1st Wednesday of Lent (March 12). DRINK THE NEW WINE

Prepare to Listen.  My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.
 
Prayerfully Read Luke 5:33-39
33Then they said to him, ‘John’s disciples, like the disciples of the Pharisees, frequently fast and pray, but your disciples eat and drink.’  34Jesus said to them, ‘You cannot make wedding-guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you?  35The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.’  36He also told them a parable: ‘No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise the new will be torn, and the piece from the new will not match the old.  37And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.  38But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.  39And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine, but says, “The old is good.” ’
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
Many of us fast during Lent, so this lesson, discouraging fasting, seems inappropriate!  What do you think?
 
Jesus’ interaction with scribes and Pharisees at Levi’s home continued.  He’d rebuked their complaint about associating with tax-collectors (v. 31f), so they tried a different attack.  He and his disciples ate and drank, unlike John’s disciples who fasted.  Jesus responded, as he often did, with unexplained parabolic sayings.  Like a good teacher, he left it up to his hearers to reflect on each one until they understood and lived as Jesus taught.
 
His sayings get at a bigger issue than their narrow question about fasting.  He challenged their insistence on maintaining the old and familiar ways that were within their control.  The new way he came to introduce threatened the old.  When I was a seminary student, a professor warned us that the seven most deadly words in the church were, “But we’ve always done it this way!”  That’s what Jesus confronted, head on.  He came to inaugurate a new, never-before-done way.  The thought forms and behavior patterns of Jesus’ way cannot be made to fit into the old and familiar ones.  The trouble is, many reject the new saying, “The old is good.”  As Wright notes, “Don’t expect people who have given their lives to the old movements to be happy about switching allegiance.  They are likely to stay with what they know.”[1]  Jesus warned against clinging to the old. 
 
Levi stands in contrast to those who resist the new.  He was willing to give up his old way of life for the entirely new and unknown way of Jesus.  How about you?  Can you too drink the new wine?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord Jesus, I want to be willing to reject the old and drink your new wine, but sometimes I struggle with change.  Give me the courage and grace to follow your ways, even though it will mean making changes in how I live and what and how I believe.  Amen
 
Live obediently.  Drink the new wine.
[1] Wright, N. T.  Luke for Everyone.  Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.  2001, p. 65.