The "new wine" of life in Christ

Tradition is a great gift passed from each generation to the next. It provides stability and direction for the individual as well as the family or nation. We honor it with ceremony and special occasions. The Jewish people celebrated the tradition of their founders with a yearly series of feasts and obligatory ceremonial rites. And the trappings of tradition accumulated at a remarkable rate and every deviation became a deep concern for the cadre of religious perfectionists.
       One day some people came to Jesus to ask why his disciples didn’t fast. The disciples of John the Baptizer did, but not those of Jesus. So the people came to Jesus to find out why. As usual, he didn’t give them a quick answer, but used a metaphor that would engage their minds and help them understand and remember.
       “Tell me,” asked Jesus, “Have you ever gone to a wedding where everybody was fasting? No way. Weddings are happy times” (all quotations are from Mark 2:18-22 and parallels) Then Jesus used two more illustrations that showed how “his way differed from tradition.” You don’t put new patches on an old coat and you don’t put new wine in an old wineskins.” New cloth is “alive” and would tear the old; “new wine” is still fermenting” and would break open the old wineskin.  They may have been well intended, but their problem was that “they had been drinking the old wine of tradition so long that they had lost any desire to even taste the new.”
       Tradition has great value; it reminds us of the principles that have determined who we are as a people. But the problem with tradition is that it keeps expanding. It doesn’t discard the old, but adds to it so aggressively that it becomes top heavy with nonessentials. In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees had added so many explanatory supplements to the basic laws of Moses that the religion experience was turning into something not intended.  The only cure for this is to discover once again the new wine that was springing up at the heart of it all. Fasting apparently wasn’t central enough to make it an essential tenet of the faith.
       Moving into our day, what constitutes the heart of the Christian faith? Is it the various religious ceremonies that the church honors? Is it something so sacred that some in the worshiping population sacrifice a normal life to confine themselves to monasteries? Or is it the proper sequence of three hymns, two payers, and a benediction every Sunday? Or is the heart of a faith centered on the living Lord a free and open affection for the One who came among us to pay the debt for our sins? Should you be able to detect religious people   by how somber they appear or by how genuinely joyous they are? I’m inclined to think the latter.
       Think of life as a wedding. Christ is the groom and we are the bride. He loves us with a life-transforming affection and we respond in kind. It’s a wedding, not a time for establishing a series of rules – a time for joyous relationships that reflect what in fact is actually going on. The wine is “new wine!” Old wine can stay in the old wineskins. New wine is for now. Cheers!
       I believe that Jesus Christ would nod his head in a sort of mild acknowledgement of a beautifully crafted Sunday service (and I love them) but what he truly wants is to talk with us and share his life with us on a daily basis. The heart of the Christian faith is a living relationship with a risen Lord.
       My toast is to Thee, Lord Jesus. With grateful hearts for the joy of salvation may your name be honored everywhere both here on the earth you created and also throughout the heavens above. You are the ultimate groom and we will honor our sacred relationship throughout the ages.