A New Way

Luke 5: 36-39

“36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise the new will be torn, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine, but says, ‘The old is good.’”

In the life of Jesus, in His teachings, in His actions, in His love, we see that God was making all things new; a new way of understanding Him; a new way of seeing and  relating to others; a new covenant.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees, still very much rooted in the old way, were drinking “the old wine” and saying “the old is good”.  But the new wine that was being offered by God was being poured and people were drinking.

Jesus' message to the religious authorities was that God’s new covenant would not be  a sub paragraph of the old covenant, but would be an entirely different, entirely new way of God.

This way would not be known by ritual but by love; would not be exclusive, but inclusive; would not be written on stone but in the hearts of all believers.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)