New Wine

This new wine had come into the market some years ago when my uncle had gifted me for Christmas two years ago.  It was delicious.  When next I came to Chandigarh for a family visit, I decided to buy some of that wine and went to the store where I thought we could purchase it.  They said that it was not available with them but that I could go to Panchkula to purchase it.  So I requested my sister to take me to Panchkula in her Maruti van and she, my niece and I went off to Panchkula to purchase it.  On reaching Panchkula, we were told at the wine shop that this was available at Pinjore.  We jazzed off to Pinjore, 11 km away.  On reaching Pinjore, we were informed that we had to go to Kalka to purchase the Wonder Wine which was 3 km away.  We went haring off to Kalka and were informed that Himachal wines are available only at Parwanoo, the first stop in Himachal Pradesh, 4 km away.  When we arrived at the said wine shop in Parwanoo, what an array we found! The sleepy shopkeeper snapped out of his lethargy as three women came out of the Maruti van and into his shop.  We bought to sample every fruit wine available and the shopkeeper joyfully carried the crated wine bottles into the van.  It was well worth the chase from Chandigarh to Parwanoo a distance of 20 km.  We enjoyed the wine over Christmas.

There is a parable in the Bible in Matthew 9:14-17, Mark 2:21-22 and Luke 5:33-39 which talks about new wine in old wineskins.  Jesus was telling the people that the kingdom of God has come and you cannot follow traditional systems in the kingdom of God.  Jesus offered mankind the new covenant, so He explained that it will be difficult to live in the new covenant with old covenant thinking.  The Jews of that day could not imagine that God was for any other nationality but for them and they alone were the chosen race.  Here was Jesus, God in the flesh, telling them that the kingdom of God is for all mankind.  The new covenant that Jesus established, happened with His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension through the finished work of the Cross of Calvary.  Anyone who believes in salvation which God offered to mankind through Jesus, comes into the new covenant and therefore in the kingdom of God and will not perish but come into everlasting life.  We commemorate Jesus' sacrifice by eating the bread (Jesus said that "I am the Bread of Life") and by drinking wine which signifies the shed Blood of Jesus, as often as we can - this is the new covenant.  God does not force anyone to believe in His Sinless Sacrifice for salvation of mankind, anyone who comes into His kingdom, does it with our own volition and choice.  Only then we become children of God who have the right to call God, our Father!