The new wine will burst the skins. 

In ancient Israel, the juice from pressed grapes immediately went into a container to ferment into wine.   If the wine was going to be transported a long distance, the container was often a goatskin sewn into a bag, or “wineskin.”   The initial gaseous stage of fermenting the grapes caused the wineskin to stretch out.   “Old wineskins” had already been stretched once, so if they were used again, the fermentation process would cause them to burst.

Jesus told this parable to ask his detractors to try to become more like new wineskins.   He told them that the new life he was proclaiming could not be fitted into old ways of thinking and doing.   Life in the kingdom of God required people who had the capacity to stretch along with the movements of God.

Not all of Jesus’ hearers accepted these words, but those who did were stretched—and were blessed for it!   For example, they had to expand their concept of the Messiah:   he was the crucified and risen Son of God, not a temporal king.   They had to accept that the Gentiles were their brothers and sisters, not pagans who would make them unclean.   Because the first disciples’ pliability helped them to respond to the “fermentation” of the Holy Spirit, the Church continued to grow dramatically.

Like every believer in the time of Christ, you, too, are a wineskin, and the Holy Spirit is stirring in you.   The important thing is to be willing to “be stretched” as the Spirit moves you.   For example, you might have an innate dislike of a coworker or neighbor, but maybe God is calling you to see that person in a more compassionate light.   Or God might want to stretch you by giving you a new gift or by asking you to use a gift long dormant.   Maybe caring for a new baby or an elderly or sick relative has stretched you.   These kinds of situations push us to rely on God’s Spirit more so that we can expand and not burst.

Is there an area of your life in which you are feeling stretched?   Ask for the grace to be “stretchy” so that you can share God’s love and presence just a bit more today.

Word Among Us