They put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved

 

 As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office.  And He said to him, "Follow Me."  So he arose and followed Him.  Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples.  And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"  When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  But go and learn what this means:  'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.'  For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?"  And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?  But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.  No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse.  Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined.  But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

 

- Matthew 9:9-17 

 

Yesterday we read that, after healing two demoniacs in the region of the Gergesenes,  Jesus got into a boat, crossed back over the Sea of Galilee, and came to His own city of Capernaum.  Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed.  When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you."  And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, "This Man blasphemes!"  But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts?  For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise and walk'?  But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins" -- then He said to the paralytic, "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."  And he arose and departed to his house.  Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.

 

  As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office.  And He said to him, "Follow Me."  So he arose and followed Him.  Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples.  And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"  When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  But go and learn what this means:  'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.'  For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."  Matthew is also named Levi (Mark 2:14).  Roman overlords, my study Bible explains, assigned specific areas to Jewish tax collectors.  These tax collectors were then free to collect extra revenues for their own profit.  Thus, their collaboration with the occupying Romans, their fraud, and their corruption caused other Jews to hate them and to consider them unclean (Matthew 11:19).   Jesus dining with them and accepting a tax collector as a disciple (with the characteristic "Follow Me") is offensive to the Pharisees.  But Christ's defense is simple:  He says that He goes where the need of the physician is the greatest.  "I desire mercy and not sacrifice" (Hosea 6:6) is not a rejection of sacrifice per se, but it does tell us that mercy is a higher priority (see Psalm 51).  

Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?"  And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?  But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.  No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse.  Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined.  But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."  By tradition, the Jews typically fasted twice a week (Luke 18:12), on Monday and Thursday.  There were also public fasts which were regularly observed or occasionally proclaimed (2 Chronicles 20:3, Ezra 8:21, Esther 4:16, Joel 2:15).   Fasts were especially important on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:31-34) and in times of mourning (Zechariah 7:5, 8:19).  But for the Jews, the day of the Messiah was envisioned as a wedding feast; that is, a time of joy and gladness.  Here Jesus is proclaiming that day, and declaring Himself to be the Messiah/Bridegroom.  For Christians, therefore, fasting has been seen as not a gloomy but desirable periodic practice, a "bright sadness," because by fasting, we gain self-control and prepare ourselves for the Wedding Feast at Christ's Second Coming.  My study Bible also explains that the old garment and old wineskins stand for the Old Covenant and the Law, which are viewed as imperfect and temporary.  The new wineskins are the New Covenant and those in Christ.  The new wine is the Holy Spirit dwelling within renewed people, who cannot be constrained by the old precepts of the Law.

 

It's interesting to consider the new wine as the Holy Spirit, dwelling within renewed people.  In yesterday's reading and commentary (at this link) we remarked on the nature of faith:  that faith forms a kind of circuit within and among people, for even the paralytic's friends could affect his healing and forgiveness by Christ.  Here in today's reading, as my study Bible explains the subject of the "new wine" to which Christ refers, we get an even deeper and in some sense more intensive picture of the work of the Holy Spirit within a renewed people.  Of course, just like the story of the paralytic in yesterday's Gospel reading, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit functions both on individual and collective levels.   If we take a close look at the new wine, Jesus refers to its expansive action, so that it needs new wineskins to contain it.  That is, wineskins which are capable of expanding to contain the wine as it ferments due to the enzymatic action which takes place as it naturally ages and ferments.  Here we have an interesting poetic tie with another reference to the working of the Kingdom in one of Jesus' parables, that of the leaven.  Jesus taught:  "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened" (Matthew 13:33).  Both the leaven or yeast in the dough works in the same type of action as the fermentation of the wine; indeed, the word for "leaven" in the Greek of the Gospel is ζύμη/zymē, the root of our modern word enzyme.  And the enzymatic action of leaven and of new wine tell us a story of energy, if you will, and the workings of the Holy Spirit within and among people (Luke 17:21) to transform, change, and renew.   In Eastern Orthodoxy, grace is understood as the "energies" of God, like the light and warmth of sunlight proceeding from the sun.  Thus, the work of the Holy Spirit in us to transform and change and renew is the Kingdom at work within and among us; it is by grace we are able to say that we "know" God, as we are enabled to participate in the light of God, and God thereby works in us.  Like the rays of the sun giving both light and warmth, this doesn't mean we become God (just as sunlight illuminating and warming our world doesn't make it the sun), but it does mean that God is life-giving and also gifts us with qualities that are "like God."  This is the work of the Holy Spirit, creating the necessity for expansion in the renewing action of grace.  We must open our minds and hearts to God in this very sense of the renewing and expanding action made possible through faith, through this connection with the power of God at work in us.  Therefore, what Jesus offers is a new kind of understanding of God's work and presence, made possible through faith, which is always dynamic, ongoing, expanding, evolving.  God's work within us is the same.  It is not simply a set of laws or rules, but also an action, an ongoing transformation, one in which discipleship is expected to create growth, fruitfulness (see Galatians 5:22-23 on the fruit of the Spirit).  When we come to understand Christ and His teachings, we must come to see how His expectations of renewal, change, and transformation are described in the beautiful metaphors He uses, and how a group of uneducated fishermen, and even despised tax collectors, can come to be transformed in the action, power, and grace of God -- requiring new wineskins to contain all of that expansive action and effect.  We, too, must come to know that our life in Christ is all about this effect, this action, as we respond to His knock, and He makes His home within us (Revelation 3:20), and we may participate in His life.  The question is, can we open our eyes and minds and hearts to accept the life He offers in so doing?  Are we capable of that expansion?  Can we embrace the changes this Physician will bring, and call them good?