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A New Wineskin
Mark 2:18-22 (NKJ)
The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were
fasting. Then they came and said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John
and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?"
And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the
bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have
the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
"But the days will come when the bridegroom will be
taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. "No one
sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece
pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse "And no one puts new
wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the
wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put
into new wineskins." (Emphasis added)
The scribes and the Pharisees were relentlessly trying to find an
occasion to accuse Jesus of some matters concerning the law. One day
they asked why His disciple were not fasting and praying after their
custom. Jesus answered them , “do friends of the bridegroom or wedding
guests abstain from eating while the bridegroom is with them?” He was
actually saying that people do not fast at a wedding feast.
Then Jesus added: “no one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old
garment…no one puts new wine into old wineskin…”. At first glance,
Jesus’ response to the Pharisee comes across like a brainteaser: what
does old and new cloth, new wine and old wineskins have to do with
weddings and fasting?
A quick analysis of this passage leads to two conclusion:
- Jesus contrasts the pharisaical fasting and a wedding feast.
- The “old” refers to such fasting and the new refers to a
wedding.
Wedding feasts speak of joy, relationship, intimacy, exhilaration
and delight, while fasting suggests mourning, bereavement, sorrow
and sadness. These have no place at a wedding celebration.The Pharisees practiced fasting merely as a form, a fleshly
observance to regulations of the law. Their legalistic exercise
considerably contrasted the vitality of the relationship that Jesus
enjoyed with His disciples. Therefore, Jesus was saying that joyous
times are not times for fasting because legalism cannot contain
joyfulness, just as old, brittle wineskins cannot hold fermenting
wine. A footnote for this passage in the Spirit Filled Bible, reads:
“Past, traditional structures cannot be imposed on the present
renewal. Yesterday’s forms are incapable of handling today’s
dynamics of spiritual renewal”.
Sadly, we tend toward rules more than we tend toward relationship,
but the dynamic spiritual renewal that is beginning to sweep within
the Body of Christ is based on connection with the Spirit of God,
rather than legalistic adherence to rules and regulations, to forms
and methods.
A fermenting process in the Spirit has started indeed. God wants to
pour out His New Wine. The new thing that God wants to do in this
generation is beginning to appear.
THE NEW WINE
Like in a marriage, the spiritual renewal that is coming will be the
outcome of the intimate relationship between the Church and her
Bridegroom Jesus. It will happen when God and His people are joined
in covenant, precisely a marriage covenant. It will not be birthed
by methods, things done in the energy of the flesh, plans and
strategies born out of the ingenuity of the human mind, which are
incapable of bringing spiritual results. This is the stiffness of
the “old” wineskin, the hardness of legalism with its unmovable
forms.
God the Father does not want a loveless Bride for His Son. Jesus
Himself came to rescue us from a humdrum Christianity. He came to
save us from lifeless routines and to redeem us from legalism, which
is a religious spirit (Galatians 4:5). Therefore, He requires a new
wineskin or He needs to condition the old one so it will stretch and
soften and have a new shape. However, we need to want it, we need to
choose the stretching and then embrace it when it comes. We need to
desire His presence more than anything else and at any cost. Moses
prayed, “if Your Presence doesn’t go with us, we won’t move”. Exodus
33:15 (paraphrased).
The process of softening happens through pain; when we embrace it
and when - through it - we run to Him, we discover our absolute
helplessness and His complete sufficiency.
LEGALISM GENERATES SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS
Trusting in our own strength and in our own methods and ideas makes
us independent. Independence breeds self righteousness and it gives
the enemy a tool he can use to badger us, as in the case of Joshua
the High Priest.
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel
of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And
the LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the
LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand
plucked from the fire?"
Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the
angel. And he spoke and said to those who were standing before him
saying, "Remove the filthy garments from him." Again he said to him,
"See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you
with festal robes." Then I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his
head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with
garments, while the angel of the LORD was standing by. Zech 3:1-5
NAS (Emphasis added)
…all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment …Isa 64:6 NAS
(emphasis added).
The prophet Zechariah, in one of his visions, saw Joshua the High
Priests clothed in filthy garments. The prophet Isaiah clarifies
that the filthy garments are deeds done in our own righteousness
(Isaiah 64:6). They are works of the flesh done under the law as
opposed to those done in the Spirit, under the grace that comes
through faith in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul, in his epistle to
the Romans goes a step further in declaring that walking after the
flesh exposes us to condemnation or accusation:
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ
Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the
Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made
me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do
in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned
sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be
fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according
to the Spirit. Rom 8:1-4 (NKJ) (emphasis added).
