New Wine, Old Containers
“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins”
Mark 2:22
It’s that time of year again when we make resolutions to better ourselves. Optimistic that change will happen in the new year, we try hard to become better versions of ourselves despite unsuccessful past efforts. It’s like the parable about putting new wine into old wineskins.
Reflecting on Jesus’s famous parable, we don’t change because we use the same old failed strategies. New wine requires change and growth, but our old lives lack the ability to expand and change. When we’re tasting the same old vintages of our lives, it’s hard to receive new and better experiences. As biased creatures, we find it difficult to learn new practices that go against everything we have previously been taught. We think we have it all figured out. We want the new wine but are too accustomed to old wineskins.
When we are preoccupied with the old, we can’t receive the new. Like shriveled wineskins, we are unfit to receive the new and thus miss out on experiencing it. A fresh start requires fresh wineskins. Perhaps a willingness to accept fresh wineskins is the starting point. Jesus is the means through which we can achieve new and dynamic growth and change for the better. Instead of clinging to old modes of self-improvement, which so often end in failure and broken promises, I am seeking the new wine Jesus offers.
We need new perspectives that are not tied to our old ways of thinking. So here’s to emptying myself of vanity, ego, and frivolity so I might become a new vessel filled with the new teachings that God is waiting to give me. I pray that I can keep an open heart and mind so I may receive the better wine that Jesus offers.
Happy 2024!
Theological InTents 
One Response to “New Wine, Old Containers”
Beautiful article with plenty of truth in it. May we choose the new
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