It was one of those days that made you wish you hadn’t gotten out of bed. The wind was blowing the snow up out of the ditch and into the cornfield and the combination of the cold and the sting of the wind just added to the misery of a poorly made decision. Even Buck kept looking over his shoulder with that “haven’t you had enough yet” look on his face. But I was committed; perhaps stubborn is a better word.

As the two of us moved through the corn stubble on that last pass I was beginning to believe that what I desperately wanted wasn’t about to happen. At just that moment Buck went into that special act of his when he smelled pheasant. Unlike a pointer he never froze and lifted his front leg. He just stopped and began to spin his tail in a circle. Well he was spinning at full speed as I came up behind him and a big rooster exploded in shower of snow. With the wind behind him he was gaining speed when I swung the barrel just past his nose and pulled the trigger.

What happened next left me speechless.

At the sound of the blast a huge cloud of smoke surrounded me and I had half of the gun in my left hand and the rest in my right. As the smoke cleared I saw the rooster coming out of afterburner as he glided into the next field and Buck was cowered down in the snow; glaring at me.

It didn’t take long to figure out what happened as I sadly trudged back to the truck holding both pieces of that old shotgun. Putting all that work into trying to fix what had been broken a long time ago simply came up empty.

It was my dad’s old gun and I remember that fall day in 1950 when he brought it home from Monkey Wards; Montgomery Wards for those of you who remember. For those of you who don’t just think … Sears with a heart. It was a beautiful 12 gauge pump with a plastic stock. Now at the time I thought that was really neat; now I realize it was just “cheap.” Money wasn’t plentiful in those days and for my dad this was a big deal. I lusted after that shotgun for years and after my dad’s death I lovingly brought it home with me.

I never forgot that day he brought her home and over the years that shotgun followed all my travels.  The plastic stock had long been broken but I couldn’t get rid of it; it could still shoot one day if I just fixed it. And so I took on the project of restoration so I could go out one last time and bring home a pheasant dinner with my dad’s gun. I’m sentimental that way.

I carefully glued all the pieces together with the best glue I could fine; epoxy was sure to hold together.  Unfortunately the combination of brittle old plastic and new epoxy couldn’t stand up under the high pressure of today’s more powerful ammunition. Even though I had applied a few layers of man’s all purpose “fixer” over the top; duct tape.

Nope — mixing the new with the old didn’t work out.

You know that’s the message Jesus delivered during His ministry because His followers were desperately trying to hang onto the old in face of the new. Remember His description of putting a new patch on an old garment:

Mark 2:21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 

Or putting new wine in an old wineskin:

Mark 2:22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.” 

It was all about the ushering in of a new age; the age of grace. Jesus wasn’t just introducing some new code of laws. A new set of laws alone wouldn’t stand up against the stresses of life; they would tear one apart. The joy of the Good News of the Gospel can’t be contained in the old forms of religion. A patchwork approach to the Kingdom of God won’t work because the joy of Gospel will burst through old “structured” religion.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ stretches the seams of the old systems and structures and if we don’t leave the old religious systems behind something has to give. There is a new structure for us just like there are new wineskins for new wine. At that moment in history Jesus made a marked departure from the old system. The new wine of Christianity couldn’t be poured into the old wineskins of Judaism. And that statement introduced a new and drastic change to the status quo; a change that required a new commitment that carried with it a major sacrifice.

To underline that point go back for a moment and look at the event that just preceded these words of Jesus.

Luke 5:27-32 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. 29. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” 31. Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  

Levi (Matthew) as we all know was a tax collector for Rome and what occurred at that moment in time is often overlooked as we tend to focus on the fact that Jesus was dining with a group of “sinners.” What is missed is the huge sacrifice Matthew made in his decision to follow Jesus.

Think about the situation for a moment. For the other disciples, who were fishermen, if this turned out to be a bad decision they could always go back to fishing. In fact after Jesus was crucified that is exactly what they did. But that was not an option for Matthew. Once he gave up tax collecting for Rome he had severed his ties forever and would never be able to go back. He was “all in.” He gave up everything to follow Jesus; wealth, position, privilege. And he was so excited that he threw a huge party and invited all his friends; the sinners. It was at this dinner that Jesus gave the examples of trying to combine the old with the new and Matthew was a perfect example.

There was no mixing His Gospel with the “law” — the entry of grace upped the ante. Matthew made the ultimate commitment that day. To eat with someone was to fully accept that person —“I have no reservations about you at all; we are one and the same.” And the reaction from the legalists — the Pharisees — was predictable. They didn’t like Jesus’ message … there are no good and bad people; only those who know they’re bad and those who don’t. 

We need to ask ourselves a question. Has our commitment to Christ cost us anything? Are we still hanging onto some old “wineskins” for the new wine? Have we, like Matthew, made the cut clean?  Have we crossed the line of no return?

I have to admit here that I still find myself trying to mix the law (works) and grace. And like that old shotgun, it blows up when the pressure gets too high. We need to understand that what we left behind to follow Jesus can’t be brought back into the picture. There is no room for our “pet” legalities in this new dispensation of grace. Either Jesus paid the price for us or He didn’t. If you believe that He did, then trying to walk with Him while carrying old baggage is holding you back and He wants you to leave it behind.

Was Matthew all of a sudden free from his past? Didn’t we see the disciples fall back on their old ways many times? Sure, but in the midst of it all was the solid, unchanging message from Jesus:

Matt 9:17 Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” 

The law has not gone away and it still serves the purpose for which it was intended; to make man aware of not only sin but his personal transgression; a law that can never be perfectly fulfilled by man; a law that pointed to and was fulfilled by Christ’s death and resurrection. It was that sacrifice that ushered in a new wine and a new wineskin; His Spirit and His Grace.

Jesus didn’t come to patch up the old religious system. He came to do something completely new. His sacrifice bought our salvation and to attempt to fit our “good works,” our “following the commandments,” into the equation isn’t valid. Grace is a new wine and it can’t be carried in an old wineskin. The word “new” in relation to wine is kainos and it literally means “renewed.” We have been renewed in Him and no longer fit into the old religious structures.

The Galatians had a problem with this issue. They were teaching that we are saved by grace without works, but then after we are saved we must be kept by perfect obedience to the law. This is a subtle deception that Satan uses because if we have been delivered from law, to be retuned to the law is a complete denial of grace. Listen to what Paul told them in refuting this teaching, which is still prevalent today:

Gal 3:1-5 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? 3. Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? 4. Have you suffered so much for nothing — if it really was for nothing? 5. Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard? 

Are we trying to put new wine in old wineskins?

Don’t get me wrong. As believers in Christ we desire to keep God’s law, but our motive should be entirely different. It’s not to achieve salvation or escape judgment but to please God because of our gratitude to Him for delivering us out from under the curse of the law. Jesus replaced the law of sin and death with the law of love. We need to ask ourselves why we try to live a life that is pleasing to God; is it out of fear or out of love. Jesus clearly told us that the old wineskin can’t hold His grace.

This next week let’s all take some time and see if we are holding onto some old wineskins that are keeping us from fully enjoying the “new wine.” See if we have sown some new patches on old ideas.  Remember, in our walk with Jesus we are either going forward or falling behind; there is no standing still.  We want to be moving forward and that means letting Him pour “new” wine into our “new” vessels.

Remember, trying to make the new hold onto the past may just blow up in your face!