I, Wineskin: Part II

And so, we have followed God’s new Kingdom back to the parable of the wineskins. Having arrived here, we must take note that there are actually two “new” things in this parable: the new wineskins, yes, but also the new wine. It is interesting, and important, to realize that Luke, when affixing the adjective “new” to the wine and the skins, uses two different words. The wine is called new by the Greek “neos”, meaning new in a temporal sense, speaking of something that has recently become present or come into existence; something that is newly made, created, or has appeared for the first time. The wineskins are qualified by the Greek “kainos” which bears the primary meaning of new quality or superior in quality, a quality that had not previously been known. Let us consider what bearing Luke’s intentional use of these two different and specific “new” words has on the parable by asking these questions: What have we seen in the story from Luke 4:16 through 5:37 that is new in the “neos” sense, and what have we seen that is new in the “kainos” sense? As pointed out previously, it is the new Kingdom that comes or appears before man and that brings with it a new quality or renewal to those it exercises its authority over. The Kingdom is “neos” new; those it affects are “kainos” new. From this we can safely surmise that in the wineskins parable Luke is naming the new Kingdom, and it as embodied in Christ, as the new wine, and the new wineskins as that which the wine affects. But what is the Kingdom, what is Christ affecting here? Surely, as the new wine is poured into the new skins, it must be something that is affected strongly and directly and in such a way that would destroy an old in quality subject. To answer this question, let us again look at the immediate context of the parable; let us go back to Levi’s party.

There they were, looking on with judgmental disdain and bewilderment as the young Rabbi and His followers mingled amongst the tax collectors and sinners, drinking their wine and eating their food; this is no way for religious men to act! And then questions come. First, to the disciples: “Why do you eat and drink with sinners?” Then to Christ: Why don’t your disciples act like those of John and the Pharisees? Again, Christ answers the first question for His disciples saying that He came to call the likes of these to repentance, to new life. After the answer had been given, the Pharisees ask the second question to which Christ answers by way of parables including the parable of the wineskins; Christ speaks of the wineskins as a direct answer to a question about His disciples. If, in the parable that speaks of Christ’s disciples, the new wine is the new in appearance, temporally new Kingdom of God, then it can only be concluded that the new in quality, the renewed wineskins are the very disciples of Christ themselves. The authority of the new Kingdom, present in, and exercised by Christ, has called these men to be subject to it, made new the spiritual quality of their lives, and, having done as much, has made them able to be keepers of the Kingdom, to have the Kingdom in its new, expanding state poured into them until such time when it was ready for consumption. These men were not entrenched in tradition like the Pharisees and their disciples, were not devoted to a prophet who had taken on a life of obscurity like the disciples of John. Those disciples were old wineskins, already stretched by old wine; had the Kingdom been poured into them, they would have fought to contain it in there rigid, un-flexible skins and would have burst, destroying both themselves and fouling the nature and message of the Kingdom, spilling it on the ground. The new wine of the Kingdom could not expand in confines of the religious, political, and social structures these disciples followed and represented within their culture; nor could it be poured out at the time of its maturity.

The main feature of new wine, which may be obvious, is that it is new. It is not ready for consumption; it needs time to ferment. This characteristic speaks to the “already-not yet” aspect of the Kingdom of God. Christ inaugurated the Kingdom in His coming, the Kingdom is come, but the Kingdom is not yet fully realized, not yet consummated; the Kingdom is not yet fully fermented. The new wineskins of the disciples had been entrusted with the stewardship of the Kingdom as it began to expand, as it grew and matured throughout the ministry of Christ. This being said, we must take note that this duty of the disciples, the wineskins theme, is carried by Luke not only throughout his Gospel narrative, but also into his account of the Acts of the Apostles. The introduction of the wineskins theme in Luke 5 prepares the reader for the events of Acts 2.

