Jesus often said, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” And what this means is – that in order to believe the Gospel, to believe Jesus, we need to repent, we need to change, we must become new people. Quite often Jesus was accused by the scholars of the law, by the scribes and Pharisees for not following the law. For example, they accused Him of associating with tax collectors and sinners, for performing miracles on the Sabbath day, for blaspheming, and so on. They couldn’t accept the fact that someone who called Himself the Son of God did not follow the law. This is why Jesus reminds them that there is no greatest law than loving God and neighbor; and if that neighbor needs our attention, our help, and our action then we must provide it right away, just like Jesus did. Jesus said that “no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined.Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.” To accept the Lord, to follow Him, and to become His disciples, we must become new, fresh, different. We must become new wineskins.
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