Joshua the High Priest became the subject of Satan’s accusation in
the presence of the very throne of God, because he was clothed with
the filthy garments “of his self righteousness” (implied).
Even so, the Lord rebuked Satan. Joshua was nonetheless a brand
plucked from the fire, chosen by Him and belonging to Him, just like
all of God’s people. However, the filthy garment had to be removed.
A stripping needed to take place. Stripping is a painful process and
a humbling one. However, until we are naked before Him and
comfortable with it, as in a marriage, until we are not ashamed to
be exposed to His eyes, we cannot enter into that place of intimacy
He gave His life to bring us into. Legalism will not take us to
intimacy which will be the keystone of the coming “move of God”,
which will also lead to the bringing forth of something – rather
Someone.
BARREN WOMEN
In Bible times, two people got married for the purpose of having
children, namely sons. . What needs to come forth from the intimate
relationship between the Church and her Bridegroom is the Image of
Christ, THE SON (His Presence in us). Barrenness in those days was a
reproach. The same reproach is also on the infertility of the Church
that is void of His Presence. The Bible however, is full of records
of barren wombs being miraculously open. Hannah, although deeply
loved by her husband Elkanah (I Samuel), agonized in prayer until
Samuel was born. Out of the dead womb of Elizabeth came John the
Baptist and out of the dead womb of Sarah came Isaac, the prototype
of Jesus Christ.
In Genesis 35:16-18 we read of Rachel, whose womb God also opened.
She gave birth to Joseph first, but she died in giving birth to the
son she called Benoni or “son of my sorrow’. Her husband Jacob on
the other hand, called him Benjamin or “son of my delight” and “son
of my right hand”. What a beautiful picture of what is to take place
in this next move of God! As Rachel, the Church that has embraced
the pain of the stretching and that is willing to die to every work
of the flesh, is going to bring forth the “Son of God’s right hand”,
as she carries His Presence wherever she goes. To be the containers
of God’s Presence is to reach the fullness of Redemption that brings
humanity back into His Image.
FESTAL ROBES
In conclusion, Jesus spoke of a wedding feast that cannot take place
unless there is intimate relationship with Him first. The purpose of
the wedding is to bring forth The Son. First, we need to get the
wedding garments. In order to receive them, we need to be conscious
of what we are wearing. As long as we keep the old ones on, we
cannot wear the new ones He requires.
Chapter 22 of the Gospel of Matthew, relates a parable Jesus spoke
to illustrate a fact about the kingdom of heaven. He told of a king
who made a marriage for his son and invited as many people as would
come.
According to the custom of the times, the father of the Bridegroom
provided appropriate wedding garments for the guests. One of them
came wearing his own outfit, so the king said to him, “why aren’t
you wearing a wedding garment?” He turned to his servants and
commanded them to tie up the man hand and foot and throw him out
into the darkness. The man perished just as the old wineskin would
be destroyed if new wine were poured in it.
So, what does the wedding garment and the festal robes look like?
The Lord told Joshua the High Priest, “I will clothe you”. The king
in the parable was the one that provided the wedding clothes; in
another vision, the prophet Zechariah heard the Lord say, “Not by
might, not by power, but by My Spirit”. The Lord Himself (His
Spirit) is the clothing for those who are willing to be stripped of
man’s methods and forms. The Lord requires obedience, not methods.
He did not give Moses a “method”, He just said, “speak to the rock”
– Moses obeyed and water came, but when he did it his way, He lost
out and never entered in.
It is interesting that Zechariah entered his own vision and cried,
“put a clean turban on Aaron’s head”
The head covering, as the Arabs wear, speak of submission. The
ensign “Holiness unto the Lord” held the one of one of the High
Priest”. This speaks of the mind of Christ.
To be clothed by Him is to be clothed indeed with a rich garment. It
is to be clothed with His passion, His Love, His fire, His
righteousness (Isaiah 61:10) and His holiness. Oh, may the cry of
our heart be that of the Apostle Paul as it is recorded in
Philippians 3:7-9
“… what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for
Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain
Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which
is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the
righteousness which is from God by faith…” (Emphasis added).
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