My last thought was a fourth one based in the world of bags and containers and I fully expected it to be the last of a short series.
You may recall that we were thinking about leather wineskins and a saying of Jesus: “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.” (Mark 2:22).
We noted that most households in Jesus’ day used leather containers to store wine. Old wineskins become brittle over time and were, therefore, more likely to crack the greater the amount of fizzing fermentation going on inside them. They could cope with old wine that had settled down but a new wineskin was preferred for new wine that was just beginning the fermentation process.
However, … in spending time looking at websites about wineskins, I discovered an additional truth. Old wineskins can be reconditioned. Take an old wineskin that is tired and cracked; give it a clean; rub oil into it; and that wineskin should be able to hold new wine once again.
It’s an illustration that can teach us a lot about faith. In the New Testament, oil and the Holy Spirit are closely related, particularly through the act of anointing. In the Old Testament, particular people were set aside for God’s purposes through the anointing of oil. In the New Testament, God’s anointing comes through the Holy Spirit to all believers.
Thus, if we are that wineskin growing old over time, the constant application of God’s Holy Spirit will make us receptive to both the old and the new ways that God is at work in the world. Jesus said something very similar: “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” (Matthew 13:52)
I discovered this in my early days in ministry. I was conscious that, because of my ‘young’ age, I was bringing in ways of doing things that might not sit easily with some of the older members of my congregations. Yet it was often ‘mature’ saints that gave me the most encouragement. Those Spirit-‘rubbed’ individuals could discern the working of God when it was in ways that were different to those to which they’d become accustomed. Their faith could hold the new as well as the old. I pray that may be true for myself as I get older and I pray it may be true for you, too.
Prayer: Lord God, Keep applying the oil of your Holy Spirit to my life that it may be flexible in responding to the ways that you are at work in the world. May my storeroom contain treasures that are both old and new, through which I may bring your blessing to the people around me. Amen.