Luke 5:33-39
Today in the Gospel we discover Jesus gives us two simple pictures: an old garment and new wine in new wineskins. Imagine you have an old coat with a tear in it. You take a piece of brand-new cloth and put it over the tear. What happens when the new cloth is washed? It shrinks, pulls on the old cloth, and makes the tear even bigger. Jesus says, “That is not the way to repair it.”
Then Jesus gives them another picture that they could easily understand: “New wine needs new wineskins.” Today, we normally keep wine in glass bottles, but in the time of Jesus, people also used wineskins made from the skin of goats or sheep. The skin was cleaned, treated and sewn together, and the opening was tied tightly. These wineskins were especially useful for carrying and storing wine when people travelled.
Jesus then explains why the wineskin had to be new. New wine was still fermenting, so it continued to expand. A new wineskin was still soft and flexible, so it could stretch as the wine expanded. But an old wineskin had become hard and dry and could no longer stretch. If new wine was poured into an old wineskin, the pressure could make the skin burst. The wine would then be lost, and the wineskin would be ruined. So new wine needs a container that is ready to receive it.
This simple picture leads us to the deeper meaning of Jesus’ words. What is Jesus really saying? He is talking about us—about our hearts and our lives. Just as new wine needs a new wineskin, Jesus wants to bring something new into our lives, but sometimes we hold on so tightly to the old that we leave no room for the new.
And sometimes, we need a new way of looking at life. A person who has always been angry may need to learn forgiveness. Someone who has lost hope may need to learn to trust again. Someone who has been hurt may need to stop living in yesterday and begin again today.
But when Jesus speaks about something new, He is not saying that everything old is bad. He is not throwing away Moses or the Law. Rather, He fulfils the Law and teaches us to live its deepest meaning with a new heart and a new way of thinking.
So perhaps the question today is very simple: What needs to become new in me? My attitude? My way of thinking? My relationship with someone? My prayer? My willingness to forgive? Jesus is still pouring new wine into our lives. Let us not become old wineskins—closed, hard and unwilling to change. Instead, let us open our hearts and say, “Lord, make me new. Show me a better way.”
New wine needs new wineskins, and the new life Jesus offers needs an open heart. May we always have hearts open enough to receive what Jesus wants to give us. Amen.