New wine

One of the Family’s favourite descriptions for their own publications, especially the most recent publications, must be the term ‘new wine’. This expression is firmly entrenched in Family terminology, and carries with it positive, exciting connotations: “Some new wine has arrived! Let’s see what God is saying today!” The implication is that the most recent mailing is fresh, up-to-date, highly relevant, even (spiritually) intoxicating. Every Family member also knows the reason why they ‘have been trusted with the new wine’; it is because they are ‘new bottles’. Being a new bottle means we are young in heart, spiritually energetic, brave, adventurous and free. Old bottles, however, are set in their own ways, obstinately clinging to the past, fearful of change, blind to possibilities of freedom, legalistic, ritualistic and, which is one of the worst insults in the Family, churchy.

So, what was Jesus actually talking about when He discussed new and old wine, and new and old bottles? Is it an accurate interpretation to say that Jesus meant that the most recent prophecies were new wine which only the brave at heart would follow?

The passage is found in three places” Matthew 9:14-17, Mark 2:16-22 and Luke 5:33-39.

Matt 9:14-17

14 Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?”

15 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.

16 “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.

17 “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.”

Understanding vs. applying

When studying the Bible, there is an important distinction to be made between understanding a passage and applying a passage. Understanding is getting the full meaning of what God is saying. Understanding is letting the Holy Spirit show us what the passage is actually talking about. Understanding is listening to God talk, letting Him have His say without interruption. Understanding a passage means getting to the heart of what it means.

Applying the passage is taking that understanding and translating it into our everyday lives. Applying it is writing our own names in the verse; applying it is our reply to what God said. We can make direct applications, as in “For God so loved me that He gave Jesus that if I believe in Him I will not perish but have everlasting life”. We can also make indirect applications, where we are aware that we are using the verse outside of its original context, yet there is still a good meaning for us. An example of this might be if we are praying about a certain decision in our lives and we get a verse that seems to apply to the situation. We know that the verse in the Bible was not originally talking about the circumstances surrounding our decision, but we still cling to the verse as a means of God directing our paths.

When we read the passages where Jesus talked about new and old wine, it is immediately obvious that the Family interpretation that the new wine represents the most recent revelations or teaching is at most, an indirect application of the passage. The entire Family concept of Jesus’ disciples being new bottles eagerly receiving the exciting new wine, while the churchy old bottles stagnate, content with their old wine may have limited validity insomuch that all His followers must lose their own preconceptions in order to receive the full message of God.

However if we claim that this is the primary meaning of the passage, we are reading into the Bible an application that is not actually there, or rather we are misdirecting the focus of the passage to something which is at best a secondary application.

Another problem with the Family’s application of this passage lies in the spiritual pride it induces in its adherents, “We are new bottles because we receive the Family new wine. The churchy systemites are old bottles because they do not”. This makes Family publications the deciding factor between new and old bottles, not obedience to the Bible. There is a tremendous amount of pressure within the Family to avoid at all costs being an ‘old bottle’.

What does it mean?

So what is the primary meaning of the passage? What was it actually talking about?

Firstly, in this passage, Jesus does not mention hard-to-accept new doctrines. He does not talk about His ‘eat My flesh’ sermon, or any of His other ‘hard sayings’. Jesus makes His comments in reply to a question from some of John the Baptist’s disciples who appeared concerned that Jesus’ disciples did not fast like they did, or like the Pharisees. There is no mention of new wine being equivalent to new doctrines.

As stated above, this may be a valid indirect application, but for now we are concerned with discovering the primary meaning of the passage.

Matt 9:15 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.

The first thing Jesus says in reply to the question about fasting is in an analogy of a wedding. Jesus, of course, is represented by the bridegroom. Are we, as the Family claims, represented by the bride? Interestingly, we are not. We are the friends of the bridegroom, not the bride. This echoes what Jesus said in John 15 about us being no longer servants, but friends.

John 15:15 “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

The Pharisees and John’s disciples fasted as a sign of distress, grief or repentance. The Ninevites fasted after they heard Jonah’s message of destruction. Fasting was a means of turning away the Lord’s anger on people personally, or on nations as a whole, as the following verses from Jeremiah indicate.

Jer 36:6-7

6 “You go, therefore, and read from the scroll which you have written at my instruction, the words of the LORD, in the hearing of the people in the LORD'S house on the day of fasting. And you shall also read them in the hearing of all Judah who come from their cities.

7 “It may be that they will present their supplication before the LORD, and everyone will turn from his evil way. For great is the anger and the fury that the LORD has pronounced against this people.”

