Oct 5 - Luke 5:36

Jesus said,

"No one puts new wine

into old wineskins."

Luke 5:36

Do you know why no one puts new wine into old wineskins?

When wine is put in a wineskin, it is not yet wine. As the simple grape juice is stored, it will ferment ... and as it ferments, it will expand ... and as it expands, the wineskin must expand with it.

A new wineskin is made of new leather. It is still supple. It will still bend and stretch. An old wineskin, however, has already stretched, and becoming a little more brittle, it is all-stretched-out. If you put new wine in an all-stretched out skin, what will happen as it ferments and expands.

Sppplusssh!

But Jesus wasn't simply talking about agricultural practice. He was talking about old and brittle and unchangeable religious practices. God had come to his people, Israel, with a simple message.

I am the Lord your God.

I have loved you with an everlasting love. 

[Therefore, I] brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart,

and with all your soul, and with all your might,  

[And] have no other gods before [him]

Ex 20:2, Jer 31:3, Ex 20:2, Deut 6:5, Ex 20:3

But leaders in Israel -- though well intentioned -- took a simple message of love and devotion, and turned it into legalism. Indeed, by the time of Jesus, religious leaders like the Pharisees were hard and brittle and unbending.

And when the fruit of God's vine -- God's own Son, Jesus Christ -- was poured into this world, these old, unyielding wineskins snapped in anger. Indeed, they began to search for a way to kill a man ... not even realizing that he was God's own Son.

In what ways is your "religion" hard and brittle. Go back to the simple message of love and devotion.

In Christ's Love,

a guy who wants to know personally

the Lord our God

because he's loved me (and you)

with an everlasting love.

I want to love him heart, soul, strength, and mind,

and have no other priorities besides him.