There is no doubt in my mind that when Jesus told the parable about new wine needing new wineskins he was saying something far more profound than that enthusiasm and experience find it hard to share the same container. Yet, whether we realise it or not, enthusiasm versus experience is, more often than not, the way we’ve come to understand it.
The old and new wineskins Jesus refers to are, respectively: the covenant agreement that God brought in through the Law of Moses, and the new covenant agreement (promised at the end of the Babylonian exile) that was about to be brought in through His own death and resurrection. They both contained blessing but as Jesus demonstrated at the wedding feast in Cana, the new wine is definitely better. God’s heart has always been that everyone should come into a New Covenant relationship with Him and be filled with the Holy Spirit, regardless of whether they were included within the Old Covenant or grew up outside it. The outpouring on the day of Pentecost sets the scene and the subsequent Gentile expansion of the Church proves the point. Even so, the Matthew 9:17 account of the parable includes the comment that ‘both are preserved’, reminding us that Jesus said He had not ‘come to abolish the Law or the Prophets … but to fulfil them’.
Now, we are right in seeing the new wineskin as the Church. It has been the new wineskin ever since the day of Pentecost and there will be no third wineskin to supersede it. However, we’re inclined to be critical of the inflexibility that has crept into different expressions of the Church and to look for fresh expressions to give those coming to faith, and being filled with the new wine of the Spirit, space in which to expand until they reach maturity. So do we need two types of wineskin or can something be done to maintain the flexibility of every expression of our New Covenant wineskin?
I’m convinced that as the Holy Spirit is defined as oil as well as wine, maintaining the flexibility of every expression of our New Covenant wineskin should be the norm. Ideally those who are more mature, and so in theory are capable of fitting into any wineskin, can be the carriers of that oil. And let me increase the incentive for using the benefits of maturity by turning to the parallel parable that Jesus tells first. It’s the parable of the unshrunk cloth, and although it’s making exactly the same point about the two covenants , it can also be used to make a valid point about the usefulness of maturity.
The parable of the unshrunk cloth is recorded by Matthew, Mark and Luke and it simply says that if you try to repair an old garment with unshrunk cloth (that is cloth that hasn’t experienced repeated washings and wringings), when the unshrunk cloth eventually shrinks (as the old garment continues to go through yet more washings and wringings) the tear will be far worse than the one it was intended to repair. Luke is more concerned with the resulting mismatch for the old and the damage caused by tearing a patch from the new. So let’s take all of this and use it to reinforce the way we have just interpreted the wineskins.
Some expressions of our New Covenant garment have been around a long time and have become torn and repaired in various ways over the years. We could say they have been through many washings and wringings. The same is true for some of our newer expressions. They are part of the path to maturity. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could support each other by sharing (not tearing) our well-shrunk cloth to strengthen each other’s repairs? Likewise wouldn’t it be great to find the long-standing members of our congregations finding a new role in the midst of those who inspire us with their freshness? After all, the washings and wringings we go through are not without significance.
I long to see flexible older expressions of our New Covenant wineskin alongside flexible fresh expressions. I also long to see well strengthened repairs in our old garments as well as seeing our new expressions going on to greater usefulness. Let enthusiasm blend with experience, and maturity and freshness find their place together.