One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”          Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled.    The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.    But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus. (Luke 6:1-11)

There are some who take offense at the move of the Holy Spirit and the miracles of God. They immediately reject what God is doing when the Spirit moves in ways not specifically seen in the Bible, or when He moves in ways that do not fit an individual’s theology, or when he moves at all. That individual would admit that God once worked in those ways but would assert that God no longer does such things. Each of these individuals would claim scriptural authority for his or her view. How we approach scripture makes a huge difference in our faith. Luke’s account is instructive in our approach to scripture.

The Pharisees were great students of the Torah. They had memorized most, if not all, of the Old Testament – certainly the first five books. They spent their days dissecting and debating the texts, trying to determine all things lawful and unlawful. They viewed scripture as a rulebook. Their approach was simply to determine what was permitted and what was prohibited in life and assign every nuance of life to one of those categories. When there was an infraction, their job was to throw and flag and assess a penalty.

The Torah said that man should do no work on the Sabbath. God, however, deleted the footnote that defined what constituted “work.” So the Pharisees and other religious leaders took on the task of defining the word for Him. Their scholars produced a definitive list of activities that constituted work and over time their definitions carried as much weight as scripture. Of the hundreds of activities prohibited, harvesting grain and healing on the Sabbath made the “prohibited” list. Jesus violated the list! In their minds, that marked Jesus as a sinner.

That would have been an easy label to hang on Jesus except for the fact that he performed numerous certifiable miracles that were far beyond the reach of any ordinary man. In fact, they seemed to be the marks of a true prophet in the order of Elijah or Elisha. But, by their definition of sin, Jesus was a sinner. So they simply declared his miracles to be works of the devil designed to deceive.

Their mistake was in their view of scripture. They knew the two greatest commandments: Love God and love your neighbor. What they didn’t understand was that God’s love had to be reflected in the interpretation of the scriptures. What they didn’t understand was that God was revealing himself in the scriptures as not only a holy God, but also a loving and merciful God who wanted to show them his goodness and kindness at every turn.

Even on Sinai, as God was giving the Law, Moses asked to see God’s glory. The Lord replied that he would cause all of his “goodness” to pass in front of Moses and that he would proclaim his name to the prophet (Ex.33:19). The first thing God wanted to reveal was his goodness so that the Law would be understood through that filter. The “Thou shalt not’s” of the Law were not laws to restrict the blessings or even the freedom of man, but rather warning signs to avoid danger. They were safety signs and doors to blessings from a loving God rather than a set of rules from a harsh judge.

Jesus, who came to show us the Father, understood that. When man was hungry, even on the Sabbath, God blessed him to find food. When a man was crippled, even on the Sabbath, God healed the man. Both of those acts reveal the nature and goodness of God. The Pharisees thought that man was made to serve the Law and the Sabbath. Jesus showed us that the Sabbath and the Law were made to serve man. How much more are the gospel and the New Covenant made to serve and bless us?

When someone today objects to miraculous moves of the Spirit, they end up objecting to men and women being healed, tormenting spirits being cast out of suffering individuals, the dead being raised, the blind receiving their sight and so forth.   If you ask them why they object, they will refer to scripture and argue that in the last days there will be counterfeit miracles and that God no longer operates in that way. My response would be, “So God no longer cares about the suffering of people enough to act supernaturally on their behalf? What about the goodness of God?” They might say that they don’t see the Spirit falling on people in scripture and making them laugh or cry or fall backwards and lie on the ground and convulse for hours. When Jesus came he acted in ways that Pharisees had never seen before. He associated with sinners, let harlots rub perfume on his feet, touched unclean lepers, walked on water, commanded storms, returned sanity to the demonized, and raised the dead over and over.

He then gave the same power and authority to others and declared that anyone who had faith in him would do even greater things. I’m certain that if the Pharisees had seen him walk on water or command storms they would have branded him a sorcerer. Why? Because they didn’t have a clear command or precedent in the Torah for such things. He was acting in new ways, just as the Spirit is acting in new ways today.

Does that mean anything goes? No, it doesn’t. We must still test the spirits. We need to ask if something actually violates a clear scripture (rather than a “reasoned argument” from men) or if it violates the nature of God and the Spirit of Christ. Healing does not violate the spirit of Christ, but opposing healing does. The Spirit falling on men with power does not violate scripture or the nature of God but denying the power of the Spirit does. Miracles of all kinds do not violate scripture or the nature of God, but assigning those miracles to demonic activity does.

Unfortunately, we still have the spirit of the Pharisees operating through men in our churches today. For the sake of their reasoned understanding of scripture, these men would forbid healing services, would be outraged if someone commanded the dead to rise at a funeral home, and would never allow anyone to minister deliverance to a member of their congregation.

