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Mark 2:22 (NLT)
[Jesus continued] “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. The wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine needs new wineskins.”

DRAWING NOTES:

TIME OF DAY:
Unspecified in the Bible narrative. Daytime.

LIGHTING NOTES:
The main source of light for this picture is the sun, streaming in through a doorway (unseen, on the left) casting strong shadows below and to the right of figures and objects.

CHARACTERS PRESENT:
A woman and man.
3 grey mice (which can only be seen in the Background image, without the foreground figures!)

RESEARCH/ADDITIONAL NOTES:
This scene shows a man pouring new wine into an old wineskin, held by a woman. The wineskin is bursting. I have drawn the same couple I drew in the previous scene “Mark 02 – Parable of new cloth on old garment”, since these scenes are related. Of course the wineskin wouldn’t be bursting as the new wine is being poured in, it would burst as the wine was fermenting inside the skin, some days later. But, for dramatic illustration purposes, I have drawn the exploding wineskin at this point of pouring in the wine!

Here is the scene without the figures in the foreground. More of the background street scene and steps can be seen without the figures.

Background of Mark 02 – Parable of new wine in old wineskins

Click on the colour bar below to view/buy this Background:
Background of Mark 02 – Parable of new wine in old wineskins

New wine expands as it ferments, increasing the pressure in its container (if the container is sealed). If a new wineskin is used as that container, then its elasticity can handle the fermentation-induced expansion. But, if new wine is poured into an old wineskin (that has lost its elasticity), then the fermenting wine would burst the old wineskin, and all the wine stored in it would be lost.

Jesus (In this parable) is again emphasizing the fact that He is doing something new. The old religious experiences and expectations (e.g. the expectation that everyone must fast on certain days set by the religious leadership) proved inadequate for 1st Century believers. Jesus was ushering in a new series of expectations: it was time to adjust them. Jesus’ ministry was clearly not going to fit into preconceived ideas and tired rituals of the past. Like the wine exploding out of the old wineskins, an inflexible adherence to the old ways and traditions would result in spiritual loss.

We can’t mix old religious rituals with new faith in Jesus. Since He fulfilled and completed the law there is no longer any need to continue in it. There is even less need to continue with old, man-made rituals. In effect Jesus cannot be added to a works-based religion; as Paul wrote (in Galatians 2:21): “I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”