echoes of redemption

Jesus would – from time to time – get frustrated with the disciples.

It wasn’t over their lack of knowledge with Scripture, their commitment to him or their ability to follow God’s commands though.

Jesus got frustrated with the disciples over their lack of understanding of how his presence in their lives changed everything.

Which makes me realize that he is probably pretty frustrated with me from time to time as well.

Because I just don’t get it.

I read that if my faith is as big as a mustard seed that I could throw a mountain into the ocean – yet I lack faith when I ask for God to provide for my family’s needs (something God has already promised anyway).

Maybe I need to re-imagine what my life looks like with the Messiah’s presence in it.

How do I walk? How do I talk? What do I find joy in? What do I get furiously angry at? What motivates me? Discourages me?

Because there is power in presence. And if I can understand and respond to that, the whole world could change.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in the institution of church. There are programs, teams and systems to run.

For me, when I heard of hungry people, I thought: we have a team that handles them.

I wasn’t engaged (or even aware) of the global water crises.

I really wasn’t welcoming strangers (outside of them coming to a weekend service).

Providing for those who need clothing wasn’t high on my list… or on it at all.

Caring for the sick was something someone else handled (because I told myself I wasn’t “gifted” to do it).

Connecting to those in prison was for the fringe ministry people, not me.

And based off Jesus words in Matthew 25:41, my actions were those of a pastor who is going to hell.

Jesus also said, Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.

For, I was hungry and you gave me food.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink,

I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

I was naked and you clothed me,

I was sick and you visited me.

I was in prison and you came to me.

So maybe I need the oppressed more than they need me. Maybe in serving I find redemption for my own soul. Restoration for my own heart.

Maybe in serving them I meet the God of the oppressed in real, tangible ways.

And maybe, when it comes to the church, all the systems, the programs, the teams, the services – all of it is peripheral. Maybe instead of giving our lives to the church, we should give them to Jesus – feeding the hungry, providing water for the thirsty, welcoming the rejected, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and filling prisons with the hope of Christ.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said it best: If you want to build a ship, don’t summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs and organize the work, rather teach people the yearning for the wide, boundless ocean.

New wine is not put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed.

These are Jesus’ words in Matthew 9 – they are a beautiful metaphor that clearly illustrate how he views both himself and the world – and they beg the question, what are the wineskins he is talking about?

Jesus is talking to the pharisees – so is it the people themselves he’s talking about as being old wineskins? That certain people don’t have the capacity for the Kingdom and they are people destined for destruction?

This is pretty unlikely, as we see one of the central messages of Jesus’ life is welcoming the people who no one thinks can make it into the Kingdom.

So is Jesus talking about the Jewish religion or culture in general when he says the new wine will not go into old wineskins? That the day for Judaism had come and was now gone?

This is radically unlikely, as Jesus saw himself fulfilling every letter of the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament). The Jews had been promised Messiah and now he was here – so this was exactly what was supposed to fit into their faith.

So it’s not the people and it’s not the faith. And now we have to ask, what’s left?

Jesus dropped this phrase in the middle of a conversation where he was being criticized for not leading his followers in fasting, and just after a critique he received about spending his time with the tax collectors and sinners – those the religious way had rejected.

Could it be that Jesus was referring to how the pharisees presupposed God works in the world?

That the things they viewed God as doing, and not doing – the ways they saw him blessing, and not blessing – that those ways of viewing the world were outdated? That the new wine of Jesus was too much for their view of how God works?

Which begs another question – am I presupposing God works in a certain way? Do I look for him to operate, and be absent, in areas where he does not operate and in places he truly is present? Do my views need to change?

Because Jesus is the new wine. And old wineskins aren’t enough to hold him.

New wine is put into fresh wineskins so both are preserved.