Jesus says, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5). And this is a present tense promise that has been on my mind lately. While it is recorded at the end of Revelation, the work of making all things new has already begun. It is now. It continues.
When God does anything new in the Scriptures, it is frequently met with a new song. It’s not that the old songs are not worth singing anymore. It’s that new activity requires a new song.
Moses and Miriam sing a new song when they cross the Red Sea. Deborah and Barak sing a new song when they defeat the Jabin of Hazor and Sisera (well, Jael defeats him). I often think of Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, and Simeon all singing in the early chapters of Luke, singing new songs.
Jesus talks about newness. He talks about new wine requiring new wine skins. New wine cannot be fermented in old wine skins. The old wine skins cannot contain new wine. They will burst. Jesus says this in the context of defending His disciples who were not participating in regular fasting.
The point Jesus is making is that His appearance on earth is new. His incarnation is new. The old way of doing things. The old legalistic piety that has become all show, described elsewhere by Jesus as “white-washed tombs” cannot hold the incarnate Son of God or His followers.
Jesus continues to make all things new. Jesus continues to do new things. And when Jesus is up to newness, that is new wine. It requires new wineskins. It requires a new song.
Sometimes I worry that our insistence on continuing to use old songs, old forms, old fill-in-the-blank is not out of honor or respect or beauty or even theological purity. But rather because we cannot see the new things God is up to.
Or worse, that God’s newness is not in our midst at all. That we are content with the old because we have chosen to not be a part of Jesus’ continual re-creation and renewal of the world.
I wrote four new hymns last week. None of them are transcendent. None will appear in a hymnal some day. I just felt compelled to make a new song.
We must recognize and respond to the newness God is up to.
We must write and sing new songs.
We must forge new wineskins. For the wine of Jesus is always new.
Be Curious. Ask Questions.
Andy