This week’s reading: Matthew 9:14-17
Hi Friends,
Recall that we are still at the home of Matthew, the tax collector, who has recently given up his old way of life to join Jesus and to follow Him. Jesus continues His talk with some of John the Baptist’s followers who come to question Him. I am sure the Pharisees continue to listen in as they still do not understand this New Way of Life, nor does it seem they want to. We will discuss only four verses today, Matthew chapter 9 verses 14 through 17, but when we just begin to grasp what Jesus is saying here, they can transform our lives. Listen to these verses:
“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” Mt 9:16-17 NIV
Salvation. As I mentioned above, we begin this week with some of the disciples of John the Baptist chiming in about the ritual of fasting. Here Jesus says that it is like His new converts are attending a wedding feast. Who would fast during such a celebration, right? Since Jesus was still with them, still teaching, still helping them to understand as much as they could about this more fulfilling New Way of Life, there was no need for them to be sidetracked by any religious activities, like fasting. It is not the things we DO that lead us into this New Way of Life, after all. Let me take a moment to explain something that many have difficulties with: we do not receive Salvation through anything we DO. We receive it by Grace, because of everything God did. When we choose to sincerely believe this, through Faith, then Salvation is ours. Instantly deep in our spirit, our heart, the core of who we are, we are regenerated, transformed from death to Life, now and forevermore, praise God! This required nothing from us other than agreeing with God. This is NOT a work, something we DO, but simply something we receive. For example, it is as if it was my birthday and my guests come to my home and give me birthday gifts. I do not DO anything to have those gifts, they love me and want to celebrate this day with me, so they give me gifts. All I have to do is receive them. They put the gifts in my hands and I take the gifts from their hands. This is what happens at Salvation. Because God so loves us, He has already prepared and given us the Greatest Gift of all, His Son. God grants us righteousness and Life, as we lay down our Pride and death. It is the Great Exchange that can happen if we just humble ourselves to receive it. Humbling ourselves is also nothing we DO. It is simply acknowledging our sinful, depraved condition apart from God. When we admit, that is confess, that we are sinners in desperate need of The Savior, it is as if we faint into His waiting arms and are given forgiveness and now can be with God. We do nothing but receive this most wonderful relationship. We are now and forevermore adopted into the Forever Family of God. We join the wedding feast and celebrate with our Groom. This is the New Way of Life, and it is what Jesus is attempting to teach here. This is all about relationship, not religion.
The old way. Religion apart from relationship is dead. When we humans try to be religious, we are attempted to gain the righteousness of God all on our own. If I follow enough rules…if I give enough of my time and treasures…if I deny myself enough pleasures…and on and on it goes because, what is “enough”? Enough is never enough. Notice also this is all about who? MMI! If I can do these things, then I will be holy. This is the Old Testament way of thinking and it is painfully obvious, no human can do “enough” to gain holiness, to wipe away our stain of sin, to enter into Heaven on our own merit. None of us can do that. This is what religion attempts to do though. It fools us into thinking we are good if we get it “right” more times than not. But here is the lie: good people do not go to Heaven, only holy people do. So what is “enough” for you and me to be holy? On a scale of 1 to 100%, where must we fall in order for religion to be successful at getting us into Heaven? 100%! That means every moment of all our time on earth, we would have to be sinless so that you and I could be holy and go to Heaven. Who, besides Jesus, has done this? We are all born bent towards MMI, selfish Pride, so the moment we begin to speak or do anything, life is all about MMI, and our sinful hearts are revealed. Religion cannot save us…but praise God He sent His Son to do just this. All that is left is for us to sincerely believe it.
