Restored Wineskins

Hosea 14:1-9; Mt 9:15-24; 1^st John 5:13-21

Rev. Chris Harbin, Rocks Baptist Church—Pamplin, VA

03 October 2004

The gospels speak of “Good News.” It’s hard to think of something that has become “old hat” as being “news.” For those of us who grew up in church, we have perhaps become immune to the newness and freshness of the message that Jesus preached. He spoke of new wine and new wineskins. He spoke of a dynamic nature of faith that would not live within the constraints of the staid religious systems. How do we accept the freshness of the new wind of the gospel? How do we become new wineskins, allowing the gospel to change our lives radically?

Hosea struggled with a nation that had forsaken Yahweh for all manner of false idols. He challenged them to return to faithfulness and be restored. His was the call not to depend for security upon military alliances. They were not to look to horses and chariots for deliverance, nor to the gods of foreign nations. They were to return to Yahweh and trust in Yahweh’s provision. They were to be renewed and restored.

The nation was too concerned with its military, political, and economic prospects. In the end, they allowed Yahweh to fall out of the picture. Other prophets in Israel had battled the same issues of unfaithfulness to Yahweh. Many wanted to abandon Yahweh for the fertility gods of their neighbors. Others wanted to serve Yahweh and these fertility gods. Their religious focus was not so much on what they could do to serve Yahweh or the gods, but how to get divine help in providing for their material needs, political power, military supremacy, and security for their future.

Perhaps Hosea’s words would be slightly different in our current context. He would not likely speak so much of the false gods and idols of the nations. He would more likely speak to our new sense of dependence and confidence in our business models, stock indexes, political parties, and human wisdom. The Israelites to whom Hosea spoke did not truly worship idols. They focused on using the idols to achieve their own goals. They followed the instructions of the fertility gods in hopes of getting an abundance of produce from the fields. They sought direction from the gods to aid in their material and political blessing. Their worship was not so different from the way we direct and build our lives on the business models of our own secular society.

They substituted serving Yahweh for serving themselves by whatever means they might find. To heal them, says Hosea, Yahweh was about to send them into political exile. When they had seen where their unfaithfulness would take them, they would ready to return to Yahweh for healing and restoration. First, they would have to allow Yahweh control over their lives. They would have to come to Yahweh as faithful servants.

Jesus spoke of new wineskins as necessary for new wine. He knew that fresh grape juice should not be placed in old skins. As it fermented and expanded the skins would burst. He called for new wineskins. He used the symbol of the leather wine bags of the day, but he spoke of a greater reality. The new relationship with God that was His gospel could not be forced into the old patterns of ritualistic worship and spirituality. The gospel needed new forms to address its dynamic nature—malleable forms that could withstand the changes that would occur over time.

For many Jews of Jesus’ day, worship was about gaining the favor of God in order to exact of God their desires and demands. Many were consumed with the desire for freedom from Roman oppression. They wanted freedom! A major reason for the fasting of the Pharisees and the disciples of John was their concern to convince Yahweh to send Messiah and free the nation from its captivity to Rome. They wanted to prove their faithfulness to God so that they might receive the blessing they anticipated. When Jesus informed them that God’s blessing had already come, they could not understand.

Jesus compared his good news to new wine. New wine is different from aged wine. Aged wine sits quietly in its container, ready for consumption. New wine is living. It is active. It grows, changes, expands, and pushes against the constraints we place upon it. Jesus’ gospel did not fit the molds the Jews had prepared for Messiah. Those molds and projects were too limiting and static for the faith that Jesus proclaimed. He spoke of a vital faith that strove to fill every aspect of our lives.

This was a new gospel that would heal in ways their hopes could not. This was a faith that could bring life to the dead against the hopeless cries of those who mourned. Rather than return to the political structure of Israel’s glory days, Jesus as Messiah sought a new manner of lordship. He spoke and taught of service, healing, restoration, and reconciliation. He offered a new pattern of life amid the Roman oppression—one that would not allow itself to be limited by political forces of any kind. This was a new wine that had the potential to rip the old skins apart. This good news needed renewed skins. It needed people who were willing to be completely changed and malleable enough to accept the internal pressure of fermenting wine.

John wrote of new life in Christ Jesus. His words of comfort reminded the believers of their new allegiance and life. He did not want them to revert to the old ways or to neglect the new life they had in Christ. John wanted believers to recognize the blessing of having direct access to God, having access to God’s ear. Knowing that God hears us is a greater blessing than we might realize. God hears our prayers. We live under God’s protection. The God who grants us life is far greater than idols, for in Christ we have acceptance and a relationship with the Almighty.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is dynamic. Faith is dynamic. It changes lives. It alters our understanding of life, our actions, and our focus. Faith calls us to allow Christ to renew us. We are to grow into a new understanding of what life is all about. We are challenged to find security in God’s care and provision, rather than in our own devices. A living faith challenges us to seek a new direction. It challenges us to face the world from a different perspective. It calls us to lay down our resistant nature and become malleable to the dynamic life in the message of the gospel of Christ Jesus.

New wineskins allow themselves to be changed from the inside. They allow their contents to mold and transform them. They are flexible and elastic. The internal changes consume the skins so that there is room for nothing other than the expanding wine.

Will we allow ourselves to be restored as new wineskins? Will we become malleable to the good news of the Living Christ? Will we allow faith to mold us as God desires, or will we try to force God to do our bidding? God may desire to send us into exile to fashion us into the people he desires. Will we trust Him as He molds us into the people he would have us become?

—©2004 Christopher B. Harbin

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