Mark 2:18-22 ~ New Wine

Mark 2:18-22

Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”.


New wine - being changed by Jesus, seeing our lives as a gift from God and for God, not just another salmon swimming upstream without hope and going through the daily work. Old wine - what is valued, mellowed, cherished. What is Jesus telling us? We cannot change, cannot save ourselves. We cannot do it ourselves. With God all things are possible. Every day, we take our old wine - the things we value, the things the world expects, old hurts, the things that concern us. And we put them before God - the new wine of the Holy Spirit. Then we see the blessings and we thank Him.

Blessed be God, who creates light out of darkness.

We are new creatures in Christ Jesus, not controlled by the old values, but placing ourselves in front of Father God as His children.

Pull from the 25 verses of Isaiah 45:

Isaiah 45:

⁵ I am the LORD, and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you

⁹ "Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker,
to him who is but a potsherd
among the potsherds on the ground.
Does the clay say to the potter,
'What are you making?'
Does your work say, 'He has no hands'?

²² "Turn to me and be saved,
all you ends of the earth; for I am God,
and there is no other. 
 


Psalm 77:19
Your way was through the sea,
your path through the great waters;
yet your footprints were unseen.

Romans 8:28
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.


Remembering things that caused pain, later bringing intelligence and blessing.

I was told in college by a happy voice on the phone, a Word of God, was coming to me. And in the upbeat voice, I had no clue the voice would say, "You will have a handicapped daughter and I think she will die." You might imagine, that made me quite angry. The call was so abrupt, there was confusion which of two roommates the voice belonged to. The voice was cheerful and told me this was a gift of the LORD and if the gift was ignored, the gift would cease. I later, after Isabelle died, I looked to see what the person had done with their life. I still wonder today when news is given from the Lord, but without caution. Even Samuel worried about doing this. I suppose, you have to put your own life in your hands when cheerfully offering up news like this.

Have you ever spent time wondering why a good person would suffer  - like with a broken hip. Didn't He - the LORD - care? And realizing, later, the odd reaction to the news teaches us about a heart of an individual involved. God is at work in our lives, all the time.

I remember having an ocean vacation and dreaming of my brother with his children, waking to find the dream wasn't true and feeling very, very sad. Sometimes there is a reaction to news - in all of us - that God would say is like a run over raccoon. We suffer for the raccoon and actually what has caused the end of the raccoon -  is the creature clinging to his own path, the food, found along that path. Ignoring the obvious.

Other times, we have to be glad the emotion was Expressed! This weekend, years later, I've been blessed to spend time with my brother's family - enjoying his children.

We are very able to breeze past our moments filled with joy with the abandon of the wide highway.

Luke 13:24
Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able

Luke 17:17
Then Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine-- where are they?

Strive to be the one who truly gives thanks. All of our gifts are really from Him. It is only in the heart, where HE treasures us, where thanks may truly be given.

Father God, help us to be worthy of our calling from You!  Each day giving thanks, putting our hands out and help us to bring Your will to earth, bringing more heaven to earth - to Your Glory. In the name of Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.

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