New Wineskins
This past Sunday's Harvest Festival was a wonderful blessing! It was a joy to have worship, lunch, games, and activities together as a church family. One of the things I enjoy most about such events is getting to know people I don't know very well. This past Sunday was no exception. During lunch and the time afterwards, I got the chance to just sit and talk to several people I didn't know at all. It was a privilege to hear their stories and and learn how God led them to be there that afternoon.
Learning about the story and identity of others is a beautiful thing. In the Bible, the gospels are written for us to understand the identity of Jesus Christ. Mark 1:1 says, "The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God." The story begins with the people trying to understand who Jesus is when He comes on the scene. They wonder is He a prophet, a teacher, a lunatic, a liar, or is He actually the Son of God? Jesus' words, His compassion, His power, and His authority challenges their constantly evolving understanding of who He is.
Towards the end of Mark chapter 2, some people questioned Jesus why His disciples weren't fasting like John the Baptist's or the Pharisees. They were wondering why Jesus and His ministry looked so different than all the other traditional religious teachers. In part, they were asking 'who are you?' Jesus responds with several analogies. In verses 21-22, He says, “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.” You see Jesus is challenging their understanding of who He is. And He's saying you can't apply old religious thinking to who I am. The two just don't mix.
Jesus is so much more than we understand. So as we get to know Him better, we must be flexible and teachable like the disciples in our understanding. As we are challenged by what we see and learn in Scripture, we must be like "new wineskins" that gradually grow and expand over time coming to recognize who Jesus actually is. In Mark 15:39, towards the end of the book, it says, "And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard His cry and saw how He died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!" Jesus challenges us with the question, "who do you say I am?"
God bless.
Pastor Darren
