Parable of the Old Wineskins - Mark 2
Jesus really said: "don't be stupid: not even the village idiot would put new wine in an old wineskin, or old wine in a new wineskin."See how the Disciples fulfill prophecy
The second chapter of Mark is Jesus' rebuttal of some common misunderstandings of the Jewish professional religionists. The answers of Jesus to insincere questions are intended to ridicule and not to become the foundaton for a new wineskin religion.
There are several such events which follow the steps:
1. Jesus leads His disciples and does something human, spiritual or supernatural but not traditional.
2. The Jews did not grasp the Covenant of Grace but interpreted everything based upon their slavery under the Book of the Law and the Monarchy. They tell God Incarnate that He is just wrong.
3. Jesus says or does something which repudiates the religion of the Jews but not that of God.
4. He shames them with what any simpleton should know or show by His actions.
So, rather than throw away the old near-pagan worship rituals it is just easier to murder Jesus.
Mark begins:
AND again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. Mark 2: 1
And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them. Mark 2: 2
And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. Mark 2: 3
And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. Mark 2: 4
When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Mark 2: 5
But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Mark 2: 6
Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? Mark 2: 7
And immediately, when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them,Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Mark 2: 8
Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee;
or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? Mark 2: 9
But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) Mark 2: 10
I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. Mark 2: 11
And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion. Mark 2: 12
Jesus says, in effect, "Just watch." He read the Scribes' minds, and healed the man which was much harder than forgiving sins. Everyone was amazed but certainly not the Scribes who were never convinced by miracles.
Therefore, Jesus says: "I am not teaching a new principle but informing you of what you should have known about Messiah."
If they had known the Word of God they could have recognized Him when He walked the earth. Our goal is to be able to recognize Jesus when He comes again to take us to be with Him.
And he went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them. Mark 2: 13 (The common people heard Him gladly)
And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alpheus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. Mark 2: 14
And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many, and they followed him. Mark 2: 15
And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? Mark 2: 16
When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Mark 2: 17
Why in the name of common sense and decency would an evangelist who has the Word NOT feed it to the world and let the world remain ignorant? Wouldn't a twelve-year old understand that doctors work among the sick? And priest go out and teach and don't "camp out" at the temple?
The next challenge to Jesus brings up the symbolism of new wine in an old wineskin. On the surface this is just a ridiculing answer to those who could not grasp that there is a time to "eat and drink" and a time to "fast" when you are sad and never as a ritualist "act of worship."
Don't let "proof-texting" lead you away from the question. The "wineskins" answer is to that specific question.
But first, look at an example from James:
1. Note that James had a common-sense procedure for "singing" rather than as the "first act of a five-act play." James said:
Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. James 5:13
2. The Jews might say: "You know that singing psalms is the job of the Levites. Why are you singing Psalms?" [Josephus notes that even the Levites had to get government permission to don the robe and sing. Under Christianity, everyone can sing in response to natural feelings]
3. James might respond: "Singing is not a professional act but singing is something which comes out of the heart of a happy person."
You don't force afflicted people to sing psalms! James would say, "any simple-minded schoolboy knows that."
Now, about that wine. Jesus was not shaming those who were faithful to the Word and principles of God. He was not giving permission for us to interpret the "gospel and kingdom" as fermenting wine for which we must supply a rubber wineskin large enough to include all of those poisons and elements of ferment. He is saying nothing about a "worship" ritual which must be exhilarating like getting drunk on wine.
Rather, He is speaking to those who honored the civil reign of the Jewish State leaders more than God Himself. They made a "religion" of the physical elements of life and those things which appealed to the human senses. However, they did not grasp that religion is living right and practicing social justice and has nothing to do with "five six, pick up sticks." Jesus would seem to say: "Wouldn't the most retarded child in your village have more sense?" "Well, here are some things a child would not do -- at least the second time.
1. The disciples of Jesus were not fasting but the "Jews" were. The Law had not defined fasting as a regular "act" of worship but the Jews saw the ritual as having power with God as opposed to "just not eating" because of grief or prayer.
2. The question about fasting is: "Why don't you fast as an act of self-righteousness whatever you feel in the heart?" The Jews wanted to add to the law but the disciples of Jesus were not obligated.
3. Jesus would ask something like: "Is the Pope Catholic?" Or "Is Jimmy Carter Baptist?" The answer is a very harsh way to answer a question which to most people is an elementary and self-evident answer.
