What's the Story with the Wine Skins?

 

Neither do people put new wine into old skins.  Otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is poured out, and the skins are destroyed.  But people put new wine into new skins, and both are preserved. (Mt 9:17)

Every time this passage comes up at Mass, I completely miss whatever follows it (often including the homily).  I get so distracted trying to figure out the science behind this little comment. Perhaps you share this experience? I mean, what is it about new wine that's bad for an old wine skin? I mean, jeez! The best I could come up with is that maybe new wine is more acidic, and an old skin isn't strong enough to survive that.

So, reading this commentary by Dan Harrington, S.J. on Matthew, we've finally gotten our answer. Turns out, it's the fermentation process. Even after you crack it out of its cask and put in in your wine skin, new wine is still fermenting (that is, becoming alcohol) -- sort of like a hamburger is still cooking a little bit even after you turn the barbecue off.  And as it goes through that process, the wine continues to expand. (It might be more proper to say, fermenting wine produces carbon dioxide, which adds pressure to the wine skin.) A new skin can handle that expansion; an old skin will break under the added pressure.

So, the point is actually pretty similar to the little parable that precedes this one:

No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment.  For its patch tears away from the garment, and the tear becomes worse. (Mt 9:16)

The old ways don't work for the new.  You have to let it have its own space to breathe and grow.

For Matthew, this is a parable challenging the Jewish evaluations of Jesus' mission and lifestyle.  Don't go trying to make me like you, old time Pharisees; what we got going on here is something new.  And it  certainly poses the question to us (not too different from the one we talked about Monday), how am I holding other people back? How am I refusing to acknowledge the new in my midst?

It strikes me that it could also be a great parable for kids. Mom and Dad, listen, I appreciate your rules and all, but the world's changed, and I'm going to need a much later curfew. Oh, and an iPad.  And unlimited texting. And by the way, Jesus backs me up on this, so be cool.

But I won't tell them if you won't. It can be our little secret...