January 16th - Mark 2:22

Mark 2:22 [Jesus said:] “No one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.” We all know what happens to leather after a few years: it becomes hard and brittle. Just imagine what happens when you put wine into an old leather wineskin – the wine inevitably leaks away. In Jesus’ day, wine was largely stored in wineskins, so everyone got the point. If you want to keep your wine, you need to make sure that you only put it into new wineskins. Jesus’ teaching was radical and new. He was telling people about the new wine of the kingdom of God. This wonderful new wine was so precious that there was no point in trying to put it into the old wineskins of Judaism. There needed to be a complete revolution. It was vital for them to be born again. A new life needed to begin. Many people hear the teaching of Jesus and conclude that they need to turn over a new leaf. They need to start being more loving, and stop being so selfish. However, if we are just making a few amendments to life, it isn’t going to work. We will soon fail in the attempt. What we need is a completely new start in which we hand over our lives to God and allow him to lead us by his Holy Spirit. This is the key to all of Jesus’ teaching. As we allow the Spirit to lead us, we will naturally produce the fruit of the Spirit. We won’t need to go on training courses to learn about how to love more or be more peaceful or find more joy in life. These things will inevitably flow as we allow the Holy Spirit to take control. Miraculously, we will find that he gives us gifts to enable us to be more effective for him. Often, they will be gifts related to skills and abilities that we already have, but sometimes they will be totally new gifts which the Spirit gives us for a new situation. Receiving the new wine that Jesus wants to give us will transform every part of life, so we wouldn’t want any of it to leak. Question In what ways have you seen the new wine of the kingdom? Prayer Lord Jesus, I invite you to take charge of my life and to fill me with the new wine of your Holy Spirit. Amen