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Summary
“Drunkards (methysos) will not inherit the kingdom of God,” wrote Paul. “Do not get drunk (methysko) with wine.” I’ve done more than one funeral for loved ones who have drunk themselves to death. So why do we tolerate the stuff at all? Some will say, “It’s not forbidden in moderation.” Yes, but is it wise? What would Jesus do? Fortunately for us, we have at least two instances in Scripture where Jesus encounters wine in a social setting.
John 2:1-10: “On the third day there was a wedding at Cana… When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine…’ Now there were six stone jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 to 30 gallons. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from, he said to the bridegroom, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely [methysko: “are drunk”], then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
I find that to be a bit surprising. That’s 180 gallons of high-quality wine!
The second place that we are certain Jesus encountered wine is at the Last Supper. He poured it in a cup, and instead of issuing a warning about alcoholism, He said, “As often as you drink this cup (perhaps any cup of wine), do it in remembrance of me.” He turned it into a sacrament.
But we have corrected His work and so only offer grape juice at communion in most Protestant churches, obviously more concerned for public safety than Christ.
That’s a humorous thought. But still, my brother-in-law drank himself to death, and it broke my heart to do his funeral… That was his choice — not that he could’ve chosen differently — his bad choice. So, if you were at that wedding in Galilee and got drunk, that would be your choice, but you couldn’t blame the bartender, for He makes no bad choices and is the Good Choice of God.
Why did God make wine… along with the possibility that some would get drunk on it?
Why did God make sex… along with the possibility that we might abuse it?
Why did God make kisses… along with the possibility that He might be betrayed by one?
We could outlaw wine, but we’d be criminalizing Jesus… and communion.
We could outlaw sex, but we’d be outlawing life — that is, babies.
We could outlaw kisses…
I once read that “drinking pathologies” were most severe in “Protestant churches with no culturally defined role for alcohol.” That is, groups with a lot of “no” and very little “yes.” Almost as if “the Law” increases “the trespass” (Romans 5:20).
He made 180 gallons of wine at a wedding party where it would seem that some were already drunk. That’s surprising for at least three reasons: 1) For Jesus, there is no lack of good things. 2) Jesus doesn’t seem too concerned about protecting us from bad things, that is, our bad choices. 3) Jesus is really into parties.
This was a party. In that culture, a boy would propose with a glass of wine and a covenant. A girl would accept by drinking from the cup. The boy would then leave to prepare a place for her. And then he would come for her, often at an unexpected hour (She would need to keep her lamp lit and bags packed.) He would take her to a feast where all would be waiting and then into a bridal chamber where they would consummate their marriage. The friend of the bridegroom would listen for his voice, then announce to all, “They did it! It’s time to party!”
John 2:11, “This, the first [arche — as in, ‘archetype,’ the beginning] of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested His glory. And His disciples believed in Him.” So, in the beginning Jesus made wine, and in the end, Jesus made wine that’s blood and blood that’s wine. He does it once and for all at the end of the ages, the edge of eternity and time. We’re all going to the wedding supper of the Lamb.
Currently, we’re all addicted, perhaps not to wine but something worse than wine. We all long for communion, to be stripped of our fig leaves and know as we are known. We are all the Bride.
1) For Jesus, there is no lack of good things, but we do lack the ability to enjoy the Good. But if my heart knew that there is no shortage of good things and that God is the Good, perhaps I could drink in faith and thanksgiving, and that would be different.
We are Eve, and we all take “the Good” trying to make ourselves good, but end up crucifying the good, which is evil leading to more evil — that is, addiction. And so, God performs an intervention and kicks us out of the garden. Fortunately, God is far more intent on giving us the Good then we were ever intent on taking it in the first place.
2) Jesus is not too interested in saving us from our bad choices. But He’s bound and determined to give us a good choice: Himself.
