Luke 5:33-39

And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” He told them a parable also: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it upon an old garment; if he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, 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 wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new; for he says, ‘The old is good.’”

The Bridegroom

In order to understand the image of the bridegroom it is first important to understand wedding customs of first century Palestine. Unlike our time, when two people married in the time of Jesus they did not immediately depart for their honeymoon. The remained at home and, for the first week of their marriage, they kept an open house and received people. The couple wore their best clothes and even at times they would wear crowns: That week, they were viewed as a king and queen: their word was law. This was a week filled with great joy and the couple would likely never be as important as they were that week. Fasting was most certainly not part of the celebration.

Jesus is the bridegroom and he is with the people, receiving them. This is not the time for fasting but a time to celebrate and be joyful. But there is something much deeper in this particular metaphor used by Jesus. He is calling out the Pharisees who had turned fasting into a very regimented, public affair. The Pharisees fasted on Monday and Thursday and they would often whiten their faces so people knew they were fasting. They were miserable and that misery was on public display. They had this idea that in order for one to be religious one had to be miserable. They would do these external acts thinking that would lead to an interior difference. They did not understand that truly loving God creates an interior disposition from which external acts flow.

The Christian life is different. The Christian life starts with an interior joy: a joy that comes from the knowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord. He was incarnated and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered, died, and rose from the dead so that may sins may be forgiven. The God of the universe loves me enough to have done that. This sure knowledge produces an interior joy that no external act can take away. From this interior joy flow exterior expressions. Fasting is a response to this joy. Alms giving is a response to this joy. Praying for the individual preparing to execute you is a response to this joy.

As we live out our Christian life, we must always remember that the external acts of faith we do must flow from an interior joy built upon one’s knowledge and relationship with Christ. This requires us to spend time in quiet prayer with the Lord. The moment we get these things out of order and expect that our external acts will lead to a greater interior spirituality is the moment we turn religion into a regimented set of rules like the Pharisees had.

Wineskins

At the time of Jesus, wine was stored in a vessel made from leather called a wineskin. New wine was poured into the skin were it would ferment and age. As it did that, the wine would give off gas building up pressure inside of the skin causing it to expand. New wineskins made out of fresh leather were soft and elastic. They could withstand the expansions that would occur during the fermentation process. However, old wineskins were hard and dry: they would burst under the pressure spilling the wine. Jesus is using this metaphor to illustrate that he is doing something new here. The old ways of responding are not going to be sufficient. What he is doing calls for a new response.

Then he throws in something odd, he throws in this line, “And no one after drinking old wine desires new; for he says, ‘The old is good’.” It is as almost he was saying that the old ways of doing things are fine and there is no need of the new. Rather, what he is saying is that there are those that will cling to the old ways and not recognize the fulfillment of the Old Covenant that Jesus ushers in with the New Covenant.

Saint Ambrose of Milan said about this particular passage from Luke’s Gospel, “The frailty of the human condition is revealed when our bodies are compared with the carcass of dead animals.” Each of us can either be a new wineskin or an old wineskin. We can receive the new wine poured out by Jesus and allow it to age in us and stretch us. We can receive the new wine but our interior is hard and brittle like and old skin so we burst spilling the wine. We can totally reject the new wine all together instead favoring to stick with the old. We can be a dead carcass incapable of receiving the free gift of the Lord or we can be a living body capable of receiving what Jesus is pouring into us. Ultimately it is our choice to make.

The challenge for most people is they over complicate the choice. They believe that to be the new wineskin requires heroic effort on their part. That is a lie the devil uses to keep you closed off to the Lord. Quite the opposite of heroic effort is required. What is needed is heroic passivity. The wine maker pours the wine into the skin. He ensures that the skin is stored properly and cared for. He checks on the skin. The winemaker is doing the work. The wineskin simply receives and through that reception allows itself to be stretched. To be the new wineskin requires nothing more than to sincerely open up your heart fully to the Lord. Invite the Master Winemaker to poor his new wine into you and be amazed at the ways he stretches you.

Additional Resources

1. Bible

2. Catholic Commentary On Luke

3. Additional Commentary On Luke