The Parable of New Wine in Old Wineskins

MATTHEW 9:14-17

In today’s Gospel, Jesus narrates the parable of new wine in old wineskins. In the context of the Gospel of Jesus, what is the new wine? It is the Incarnation (the kenosis or self-emptying of God; God became fully human, taking on flesh and bone, while remaining fully divine), the Good News, (For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life; God is love), the historic event that occurred on the Cross,( the reconciliation of the divine and the human; there is in principle no sin that God cannot forgive. For on the cross, Jesus prays, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”)

What is the old wineskin? It is the old consciousness, the old attitude, the old philosophy, the old way of thinking and reasoning. As long as the old ego is still reigning in our souls, as long as the old and tired culture is still a big factor in our lives, we will resist tasting the new wine. In fact, the new wine will taste very bitter; it will be too strange, too foreign, and too threatening to us. We will always reject it. Why? At the depth, what you believe determines what you do. 

This is the reason why, when Jesus first appeared on the hills of Galilee, the first words out of his lips were, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” The word “repent” has been given a bad rap in our increasingly secular culture. The modern and liberal mind now sees it as a judgmental move. But what Jesus is basically saying is, “change your mind,” “go beyond your mind.”

Before we can drink or assimilate the new wine, a spiritual and theological paradigm shift is necessary. There must be a fundamental shift in perspective and a turning away from a previous way of thinking and behaving. It is not merely about feeling sorry, but about a transformative change in one’s attitude, thoughts, and actions. During your next recollection day, it will be a helpful spiritual exercise to identify those sayings and actions of Jesus in the Gospel that make you most uncomfortable. Doing that will reveal the path of metanoia you must follow. The new wine cannot be contained in old wineskins. Light and darkness cannot dwell together. The City of God and the City of Man cannot co-mingle. One must give way. If you want to drink the new wine of the Lord, you must go beyond the mind you have.  

God bless you!

Fr. Marcel E. Okwara, CSsR