There, in Acts chapter 2, a climactic, unprecedented event takes place within the Kingdom of God; something dramatic happens to the new wine. It is rightly said that the Kingdom of God is not yet consummated to this day, therefore the event at Pentecost is not the pouring out of new wine for consumption, rather the account of rapid expansion, rapid growth of the Kingdom; a spike in the fermentation process. Could it be said that the coming of the Holy Spirit acted as a powerful catalyst in the fermenting process, and at the empowering of the Apostles that there was such a rapid expansion of the Kingdom that the Apostles themselves could no longer contain it and had to pour it into even more new wineskins, bringing about the manifestation of the church? Was this not the charge given to the Apostles by Christ at His ascension? Though Luke makes no explicit mention of it neither in his gospel nor his account of Acts, he hints at the great commission delivered in Matthew 28 (Matthew contains both the great commission and the wineskins parable) when he says, in Acts 1:2, that Christ had given commands to the disciples through Holy Spirit. Christ had given the Apostles the authority to make disciples, just as He had called them into discipleship. Surely the 3000 converts on the day of Pentecost, the added numbers on the days following, and the Gentiles to whom the Kingdom flowed can all be called new disciples, new wineskins; and not just those in Acts, but those converts, those new disciples throughout the New Testament Scriptures. In fact, the wineskins theme is still being played out today. You see, we are new wineskins as well! Every member of the Kingdom of God is entrusted with caring for, accommodating, and facilitating the still expanding, still fermenting, still growing new wine of the Kingdom until such time, known only to the Father, it is consummated; until that time when it is ready to be partaken of in its full maturity, its perfect state. Christ Himself, while leading the disciples in the Passover celebration and instituting the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper said, as He passed the wine, that He would not, “drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God comes,” (Lk 22:18). Christ, no longer physically present in His Kingdom, sits at the right hand of the Father. There, He waits until the time of the consummation when He will again be physically present in the Kingdom as He sits on His throne; but that Kingdom will not be the Kingdom He departed from at His ascension. When Christ returns, it will be to a mature Kingdom that has been brought about by the care and expansion, the good stewardship of His disciples; a Kingdom that is fully fermented. It is at this time that the wineskins will be opened up and the perfect new wine poured out to all the members of the Kingdom as they partake of it in the company of their King; they will enjoy the full blessings of the consummated, fully fermented Kingdom of God.

What a blessing to be called to be a new wineskin! Who wouldn’t long with all their being to be stewards of the Kingdom of God, to have the hope of one day drinking in the full blessing of the Kingship of Christ? It seems absurd to think that there would be any who would shun this responsibility. However, Christ ends the parable by stating that indeed there are those who do just that. “And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’” (5:39). Some translations, such as the English Standard and New American Standard Versions, state that these people say that the old wine is “good,” rather than better; indeed, the Greek word here, “chrestos”, carries both meanings . This would imply that those that reject the new wine are not doing so out of comparison, but rather out of complacency with the old wine. They are unwilling to even try the new wine as they are content with the taste of the old, it satisfies them now. While the translation of the chrestos as “better” would imply a comparison, it is not clear from the text that comparison is necessarily based on partaking of or tasting both wines to make the comparison. As mentioned before, new wine is new, it needs to ferment before it can be enjoyed; new wine is not ready to be consumed. The partakers of the old wine may say that their wine is better for the simple reason that it can be consumed now, it is able to satisfy them immediately; they don’t have to wait. Here we again see a demonstration of the “already, not yet” character of the Kingdom. It is in the wineskins, but not ready to be put to the lips. With either use of chrestos, “better” or “good”, those that have drunken the old wine, the disciples of John and the Pharisees, the old wineskins, do not see the future and perfect satisfaction of the fully fermented new wine and are unwilling to wait for it to come to maturity. These disciples will continue to drink in and be drunk with the Law and the prophets, the message of the coming of the Messiah rather than the Messiah Himself, for these things have given them structure, direction, purpose, position, and identity; they have satisfied them up until now. These things have stretched their skins to their full capacity; why should they look for something new to drink? The old is good enough.

Going forward through Luke’s Gospel from the parable of the wineskins, we see the continual stretching of the wineskins of the disciples: They are the first to experience the Sabbath under the Kingship of Christ (6:1-5), they are told the explanations of Christ’s parables (8:9ff), they are given duties under the authority of Christ (10:1-12), they are taught how to speak with God (11:1-4); indeed, Christ even tests their elasticity to make sure they are expanding as they are supposed to: “But who do you say that I am?” (9:18-20). This gradual stretching, this tempering of the disciples as wine skins is greatly and abundantly exceeded at the event of the coming of the Holy Spirit and the manifestation of the church at Pentecost. As the expanding wine can not be accommodated by even those new wineskins prepared before hand by the earthly ministry of Christ, as the Kingdom can not be contained by anything less than the full number of its members (cf 2Pt 3:8-14), and not willing to allow those new wineskins to burst like the old, the Holy Spirit descended and opened the wineskins of the Apostles and disciples allowing the still expanding new wine to overflow. Likewise unwilling to allow the wine to be wasted in the dirt, the coming of the Spirit clothed the Apostles and disciples with power from on high (Lk 24:29) to exercise the authority given them by Christ, the same authority by which they themselves were made disciples, to call more new wineskins, more disciples, to receive the deluge and facilitate the rapid growth of the new wine which continues even today until the completion of the fermentation process, the day of drinking in the perfect wine, the full blessing of the consummated Kingdom of God under the Kingship of Christ.

Indeed, Levi’s party must have been quite the scene. Good food, good drink, and a raucous crowd. And there, in the midst of it all was Christ, expanding the The New Wine of His Kingdom, filling a few of His new wineskins, starting the fermentation process. The Pharisees, the old wine skins content with their old wine, could not understand it for they had never tasted anything like it before. And that is precisely the point.