In Ephesians 5:18, Paul writes, “Don’t be drunk with wine… but be filled with the Spirit.” Perhaps one could get drunk on something so Good that it would never be bad. Maybe you could lose yourself and find yourself in Love. “Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with Love,” wrote Solomon. Perhaps our Lord is saying, “If you want to drink ‘till drunk, drink with me until drunk by me.” Perhaps if we remembered that He is the Good in the wine, we wouldn’t crucify the Good and get addicted to the wine but instead worship Him in the wine and with every kiss.
Whenever you take “the Good” in faithlessness and fear, you crucify “the Life” and find yourself alone because you didn’t know that He is the Good. And yet, He gave His life, so you would never be alone. And now He is alone… with you, like a seed buried in the ground. Your Bridegroom is the Good, and now you are beginning to know. When you see Him in everything, you will no longer be addicted to anything, and all you do will be worship. He is “all in all.”
3) He really likes parties. The Kingdom of God is a party. And it is “at hand.”
In the 1970s, Dr. Bruce Alexander noticed that all studies on heroin addiction were done on rats in cages. Given a choice, each rat would choose water laced with heroin, get addicted, and die. Dr. Alexander noticed that each rat was alone and thought, “Perhaps it’s not good that the rat is alone.” He built a different sort of cage: a “rat park” full of other rats. He ran the experiment again; none of the rats became addicted; none died. It wasn’t the heroin. It was the cage.
You can’t say “no” to addiction until you say “yes” to connection; you can’t say “no” to sin until you say “yes” to love. God is Love and God is a Party (3 Persons, 1 Substance).
Why do we have such a hard time saying “yes” to Love? We’re not rats… and it seems that each of us is trapped in a far more challenging cage.
Jesus didn’t just turn ordinary water into wine; He turned water from six stone jars used for the Jewish rites of purification into wine. Anyone interested in justifying themself according to “the Law” could sit by the jars and judge their neighbor and feel self-righteous, even as they trapped themselves alone in outer darkness. Nothing wrecks a party quite like those intent on exalting themselves, those addicted to the last idol: their own ego.
In “The Myth of the Grand Inquisitor” by Dostoevsky, Jesus returns to Spain during the Inquisition. The Grand Inquisitor has Jesus imprisoned, and he then enters His cell where he rails at Jesus for “interfering” with the work of the church (Those intent on “correcting” His work). “Instead of ridding men of their freedom, You increased their freedom and imposed everlasting torment on man’s soul! …I do not want Your love because I do not love You myself. I will have you burned tomorrow.” Jesus speaks no answer, but instead “kisses him gently on his old bloodless lips.” The Inquisitor trembles then opens the door, commanding Jesus to leave as he remains in the cell. “The kiss glows in his heart.”
Kisses are dangerous, but they have the power to melt your ego and set you free… Jesus is the Kiss of the Father that conquers the world. His blood is wine. And we are commanded to place it on our lips and ingest it like a seed.
In the hospital before my brother in-law died, I read him the story of the Prodigal Son. It’s the Kiss of the Father that melts the boy’s heart and makes him long to be a son for the very first time. My brother-in-law said, “Oh, that’s cool!” and then we prayed to God our Father. Kurt, my brother-in-law is not “a drunkard” but my brother and a beloved son. And even if you were to descend into the outer darkness, Jesus would go with you like a seed, appear in your prison cell, and kiss you until you rose from the dead.
The Prodigal Son had an older brother who believed that he had earned his inheritance. When he learns that his little brother has been forgiven, he refuses to join the party and casts himself into outer darkness. The Father leaves the party, joins him there, and breathes these words into his ears: “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” And that’s where Jesus ends the story.
I’ve always been an older brother (literally and maybe figuratively). Seventeen years ago, I basically lost all for which I had worked for most of my life. I wasn’t wrong but right… and yet, wrong. And I was angry. One night alone in the dark in the Sanctuary, I felt a puff of air on my cheek. The next week while preaching, I felt it again. One night during worship, it was so strong that I just started laughing out loud. And then I saw my wife writing frantically on a little piece of paper. It read, “October 2009. ‘Peter, I’ve never stopped kissing you. Sometimes my kisses are sweet. Sometimes they burn but believe this: My kisses never stop. I love you.’”
It was an intervention, even as He turned six jars of water into the very best of wine.