“Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
Mark 2:21-22 (NAB)
Since antiquity, wine was stored in the carefully prepared skins of animals. A wineskin is made of leather, the most common of which is goatskin. Goatskin was better suited for craftsmen to handle because of its flexibility. It was also harder wearing, increasing the life of the wineskin.
Jesus said not to put new wine into old wineskins, but I never really understood what that meant, until now. New wine is still fermenting in the wineskin, and fermentation creates the need for the wineskin to expand. Only a new wineskin could be stretchable enough to handle the fermentation process. If an old wineskin was used, it was already stretched to its maximum. To pour new wine into the old wineskin would cause it to burst or tear under the pressure of expansion. That is the mystery that I never understood before.
Jesus has new wine to pour into us, and we need to be flexible wineskins during the fermentation process. We were meant to stretch, not burst under pressure. Something may be happening in our lives that feels like a fermentation process, stretching us in some new or unpleasant ways. It seems like Jesus is saying to us,
“I am about to do a new thing in your life that will require some stretching, so please abide in Me.”
To abide in Christ is to accept the changes before us, and to remain open to learning something new, while we are expanding our spiritual boundaries. As we stay close to Jesus, He helps us to stretch flexibly, but not burst.
When I received the inspiration for this meditation, it was seven months before my son’s motorcycle accident, in 2023. I had no idea that the Lord was preparing me through this message, to keep my wineskin flexible, for the changes that were coming in my life. In writing this, He was preparing me for new wine, soon to be poured into me.
In going regularly to a Nursing Facility to visit my son, after his brain injury, my eyes were opened to the other residents who lived there. Previously, I never thought about visiting a Nursing Home as a volunteer. One day, the Holy Spirit drew my attention to a few residents sitting alone, and the scripture verse came alive to me, where Jesus said, “Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for Me.”
(Matthew 25:40)
The Lord took my focus off of my own personal tragedy and showed me other people who were lonely and had no one to visit them. Jesus revealed that by visiting those residents, I am bringing a little of His light into their darkness. Since I have been visiting there, over time, I have developed many friendships with the residents and I discovered that God had a beautiful plan, by pouring that new wine into my wineskin.
We may not understand the new wine or the new thing He is doing, but God uses every trial in our lives, to begin a fermentation process in us. New wine bears new fruit, as He opens the eyes of our hearts to see things from His perspective. He develops new gifts of the Spirit in us and leads us into new areas of service. As we abide in Him, keeping our wineskin flexible, He helps us stretch with the plan. Jesus gave all of Himself for us, and He is worthy to have flexible wineskins to work with.
Lord, thank you helping us to be flexible while the new wine is fermenting within us. Give us the grace to be led by you, as your new wine brings light to the darkness and glorifies you. Amen
