02/12/18 - Mark 2

Feb 12, 2018 – Mark 2

“A wise person pours new wine into new wineskins." Mark 2:22

Wise people don’t make principles out of methods, they design methods out of goals.

People have this tendency to make principles out of methods.  When we do that, it creates safety for insiders of the method, but exclusion for everyone else. 

That was the point Jesus was making when He started talking about wineskins.  In Jesus’ day, grapes were harvested and juice extracted to make wine by storing it in leather skins.  These skins would be sewn together and filled with the juice, and stored until it became alcohol.  As the juice ferments, it expands, putting pressure on the seams of the wineskin.  If old wineskins were used, the seams would burst and the wine would be lost.  That’s why wise people used new wineskins for new wine.  Their strength would hold and the juice would ferment.  Yet this practice was not followed consistently.  Often less wise people would try to reuse the wineskins in order to save cost.  Sometimes it worked, other times it failed.  The principle was about wine-making, but the method was about cost-saving.  Put the method in front of the principle and you miss out on the goal.

People do the same with methods.   Organizations use old processes and wonder why customers leave for new companies.  Schools stick with textbooks and wonder why student education continues to decline.  Governments increase taxes to pay for old programs and wonder why they can’t fund new initiatives.  Churches turn music, preaching structure, programming and leadership structure into principles, and then wonder why new generations don’t embrace our church.  When methods get turned into principles, the overall goal is lost.

Jesus calls all of us to stop focusing on the methods and start focusing on the goal.  Our goal is to bring glory to God, not create security for ourselves.  Our goal is to draw others to Jesus, not spend time building up our short-lived retirements.  Yet we get so focused on the methods we miss the goal.

Take a look at your life and rethink your methods.   Are the methods driving your goals, or the goals driving your methods?   Is it time to try some new wineskins?   

Wise people don’t make principles out of methods, they design methods out of goals.