One of the miracles by Jesus Christ that has opened a debate on drinking wine is His first one itself. Jesus performed his first miracle at Cana in Galilee (John 2:1). I have had come across serious and fun sake arguments about this miracle as a justification for drinking alcoholic wine. Therefore, this blog attempts to liberate the realities of Lord’s action from the demon possessed minds.
There is a world of difference between worldly wine and spiritual wine. The wine of this world is a cause of destruction (for eg. see Genesis 9:20-24) whereas the eternal wine is life giving. Apparently, there are two words in Greek for wine, oinos and gleukos. Oinos represents both unfermented (John 2) and fermented wine which is alcoholic (Ephesians 5:18). The word gleukos in Greek means sweet or fresh wine (Acts 2:13).
Since there are two meanings for the word oinos one many argue why could not it be fermented wine that Jesus brought out at the wedding. We have evidence from Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:25; and Luke 22:17 which directly quotes Jesus’ words, “I will not drink from this fruit of vine……..”, during the last supper. Therefore, we can confidently conclude that it was unfermented wine Jesus shared with his disciples on that night because Jesus will not give others something which He himself does not like. Also please note, the Greek terms used for ‘fruit of vine’ is ampelos which means grapevine.
As stated above, there is a huge difference between worldly and spiritual wine. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman “whoever drinks from me will never thirst” (John 4:14). Further, he calls “….if anyone is thirsty come to me and drink” (John 7:37). This is the spiritual wine that our Lord has in offer. As Jesus told the Samaritan woman (John 4:13), we may discern that the worldly drink is not a solution for anything including stress, tension, grief or even pleasure and passion.
When mother Mary said to Jesus that the wedding reception party has run out of wine (John 2:3), Jesus distanced himself initially by telling the mother that we have no business in this affair (John 2:4). We can infer from Jesus’ statement that spiritual beings have no business in worldly business as the world belongs to Satan in its present condition (John 14:30). After making mother Mary understand the spiritual dimension of things, Jesus steps into action. (It is evident that mother Mary did understand the spiritual realm of things that she advised the servants to “do whatever He tells you” – John 2:5).
Therefore, we may rightly understand that it was not alcoholic wine that Jesus brought out through His first miracle but something supernatural. In fact, it was spiritual. The uniqueness of this wine could be discerned from the statement of the master of the banquet where he probably tasted the best wine ever (John 2:10). This wine could be understood as a foretaste of his blood shed for our salvation as well as a new covenant (Mark 14:24).
We enter into a death covenant (Isiah 28:15) with worldly wine (Isiah 28:7) and destroy ourselves. God promised through Isiah a redemption from this pathetic situation by promising to lay a cornerstone in Zion, precious and strong (Isiah 28:16), fulfilled through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:6). Through this new covenant we partake in enjoying the spiritual wine. This spiritual wine is produced from Jesus himself (John 15:1). And, our Lord wants everyone of us to drink this spiritual wine.
Therefore, let us come close to God’s throne so that we may receive mercy and grace (Hebrews 4:16). To all craving for wine we have the best wine waiting at the heavenly banquet (Isiah 25:6) where we will have our cups overflowing (Psalms 23:5). Moreover, unlike the hard earned money that we spend for worldly wine, this spiritual wine is free of cost (Isiah 55:1). We will indeed be blessed to attend this banquet because it is the wedding of “the Lamb”, Jesus Christ (Revelations 19:9). The invitation to this banquet is for all those who are thirsty in spirit (John 7:37; Revelations 7:16).
May Lord God almighty be glorified.
Amen.
Fr Dr Saji K Mathew 