Would my momma's son bring her last year's old fruit jars full of crawling things and fuzzy growths? What does that have to do with fasting? Not a single thing, it is just a child-like answer to a stupid question.
Would "the fastest child in the slow group" put new wine in an old skin? Outrageous. Then you know why people don't fast when God Incarnate is in their midst. Do they sing, dance, chant, play instruments just because it is "time to do the act?" Of course, not.
Would the village moron put the stopper in either a new or old wineskin if the wine was still fermenting? If your IQ is is as high as your shirt size you know that no wineskin could contain the pressure.
When father comes to visit it is a time to rejoice. When father dies then we will fast but it will not be an act of worship: we will fast because we are too sad to eat.
And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast: and they come and say unto him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not? Mark 2: 18And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. Mark 2: 19 (You can never fast as a act of magic.)
But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. Mark 2: 20
O silly religionists don't you grasp the most elementary principle? Events have their time and place. There is a time for everything and He lists two examples:No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment; else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse. Mark 2: 21
And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles. Mark 2: 22
The self-evident comments about storing wine and mending clothes to ridicule the Pharisees in chapter two is replaced in chapter three with a direct statement about the grief in Jesus' heart caused by men who have neither intelligence nor heart:And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts,
he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other. Mark 3:5
And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him. Mark 3:6
How could anyone believe that in the midst of this crushing defeat of the Jewish clergy that Jesus was introducing a new wineskin dogma of the kingdom and gospel?
Was Jesus a Sectarian?
But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judaea, Mark 3:7
So many people left the old wineskin rituals to listen to the Words of Christ that He moved His "pulpit" over pure water.
And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him. Mark 3:13
And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, Mark 3:14
Now the teaching is clear: the clergy were ignorant, evil and anti-Christ. They wanted the power to tell people when to fast and when to sing and dance. And that, as we will see in a following article, is the universal meaning of the wineskin dogma.
Was this Jesus giving us freedom to cast off our beliefs and try something new just because it is new? Of course not -- even if your IQ is below your shoe size. Do you want to get on your donkey, head into the dry lands and suddenly find that your "fruit of the vine" has begun to ferment? Leave the stopper in and it will explode (old or new skin or steel-banded cask), leave it along and it will turn to rot.If your religion is based on doing acts contrary to the feeling or situation you are just the fellow who will die drunk or from thirst when you don't follow the rules of wine storage and preservation.
The Jews were practicing religious rituals which were never commanded by the Law of Moses. In the vinter's images, God put the pure fruit of the vine in a ceremonially pure earthen vessel as the Book of the Covenant. He demanded that "leaven" not be added by veering off either to the right or left. However, the Israelites added the "wineskin" worship of Osiris in their "play" which included musical rituals. The Book of the Law and the traditions of the elders was exclusively for the Jewish Monarchy.
Therefore, when Jesus felt free to miss "Fast Services at 6:00 P.M." He was not preaching a new wineskin religion of change and newness and frothing exhilaration as opposed to reverent worship. Rather, He was just following the Book of the Covenant principle which never demanded literal fasting as a mandatory ritual. Rather, God asked:
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Isaiah 58:6
What was this oppression?
Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria,
Who oppress the poor,
Who crush the needy, Who say to your husbands,
"Bring wine, let us drink!" Amos 4:1Jesus didn't come to bind unlawful burdens, but to loose those laded upon the backs of the common people like pack animals. The "burden" is defined as "spiritual anxiety created by religious ceremony." This is why Jesus fired the professionals who stood squarely between Him and His disciples. When the paying audience does not sing to their tune because of the "watered down wine" they turn to mind manipulation which gets the audience "drunk on ignorance."
Then, according to Amos 8, they die of hunger of thirst for lack of the Word of God.
Part of that oppression was condemned when God said:
Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. Amos 5:23
In summary, Jesus never gave a new "wineskin commandment" which permitted a Jew to violate any part of the Covenant God made with Israel before they sinned beyond redemption with the Egyptian "play" which included wine out of new wineskins and instrumental worship of Osiris.
Those who put lying words into the mouth of Jesus to create their own, new wineskin are in reality restoring the ancient Jewish system of bondage:
"Church history is rife with examples demonstrating how virtually every past renewal has been hampered because the new wine has been routinely repackaged into old wineskins.
