New Wine in Old Wineskins
Orthodoxy confronts me with the unmistakable reality that Jesus intends to change my life!
I was talking to someone the other day, and we were discussing a fairly important subject when it dawned on me, “We are not really speaking the same language.”
It frustrated me, and I confess, I was at a loss as to how to bridge the gap in our understanding of each other.
You see, this person came from a vastly different place than I did.
What was most frustrating was the subject of our conversation.
We were discussing why we were Orthodox. I was trying to explain why someone without a cultural connection to Orthodoxy would want to become Orthodox. She was struggling to understand what I was saying because she had grown up in an Orthodox home, and her father was a priest.
But her reasons for being Orthodox and my reasons for becoming Orthodox seemed to be beyond her ability to grasp!
We are all shaped by our past, our experiences, and our perspectives.
The hard work of communication means we will either “bully” others into seeing things our way, or we will choose to learn the power of persuasion to both try to understand where the other is coming from and then find the common ground necessary to move to a mutual agreement.
This latter path is certainly harder and more time-consuming, but love demands nothing less.
I guess that’s why I am so disturbed by the societal and political discussions of our day. They seem to be based on bullying rather than an attempt at understanding. This will not end well.
Look at our Gospel Lesson today in Matthew 9:14-17:
At that time, the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guest mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. And no one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; if it is, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”
Jesus offers a profound insight into reality here.
He declares that His very presence changes the situation completely.
Of course, it’s not every day that God incarnates Himself in humanity and walks among us, so I guess I can understand the paradigm shift He means.
But the Lord confronts the very foundation of the religious system of His day by using the very practical and common religious discipline of fasting. His disciples don’t fast the way John’s disciples and the Pharisees fast, and that causes some conflict!
Jesus is saying to them and us that fasting isn’t the problem; it’s the motivation and the timing of the fast that are the problem.
You see, the coming of Christ initiates what St. Paul called “a new and living way” (Hebrews 10:20).
And this new and living way doesn’t dismiss the discipline of fasting. Still, it transforms the motivation for fasting from a mere rote habit to an actual participation with the Holy Spirit in God's deifying work in my life.
I fast, not to “please” God, but because I understand that training my desires to be disciplined and focused sets me free to become like my Lord.
And being like my Lord means the family resemblance will be unmistakable on the “last Day.” No wonder the Lord warns against putting this “new wine” of insight and motivation into the “old wineskin” of mere self-centered desire to “make God happy so He will give me a prize!”
St. Nicholas Cabasilas was born in Thessaloniki in 1322. His uncle was the Archbishop of the city. St. Nicholas was well educated and even served as an advisor to the Emperor in Constantinople. What we know of his life is slim, but we are the beneficiaries of two scholarly works of his that prove he was not just well educated but deeply committed to Christ and the fullness of the Faith. His two works, “Explanation of the Divine Liturgy” and “Concerning the Life of Christ,” both entrust to us the value and importance of the Divine Mysteries of the Faith and how this new life in Christ is to be lived by the Faithful.
Today, why do you call yourself a Christian? Why are you Orthodox? Is it just out of habit or the happy accident of your birth? Or are you beginning to realize that this “new and living way” Christ brings to us all really explodes the old ways of understanding what faith is all about? Isn’t it time for you and God to get on the same page when it comes to your motivation for your faith and your following Him? This “new and living way” is what makes us Normal Orthodox Christians!
P.S. As a divine teacher, a wise interpreter of the dogmas of faith, and of the divine virtues, O Venerable Nicholas, you shone forth in the world by your life and your word. Wherefore, Thessaloniki boasts of your glory, lovingly keeps festival, and celebrates your most exalted memory.
Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack. Watch the Faith Encouraged YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@FaithEncouraged
Converts n Cradles talking past each other....
....classic coffee hour!
Thank you for this wonderful and honest post Father!
Holy Father Nicholas Cabasilas, help us to pray! 🌐✍🏼📚🔔🕊️🌾🍇😌⏳