New wine in fresh wineskins - Mt 9:17 -

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025357831

 

Some politicians these days make serious decisions and like to say, "New wine in a new wineskin!" But most of them only like new wine and do not want to become a new wineskin. They must be crafty human beings in the eyes of God. John's disciples and Pharisees fasted twice a week. This regulation is not in the Bible. The Bible stipulates that one must repent his sins and fast once a year, on the day of atonement. However, some religious elites fasted twice a week and forced it on all Israelites (Jews). In this way, the Pharisees gathered all the regulations that the religious elites of the past had made and called them 'the tradition of our ancestors' and imposed them upon the public.

 

Pharisees came to Jesus and criticized, saying, "John's disciples and we fast, but why not, you and your disciples?" Can every one fast? An ordinary worker would destroy his body if he fasts twice a week. Pharisees, who are eloquent speakers that are good at finding out other people's sins, can fast three times a week and be healthy for they make others do all the hard works while they themselves even refuse to move their fingers. Like this, God is known as a ruthless One thanks to them because they force others to do what only they can do. It's a great sin.

 

Jesus scolded them severely that they had abolished the word of God in order to follow the tradition of their ancestors. Jesus said to Pharisees that both wine and wineskin could be preserved if new wine was put into a new wineskin. Then what is new wine? It is a new work of God. God is One who does a new thing (Is 43:19). The new work of God is the globalization of God-religion. God had been the national God of Israel until then. But the God religion should be extended from Judaism to Christianity with the incarnation of Jesus. So, circumcision and animal sacrifice systems are only obstacles to Christianity, a new God religion. In order for such universal Christianity to be born, relics of the past had to be discarded. But those religious people such as Pharisees, priests, and Sadduccees, who had made a living and possessed high positions thanks to the past religious systems, began to interfere the new work of God.

 

Therefore old wineskins are the insisting on the old things. Then what are new wineskins? It is an open mind to God's will. It is an attitude to do whatever God wants, without complaining. This new wineskin is characterized by a good heart, a heart to live by faith without depending on one's own merits, and a fervent passion for the work of God.

 

What is the worst old wineskine? It is indifference to one's own salvation and eternal life. People of that kind do not dance when others sing, and do not sympathize with others when they weep. Even the Pharisees who were scolded hard by Jesus had questions about God and eternal life, so they came to Jesus and asked. But those who were busy getting married and earning money didn't respond to Jesus' declaration of the kingdom of heaven. They were wineskins torn already. They were worse than the Pharisees. Some of Pharisees came to Jesus and were saved.

 

Pharisees and priests refused to accept the new work of God and become fresh wineskins. So they all perished before long. However, men of low estate such as Peter and Matthew, who were Jesus' disciples, met Jesus and became new wineskins to become the cornerstones of Christianity. Not all Pharisees perished. Paul, a key figure of Pharisees, at first resisted God's work, but after meeting Jesus, he became a new wineskine, and did a lot of God's works. Therefore, the key to becoming a new wineskine is to meet Jesus.