By the old wineskin, I mean those traditional church structures that are patterned after the old Judaic religious system.
"a system which: separated God's people into two separate classes, required the presence of human mediators, erected sacred buildings, and laid stress on outward forms.
"The facets of the old wineskin are many: the clergy/laity distinction, the spectator - performer styled church meeting, the single pastor system, the program-driven worship service, the passive priesthood, the edifice complex, etc. All of these facets represent Old Covenant forms in New Testament garb." Frank Viola
When Stephen told the Jewish leaders the same things in Acts 7, they murdered him.
An Application:
1. Many groups are faithful to the 2,000 year old practice of not attempting to worship God with instruments which, in the language of the Bible, were often made out of "lifeless" or old wineskins. For instance, the idea of "sound" out of empty hollowness is inherent in the "familiar spirit'" of the witch of Endor, the Nebel or harp and the sounding brass of Paul in 1 Corinthians 13.
2. Now, among those lusting for theatrical performance, the "new wineskin" is almost universally misread in order to justify throwing over the old wineskins of the non-instrumental music group. The assumption is made and stated over and over that the non-use of instruments is the result of "sectarian, ignorant, fratricidal, pharisaical legalism." And non-instrumental groups are binding their "law" upon others.
3. Job, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Paul and church history for over 1800 years among most groups would say: "Time for an IQ check."
O, ignorant man, Jesus would say:
Can you teach your pew-buddy while a multi-horsepower, 2 million dollar "chist of whistles" is blowing hot air at you? Can you warn or admonish them while doing a "Lord, Lord praise" song? Don't you grasp it? There is a time to teach and a time to do your theatrical performance.
Can't you hold Scripture in your mind long enough to remember that I said that I won't even recognize those devoted to praising "Lord, Lord."
Aren't you "killing" Christ all over again when you use your "penknife" to cut up His Word and substitute your own silly "praise" ditties.
And the peddlars of new and highly-watered wine will insist -- as a way to get out of fulfilling the great commission which is part of the "pray for pay" contract -- that the "Sabbath" is now the time to suck in the seekers. Sell them sick lambs (Rock, Rap, CCM) or theatrical performance. Even fall back into legalism with a Sabbath observance of the "First Day Lord" Who has moved from the tired, time to flake out day, to the new, fresh, first day where Jesus is put first and not last.
And others have a slick-willie way of making Sunday into the "Christian" Sabbath. However,
1. And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn. Mark 2: 23
2. And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful? Mark 2: 24
3. And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him? Mark 2: 25
How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him? Mark 2: 26 (Not lawful under Law which "was given because of transgression.")
And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Mark 2: 27
Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. Mark 2:28
God doesn't need and cannot use our superstitious ritual. Can a "Spirit" God be made to giggle like a child because you don't pick up sticks and therefore wouldn't haul your goat out of a deep well? The holy priesthood would not even give a drop of water to a dying Samaritan unless it was on the list of "acts of worship."
Don't you see? You are making the Incarnate God of the universe into your own image.
If we miss the irony in Jesus' voice then we can take Paul's statement that "you all speak in tongues" as a compliment. Remember, Pavoratti comes into our assembly and says: "I see that you are all singing opera. But, you don't all have the gift do you?" Please don't flunk out on "colors 101a" by going home and telling mommy that Pavoratti said that I could sing opera!
"Come meet the Lord at 7:30. Don't miss Him. Don't you know that He can't find you in 'Athens?' Jesus would say, "The First day is made for man and not man for the First Day." Remember John? He was "in the Spirit on the Lord's day." That means that John was worshiping "in spirit." I remember lots of upser over "silent prayer."
While we believe that Jesus was just ridiculing the Jews in the "wineskins" parable, it is a fact that neither wine nor wineskins are ever symbolic of the kingdom or gospel.
O "lil Ole Winemaker" don't you grasp that any literate person understands that wine and wineskins are universally symbolic of rot and decay; of pagan idolatry and of God pouring out His wrath?
We will make "Bible 101aaa" on wineskins the subject of another study.
New Wineskins -- Jubilee Index of Papers
The the Gospel of thomas on the Wineskins
Wineskins: Drinking The Cup Of God's Wrath.
Counter added 2.28.05 12p 4613
