A certain man, irate for having tasted yet another putrid glass of water, ripped open a new filter for the family's pitcher for a third time. "I've already called the water company and they say there is nothing wrong," the man barked to whoever cared to hear him. "If this keeps up, I'm calling Brita and demanding they make this right!"
Sure enough, a third filter, and still no quenching goodness. You see, the man had been missing one of the most obvious solutions: It doesn't matter how clean the water is when you pour it in, the water that comes out will never be good until the pitcher itself is cleansed.
Jesus shares a very similar story early on in his ministry:
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. So they came to Jesus and said, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?” 19 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they do not fast. 20 But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and at that time they will fast. 21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear becomes worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be destroyed. Instead new wine is poured into new wineskins.” -Mark 2
I like Jesus' story better for 2 reasons. First, he talks about wine and wanting to make sure it tastes good for the party. Not something you expect to hear here in the South from a "good Christian man" like Jesus, right?
Secondly, and more profoundly speaking, Jesus makes it clear that this new thing that he's doing is so revolutionary that neither old systems nor our old selves are prepared to handle it. It's not just that the new wine that goes in will taste funny when it comes back out, the old wineskin doesn't have the power to contain this new thing at all!
Jesus is setting the Pharisees up for something big, something world-changing. And as he does that he makes it perfectly clear: "To be ready for this new thing, it's going to require a new you, a new system of faith, a new community of followers. Because right now, this old thing just isn't ready for what I have to offer."
A lot of us, though, are like the guy in the first story. Jesus wants to pour this new thing in, and to some extent we really want to enjoy it. So we change the water filters in our lives:
- We change our church attendance
- We change our t-shirts
- We change our radio stations
Like somehow this external act of holiness is going to prepare us for this life-giving, thirst-quenching gift Jesus has to offer. Some of us even call the water company:
- We blame our church experience growing up
- We blame those "hypocritical" Christians
- We blame pastors and preachers we don't like
You might have baggage there to work through, but those people still aren't the problem.
You and I have to be willing to take an honest look at the vessel that God's Spirit wants to fill. Yes, God's grace saves you, but we are also commanded to regularly be transformed by renewing ourselves as an act of worship. -Romans 12:1-2a
The next time this water of life taste a little rancid for you, stop looking at the water filters and the providers in your life and take a hard look at the pitcher itself.
God's new thing wants to fill up God's new you!
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