Scripture:
Genesis 27:1-5, 15-29
Matthew 9:14-17
Reflection:
May God give to you of the dew of the heavens and of the fertility of the earth abundance of grain and wine. -Genesis 27:28
People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. -Matthew 9:17
Albert Einstein once said, “The problems of today can only be solved at a higher level of thinking than that which created them.” A similar quote from David Goldstein runs, “You can’t solve tomorrow’s challenges with yesterday’s thinking.” Both of these quotations echo Jesus‘s words about new wine in old wine skins. Although somewhat obscure to us today, the apostles would’ve understood what he meant. Old wine skins would have been stretched out and ready to tear if put under any pressure. New wine was still fermenting, growing, under transformation from grape juice to wine. In the same way that Albert Einstein and David Goldstein said that are thinking must be transformed if we are to move forward, Jesus is telling us that we ourselves must be transformed to hold his new teaching.
But this is not a one-time event. As it is written in the book of Revelation, “Behold, I make all things new,” every day is a new day. Every day, Jesus comes to us, ready to pour His Spirit of new wine into us. We must allow ourselves to be transformed into new wine skins for this new teaching. This can sometimes be uncomfortable. However, as Christians, we are called to continuously participate in this creative process of transformation, giving up our old ways of thinking and allowing ourselves to be born again.
My prayer today is that we all give ourselves over to this process of transformation and allow ourselves to be Jesus’s hands in the building up of God‘s kingdom here on earth.
Talib Huff is a retired teacher and a member of the retreat team at Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center in Citrus Heights, California. You may contact him at [email protected].