The Mystery Of Discipleship

The Mystery of Discipleship

Read: Mark 2:18-22

“No one pours new wine into old wineskins.”

Mark 2:22

“We know God easily, if we do not constrain ourselves to define Him.”

—Joseph Joubert

IN WORD We are too familiar with the context of this saying. We know that Jesus is the new wine. And we know that the Pharisees’ legalistic belief system is the old wineskin that will not contain Jesus. But do we take the time to ponder which of our own wineskins have attempted to accommodate Jesus and failed?

The life of a disciple may be rigorous, but it is never rigid. Jesus is too inscrutable for that. “The wind blows wherever it pleases” (John 3:8). This is the uncertain way of discipleship; to be convinced of this, one must only observe how often the disciples lapsed into confusion as they followed the Savior. They had expectations that He frequently defied.

On what points are we rigid? Where do our expectations lie? Do we insist that Jesus bring about our own vision for the future? Do we try to constrain Him to our church structures? Do we rely on a methodology in our ministry? The structures, the vision, the methodology may be good, but Jesus will not fit. He defies constraint. The Lion of Judah cannot be tamed.

IN DEED How then may we know Him? This is exactly the point. He refuses to be known in a method, system, or structure—even good ones—because He wants a relationship. We do not know our spouses, children, parents, siblings, or fellow believers by our formulas—we know them as they relate to us. Neither do we know Jesus by our formulas. We may plan for our future, systematize our theology, and program our ministries, but Jesus will often stretch us in other directions. Though we can certainly expect Him to be constant, we cannot expect Him to be predictable. Our wineskins, no matter how reliable, are not part of our discipleship gear. Disciples must always accommodate new wine.