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Gospel: Luke 5: 33-39
The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus,
“The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers,
and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same;
but yours eat and drink.”
Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast
while the bridegroom is with them?
But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
then they will fast in those days.”
And he also told them a parable.
“No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one.
Otherwise, he will tear the new
and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins,
and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined.
Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.
And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new,
for he says, ‘The old is good.’”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Fermentation is the process that turns grape juice into wine.
During fermentation, gas is released, causing the wineskins to expand, which is why new, stretchy wineskins must be used. Old skins would rip and tear, spilling and ruining the wine.
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In today’s Gospel, Jesus likens the religious authorities and their legalistic beliefs to old wineskins – rigid, stiff, and unyielding.
As a result, he could not pour his teachings, his love, or his grace into their hearts. Much like new wine being poured into old wineskins, divine grace would’ve caused their hearts and laws to expand.
Or, better yet, explode.
Which is why the Lord needed to bring new disciples – fresh wineskins – into the fold.
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Anyone who tries following Jesus and living out his word feels this tension. The Lord stretches our hearts and minds, and tames our flesh, sometimes to an uncomfortable degree.
Are we not stretched in prayer? When we turn the other cheek? Seek to forgive? Carry our crosses? And give of our time, talent, and treasure until it hurts?
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May the Lord continue to transform our hearts into new wineskins, capable of being stretched, changed, and expanded by his grace.
So that we become ever more like him, who has loved us and given himself for us.
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