New wineskins

“And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.” Mark 2:22
This is a familiar passage, but it can be difficult to understand what is actually meant by it.
First, we need to understand how wine was made at that time. A wineskin was a leather bag; ‘new wine’ was grape juice that was still in the process of fermenting. This would be poured into a new wineskin, which was supple and was therefore able to stretch as the fermentation process produced carbon dioxide gas. But after the wineskin had been used once in this way, it became brittle and was not able to stretch again. Thus, putting new wine into an old skin would result in pressure building up, and the wineskin would eventually break because it was not able to stretch.
Many people have suggested what the symbolism might be referring to. Some speak of how the gifts of the Spirit tend not to be in operation in the more traditional churches. But that is not the context here. Jesus was asked, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but Yours are not?” (Mark 2:18).
John was the last of the Old Testament prophets, as said by Jesus Himself (Matt. 11:13). The Pharisees, likewise, were followers of Old Testament Judaism. But Jesus was bringing a new way of relating to God, a new power that came through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit inside a person. What He was saying is this: you cannot put the power of a life in Christ into the Old Testament law. Even today, there are those who try to take their Christian faith and fit it into the Mosaic law. Jesus says it can’t be done. The new wine – the new life that Christ offers us – needs new wineskins: a way of life that allows us to be stretched and filled with the Spirit of God.