Coping with change
Luke 5v33-39
INTRODUCTION
Life today is different to the sixties, the seventies, the eighties, the nineties, and the noughties. Life is changing at such a rate that we struggle to keep up with our children let alone our peers. Some of this change has affected the way we do church. It has affected the way we gather, the way we worship, and the way we sing. It has affected the way we think about our faith, the way we talk about our faith, and the way we apply our faith in our world today.
In the midst of all this, the gospel has not changed. The gospel is the good news that Abraham, Moses, and Isaiah anticipated. It is the good news that Jesus brought and the Apostles taught. It is the good news handed down through the centuries. This brings us to our theme today from Luke 5:33-39: Coping with Change. We will look first at…
THE OLD AND THE NEW (vs.33-35)
A response after the party
After the party at Levi’s place in Luke 5:27-32, some people said to Jesus, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but your disciples go on eating and drinking.”
An obligation to fast
The Pharisees fasted twice a week and prayed three times a day, and many followed their example. The disciples of Jesus, on the other hand, didn’t seem to fast at all. When asked about this, Jesus said, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?” (v34). Guests are not meant to fast during weddings, and Jesus likens his presence with the disciples to a bridegroom and a bride.
According to Leviticus 23:26-32, the only time God’s people were obliged to fast was on the Day of Atonement. Other days were optional. On the Day of Atonement when Jesus died, his disciples would fast because of their grief (v35), but this would not last. After the Day of Atonement, the followers of Jesus would experience love, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit. From this point on, fasting was optional.
Jesus came to bring joy
There are times to be serious, but on the whole, Jesus came to bring gladness not sadness. Looking forward to this, Isaiah 61:3 said Jesus came to give a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of heaviness. This is because Jesus came to set us free from the bondage of Jewish Law to new life in the Spirit…
THE NEW HAS COME (vs.36-38)
Two illustrations
In vs.36-38, Jesus gives two illustrations from everyday life. The CEV says, “No one uses a new piece of cloth to patch old clothes. The patch would shrink and make the hole even bigger. No one pours new wine into old wineskins. The new wine would swell and burst the old skins. Then the wine would be lost, and the skins ruined. New wine must be put into new wineskins.” In other words, instead of patching up the old, we should be pouring in the new.
The gospel poured into new structures
Here, Jesus teaches that the Old Covenant cannot be patched up with the New. In other words, Jesus did not come to mend but to end! He sums this up in v37 when he says, “No one pours new wine into old wineskins. If we do this, the new wine will burst the skins, run out, and be wasted.” Wine containers were made of goatskin, and after a while, they became hard and brittle. Old wineskins, therefore, were not filled with new wine, as the fermentation process would burst the skin and be wasted. The point is that we cannot pour the new wine of the gospel into the old structures of Judaism.
Ongoing renewal in the church
It is no use longing after old structures that have served their purpose. We live in different times, and the new wine of the gospel has to be poured into a new context. In other words, for the gospel to be relevant today, we need fresh expressions of when, where, and how to do church. For this to happen, however, the old must go…
THE OLD MUST GO (v39)
Leave us as we are
As times change, there is a yearning for the past in what we call nostalgia. As time passes by, we can understand this, but we are not going to stop it. Jesus seems to suggest this in v39 when he says, “No one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, the old is good enough,” In saying this, he seems to have in mind those who would rather stay as they are—in the good old days.
A need for spiritual renewal
For a Pharisee to come out of Judaism, they needed something special. Like Nicodemus, they needed a re-birth. Like Paul, they needed a Damascus Road experience. Like us today, they needed a work of the Spirit. This work of the Spirit came when Jesus did away with the sacrificial system, temple worship, and the priesthood. Instead, Jesus himself became the sacrifice, a body of people called the church is now God’s temple, and we are all priests with direct access to God. Throughout history, however, the church has tried to return to the old way with an emphasis on ritual instead of life in the spirit, buildings rather than people, and a professional ministry rather than spiritual gifts in the church.
Maintaining the relevance of the gospel
Someone has said that the seven last words of a dying church are, “We never did it this way before!” In Christ, the church should always be seeking to renew its structures and then, empowered by the Spirit, we should seek to renew the structure of society. When we do this, we will be relevant, significant, vibrant, and potent. With this in mind, Colossians 4:5-6 says, “Be wise in the way you act toward others; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to respond to everyone.” We don’t do this by patching up the old, but by pouring in the new. By pouring the new wine of the gospel into a world that has changed, is changing, and will continue to change.
Bernard Cartledge