Something to reflect on…
VIDEO: Teaching With The Chosen: Jesus teaches of new wine & new wineskins, Matthew 9:14–17, Luke 5:33–39
A quote by Verlon Fosner – Fresh Expressions: “Jesus told an interesting parable that I find is misunderstood all across the land – the parable of the wineskins. In the story, Jesus made it clear that new wine cannot be put in old wine bottles because when the wine expands, it will break the skins and spill the wine. While most understand the principle, we need to meditate on what the wineskins represents. The pressure that forced Jesus to tell this story was that he was doing things with his disciples that ignored the inflated rules of Judaism. When the Pharisees confronted him on it, he explained that a new wine was coming, a wine that would need to be housed in a different structure than the 613 rules and ways of Judaism.”
Question: In what ways might we be limiting God through our “rigid we’ve never done it that way” thinking about how we “do church” when Jesus was challenging us to something greater by demonstrating our love of God by humbly and authentically going out of our way to love our neighbors, including those who are outside of our churches?