Matthew 9:17: Nor do men put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out, and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.

Jesus is the bridegroom, come at last to his waiting guests and attendants. And with the coming of the bridegroom, the time of waiting comes to an end. There is no room for fasting when the bridegroom arrives, because the feast is about to begin.

That’s the answer Jesus gives to John’s disciples who question Him about fasting. But Jesus is also making, as we saw, a broader point. His comment about the patch on the garment and the wine in the wineskin is not just about fasting. It’s about the freshness of what He is doing. The life of His kingdom is too potent, too vibrant, too bursting with energy to be confined to old forms. Jesus comes to make things new, and trying to confine Jesus’ kingdom to old forms won’t work. He won’t be contained. He will burst the wineskin.

This is true of Jesus’ ministry, but it is also the pattern of life in the church throughout the ages. Jesus is always bringing new wine that can’t be put into the old wineskins. The conversion of Constantine – that was new wine that couldn’t be contained by the old martyr church. The Reformation – that was new wine that burst open the old wineskins of medieval Catholicism. Today’s church spread across the globe – that is new wine, and our old habits of mind and practice don’t fit anymore.

We drink wine at this table, and this wine is the blood of a new covenant. The wine of this table couldn’t be contained in the wineskins of Judaism, the wineskins of Pharisaical purity. It required new containers.

But the wine of the new covenant is a wine that is ever new, because the covenant is ever new. By drinking wine at this table, we are not only celebrating the new covenant made once for all, but we are renewing our pledge to follow Jesus, the bridegroom, who is always ready with fresh wine.