Sincerely. I say that word a lot when I talk about being born again. Sadly, there are many misinformed, as well as really good actors, in the Church. They still think that life is all about MMI. They are attempting to put a new patch onto their old clothes. They think that they can just slap Jesus onto their old ways and everything will be ok. We cannot repair our old lives with just a tiny patch of Jesus, Who is the New Way of Life, and continue to wear the same, old worn out outfit. We must allow Jesus to redress us, if you will. We must take off the old clothes and put on the new, or else nothing has sincerely changed. You see, when I say sincerely, I mean that this belief is not a casual, intellectual endeavor. Let me give you a silly example here: what if you were starving, you haven’t eaten in months, and I told you there is a table filled with delicious foods in the next room…would you say, “Oh I believe that,” but then continue to starve? No! You would run, head over heels into that other room and gulp down that food by the handfuls, right? So if you truly believe that the only way to be holy and go to Heaven, the only way to avoid death when we leave this world, as well as to have as good a life as possible in this world, the only way is through Jesus…are you getting the picture? You are going to drop everything and run to Him, humbling yourself and receiving the goodness only He offers. Jesus will not be this tiny patch you add to your challenging life. He will be your Life, your entire Life. You will forget yourself in Him. You will lift your weary hand to accept His forgiveness and righteousness and love and grace and so on. You will do this once for Salvation, but then every day thereafter so you can experience this New Way of Life as much as humanly possible. You would mean it, if you said “I believe,” see? This belief changes us from the inside out…it is a process that must continue…but it is not burdensome, IF we choose to remain humble. But, of course, this is the struggle, my Friends.
Staying humble. New wine must be put in new wineskins. For those of us not familiar with the ancient way of storing and carrying wine, they used to make containers out of goat skins and the like. This new wine would still need fermenting which produces gases and then expands the volume of wine. So they would put it into new containers that would be pliable, and that could expand along with the wine. The two worked together and the wine was safely contained and able to be used whenever it was ready to be used. Again I say we cannot merge this New Way of Life with the old way and expect our days be filled with peace and joy to the overflow. Remember, the old way is thinking you and me can become holy by our do’s and don’t’s, but that is simply not possible. Rather, it is Jesus Who makes us holy and now we choose to follow Him, more and more. This is the “fermenting process,” what we call Sanctification. Just like this wine must become ready to be used for drink to be enjoyed or for “medication” to heal, so too do you and I need to grow so we can be a real blessing to those around us. We can help them enjoy life more fully and/or compassionately love them to help heal their wounds. See? Jesus is trying to explain to John’s disciples, to the Pharisees, and to His own new followers the power of this New Way of Life. First Salvation is not anything you and I DO. We simply receive this priceless gift. Second, we continue to humbly come to Jesus and learn how to think like He does. How to control our emotions and use them righteously as He does. And how to surrender our self-centered, old will to His Holy Will. This takes fermenting, for sure! But if we attempt to pour our New Creation Self into the old life? That old, rigid way of trying to follow rules and rituals will cause us to burst because it is not about Grace, but all about what MMI can do. The old way is washed and worn, as with the first example of the clothes. A new patch that is still being softened will only rip away from that old way and will leave us feeling more depressed and burdened than before we sincerely surrender to Jesus! We must allow Him to transform our heart. Once we have sincerely…am I saying that word enough here?…once we have sincerely surrendered our lives to Jesus as Lord and Savior, we must begin to live New or we will be so confused, so discouraged, so fearful we will just want to burst. This is where I have been, off and on, for several years now. I am only seeing now that God wants to grow me to the next glorious level, and so I must surrender to Him deeper. As I trust Him further, letting go of past disappointments and wrong decisions, He is expanding my wine skin, if you will, and I am not falling apart. Listen, life will find a way to beat you up…but if we remember that we are New, if we remember we are never alone, if we remember it is no longer our lives but ours IN Jesus, then we begin to ferment and expand and become more and more tasty with age. This Sanctification is a process that allows us to grow in stages. The Bible puts it this way: from glory to glory. I usually say from one level to the next higher level, God promotes us as we deepen our Faith in Him and work with Him instead of fighting against Him. I am choosing to surrender once again…and I am excited to see where He takes me. Do you want that too? Then won’t you join me?
Until we meet again, keep lifting your eyes to God, He’s closer than you think.
<>< Peace, Diane
