Becoming a New Wineskin

Jesus Discusses Fasting in an Interesting Way

I hope this new series will encourage and inspire you to investigate and be hungry for more of the Lord. As I prepare for a new school year and my interactions with people and with God’s Word, I’ll post about specific topics that I hope will enrich your understanding and cause you to want to explore God and His Word more deeply. We can’t all be doctoral students, but we can and should all be students of God’s Word. As I was reading Matthew 9 recently, the short section entitled “About Fasting” caught my eye because Jesus went on to talk about new and old wine and wineskins.

The passage reads,  

“One day the disciples of John The Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, ‘Why don’t your disciples fast like we do and the Pharisees do?’

Jesus replied, ‘Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

‘Besides who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.

‘And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”

Matthew 9:14–17 NLT

What is Jesus saying here? He is comparing His ministry with John’s and trying to help John’s disciples to realize the difference. It doesn’t appear that they really understood why Jesus was here and why his ministry was different from John’s. Very few of that day truly knew Jesus’ mission until after the crucifixion and resurrection.

The New Cambridge Bible Commentary states, “Jesus illustrates his point with two more figures of speech. Both figures (old and new cloth; old and new wineskins) underscore the incompatibility of the (old) age of John and the (new) age of Jesus.”[1]

Jesus is referring to people here. What about you? Have you checked your wineskin (your heart) lately? Is your wineskin getting old, or are you keeping it fresh? Leave a comment and let me know.

Next Time: Preparing for Storms—Part 1

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[1] Evans, Craig A. Matthew. New Cambridge Bible Commentary. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 205.