However Jesus came to institute a new means of gaining access to God: He came to be the mediator between God and man, the only way to come to the Father. It is as we yield our spirits to him that He makes us acceptable in the sight of God. Acceptable because God sees Jesus in us.

Fasting, therefore, or other religious ceremonies no longer have any effect upon our relationship with God. In fact, there is no way we can do anything to make ourselves pleasing in the sight of God, our best efforts will amount to nothing. This is not to say that fasting is useless, for even Jesus commended it upon occasion. Rather, fasting does not give us a special link with the Lord. We do not earn extra credits with the Lord by fasting, or by coming to devotions on time every day for a year, or by memorising more verses than anyone else in the vicinity, or by any other thing we do. These things become formulae for spiritual success; ways to gain points with God. Unfortunately, they don’t work. Jesus is the only mediator and no one can come to the Father except through Him alone without props and aids and rituals and formulae.

Wine in the Scriptures is often used figuratively, with both positive and negative connotations. It symbolises variously judgement or joy, the wrath of God in the book of Revelations, and even Jesus’ own blood in the ceremony of communion. Wine, therefore, cannot be said to have a consistent figurative meaning.

Friendship or formalism

However in this parable, that of the new and old wine, the emphasis is not on the wine as representing something specific, or the wineskins or the cloth to be patched. Reading through the passage makes it clear that the emphasis is on the contrast between legalistically trying to gain God’s favour and entering into a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ His Son.

Our walk with the Lord must be alive, joyous, flexible and yielded, never bound by traditions or governed by empty rules. An old bottle therefore would be one who cannot worship, love or serve God except in a certain way. The old bottle can only pray according to certain formulae and serve the Lord according to the specific guidelines his leaders gave him. He believes that his religious habits are how he serves God. This could apply equally well to church members who can only act like Christians at the Sunday service and to Family members who rely on the Family structure for their relationship with the Lord. A church member might be an old bottle if his or her only word time is her pastor’s Sunday sermon, and a Family member might be an old bottle if the only time he or she ‘gets fed from the Word’ was when reading Family material. Church people could be old bottles if their picture of Christianity was the set program of events at the church. Family members could be old bottles if the only way they can picture serving God is according to leadership-approved methods.

In giving us this parable, Jesus was not leaving us with the instruction to continually receive the new doctrine over the old. He did not say, ‘Accept My new doctrine’, but ‘Accept Me!’ Our walk with the Lord therefore must be centred on Him as our link to God, not around organisational structure or religious observances. Fasting did not make God any closer to John’s disciples, neither will obedience to Family or church rules. We are not to be as prisoners bound by interminable rules and guidelines (whether formulated by a church or the Family), but we are friends of the bridegroom, focussed on the Lord Himself, allowing Him to lead us by the Holy Spirit without relying on Church or Family structure to support our link with Him.

One more danger we encounter in referring to recent teaching as ‘new wine’ is the inference that less recent teaching is ‘old wine’. In other words, if we believe that the ‘latest is the greatest’, we also believe that older is worse.

As we have seen above, Jesus was not using the symbolism of new wine to refer to the most recent teaching. If we mistakenly accept that interpretation, we put ourselves in danger of relying on other people to understand the Word of God for us. We cut ourselves off from the Bible, considering it ‘old wine’, and whenever we encounter something within its pages we do not understand, we discard it as irrelevant or out of date.

The Bible, however, is the living Word of God. The verses in the Bible that talk about the Word being alive are talking about themselves. It is the Bible that is living and powerful, it is Jesus’ words in the Bible that are Spirit and life.

Heb 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

John 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

The Bible can never be outdated because it is the living, breathing, spirit of God. The Bible cannot become irrelevant because God Himself is within its pages and He is relevance itself. If we cannot hear God talking to us from the Bible it may be that we have refused to believe it.

Conclusion

We have seen that the Family interpretation of this passage may have some limited validity, but it appears to miss the main thrust of Jesus’ point. Jesus did not use this parable to say, ‘Accept My new doctrines’ but rather, ‘Accept Me!’ Too often we become dependant on others to hear from God for us, even though Jesus came to be our mediator to enable us to access God for ourselves. The Holy Spirit was given to lead us personally into all truth, and the minute we neglect that marvellous opportunity in favour of an externally imposed structure we become old bottles. The structure in itself is neither bad nor good. Jesus did not pronounce judgment on the practice of fasting, but rather He brought the good news that we are now no longer dependant on others to serve God. Moreover, if we refer to recent teaching as ‘new wine’ we are therefore referring to old teaching, and specifically the Bible as ‘old wine’. The Bible can never be out of date, restrictive, irrelevant, ‘churchy’, old-fashioned or inflexible, for it contains the Spirit of God Himself.

Drink up!

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