Do they know that Jesus is Lord? Probably. Do they know Jesus? Probably not. When we approach scripture, we should see it through the lens of God’s goodness and his relentless desire to bless people rather than a rulebook that looks to penalize every infraction. We need to enjoy God and expect expressions of his goodness and power as we go through the day. Those who walked with Jesus, experienced that day by day and we walk with him now! So enjoy.

In my past few blogs I have been looking through John’s writings to get a better grasp on Jesus since John was closest to him.  In John 2, the young apostle records the wedding in Cana of Galilee at which Jesus turns water into wine at the request of his mother. John records many things that he believers are symbolic.  Symbols are one reality that point to a greater reality.   A menu at a restaurant is a reality that points to a greater reality – the food waiting in the kitchen to be prepared and served. They symbol by itself is not the blessing, it simply points to the blessing.  A few bites of the menu itself should convince you of that.

When Jesus turned water into wine, that miracle pointed to a greater reality. The host of the wedding feast also added that the wine Jesus created (though the host did not know its source) was the best wine that had been served at the feast.  Interestingly, Jesus only speaks of wine about four or five other times in the gospels.

One statement was primarily about Jewish religious leaders in the context of “whatever God does is never good enough for you.” To them, Jesus said, “For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.” ’ (Lk.7:33-34).

He mentions wine again in the story of the Good Samaritan who anointed the injured man’s wounds with wine and oil. But the most famous of Jesus’ teachings, where wine was involved, is reported in several of the gospels.  I’ll quote from Luke.

He told them this parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’ ” (Lk.5:36-39).

Jesus is using a familiar symbol of new wine and wineskins to make a spiritual point. As new wine continues to ferment it expands.  If it is placed in an old wine skin that has lost its flexibility and can’t be stretched it will rupture as the new wine pushes outward. He also mentions our human preference for the familiar – the taste of things we have always known.

The question is, “What does the wine symbolize in his parable?”  There are numerous thoughts about that question.  It may be that the ultimate answer is that Jesus is the new wine or the Holy Spirit is the new wine.  I think both of those would be great answers and accurate in many ways.  One other related answer might simply be the New Covenant which encompasses all of the above.  The most profound connection of wine to Jesus in the New Testament is at the last supper where Jesus takes the “cup of blessing,” which is one of several cups of wine in the Jewish Passover ritual, and says to his disciples, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you” (Lk.22:20).

Interestingly, John gives by far the most extensive treatment of the last hours that Jesus spent with his disciples in the upper room where they took Passover together. He never mentions those famous words that both Luke and Paul quote in their writings. But what John does mention starting in Chapter 13 is a kingdom ruled by love and service, a fresh revelation of the Father through the person of Jesus Christ, the amazing ministry of the Holy Spirit, fruit born out of a connection with Jesus rather than a written law, and the unity of all believers through Christ.  All of these were to emerge as a result of Christ’s death on the cross.  In a very real sense, these things are the heart or the substance of the New Covenant.

If Jesus had the new covenant in mind when he spoke of new wine in fresh wine skins, then he was saying that the New Covenant and it’s manifestations was going to be such a drastic departure from the old that familiar ways of thinking and approaching God would have to be discarded.  To receive the new revelations of salvation, love, service, power, transformation, unity, and so forth that were part of the new mix being poured out by heaven, an openness to a new move of God would have to be maintained.

On the day of Pentecost, this new wine was poured out on Jerusalem.  Those who were open to a fresh move of God and who were willing to be stretched were filled with the promises of the New Covenant. As a result, the church was birthed full of love and generosity, power and miracles flowed into the streets of Jerusalem through these new wineskins, Jesus was declared with boldness, and unity was the mark of believers.

Here is the thing.  God still has much that he wants to pour into his people. “And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old” (Mt.13:52).  There is always new treasure that God wants to give his people.  Much of that treasure will be deposited in us by the Holy Spirit (fruit, revelation, spiritual gifts, etc.), but some will be external experiences of God’s power and presence as well as love and joy experienced with our spiritual family.

The caution of the parable was not just for the guardians of the Old Covenant, but was also for those of us who live this side of the cross. We will limit God and the wine he wants to continually pour into his house if we become rigid in our ways believing that there is no more truth to be mined from the scriptures, no new ways that God will manifest himself to his people, or no new strategies for evangelizing the planet.  History confirms that every fresh move of God, every revival, and every awakening becomes crystalized into “the only way God works” by the second generation after his last fresh move. It’s easy for us to enjoy the old wine.

However, in heaven there is always more.  Ask for it.  Seek it.  Be open to “the more” that God has for you.  The old wineskins around you may frown and issue warnings about seeking more of God and his Spirit but keep yourself “stretchable” and ask for more of the Father’s gifts and treasures.  It is his pleasure to give if it is your pleasure to receive.