I’ll begin by saying that the gospels make a point of not using oinos, the Greek word for alcoholic wine, in regards to the famous “last supper” that Jesus had with His apostles. We see this in Matthew 26:27-29, Mark 14:22-25, and Luke 22:14-22. I’ll quote the Matthew passage here:

Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

You see, the original Greek of the New Testament is perfectly capable of differentiating between alcoholic wine and mere grape juice when the facts of the case call for it. And that’s exactly what Matthew, Mark, and Luke did concerning what Jesus served His apostles at the “last supper,” which was of course His formal instituting of what we now call the “Lord’s supper.” (By the way, whenever we come to the word “wine” in the New Testament we should remember that if the beverage in question had been grape juice, the writer of the passage could easily have gone with the Greek for “the fruit of the vine.”)

Okay, so the Bible teaches that Jesus didn’t serve alcoholic wine at His “last supper,” which might imply that He didn’t drink it at that meal either. But are there any other passages relevant to our question? Yes, there are. Mark 15:23 is one. In the context of describing Christ’s crucifixion, that verse says:

Then they gave Him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but He did not take it.

The verse’s Greek word for “wine” is the familiar oinos, which means alcoholic wine. The Romans offered such a drink as a painkiller to men being crucified. Jesus, however, refused it. Some will say that He refused it because He was thoroughly opposed to anyone drinking alcoholic beverages under any circumstances. As for me, I line up with those who believe that He refused it because He wanted to experience the fullness of the cross. He didn’t want His senses dulled in any way. If He was going to die to pay the world’s sin debt, He would do so without any aid from anything that would dull the pain and thus lessen the suffering.

And so we’ve seen that Jesus didn’t serve alcoholic wine at the “last supper” and He refused the same as He hung on the cross. So does that finish out the answer to our question? No, it doesn’t. We also need to consider the teaching of Matthew 11:18-19 and Luke 7:33-34, two passages which tell the same story. I’ll quote the one from Luke. It records Jesus saying to the Jewish religious leaders:

“For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”

Basically, those Jewish religious leaders couldn’t be appeased. On the one hand, they criticized John the Baptist for his isolationist lifestyle and minimalistic diet (Luke 1:13-15; Matthew 2:4). On the other hand, they criticized Jesus for the fact that, socially speaking, He was the polar opposite of John the Baptist (Luke 5:27-32). But what we want to focus on is the fact that those leaders called Jesus a “winebibber,” which means “a person who drinks excessive amounts of wine.”

Now we need to be careful here because we can’t assume that Jesus drank alcoholic wine just because those Jews said that He did. With that noted, however, I don’t feel totally comfortable believing that they just pulled the accusation out of thin air. After all, they didn’t call John the Baptist a “winebibber,” did they?

I suppose the accusation could have simply grown out of Jesus attending feasts like the one in the home of Matthew (Levi) (Luke 5:29-32). Surely alcoholic wine was served at that feast. But, admittedly, Jesus being at such a feast doesn’t necessarily mean that He drank wine there.

Let’s understand, though, that some of those Jewish leaders were either in attendance at Matthew’s feast or had direct knowledge about it (Luke 5:30). So was it a boldfaced lie when they called Jesus a “winebibber” or did they know for certainty that He drank wine and simply exaggerated His drinking? That’s a good question. I wish we could nail down the answer with a high degree of certainty.

There are some who contend that Jesus would never have drunk wine because that would have violated Old Testament law concerning the priesthood. Certainly Jesus did live His earthly life as a Jew who kept that body of law that God had given to Moses and the Israelites. He even made a point of saying, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17) And what did that law command concerning priests as they ministered in the tabernacle (temple)? Leviticus 10:8-11 tell us:

Then the Lord spoke to Aaron (Israel’s first high priest), saying: “Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statue forever throughout your generations, that you may distinguish between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean, and that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them by the hand of Moses.”

You say, “Ah, at last, that settles it! Jesus would never have drunk alcoholic wine because He was a priest, like Aaron.” Well, unfortunately, things aren’t so cut and dried as that. Consider the following facts:

#1: That law specifically dealt with ministering in the Jewish tabernacle or (later on) the Jewish temple. But Jesus never ministered as a priest at the temple of His day. He visited there, but He certainly never performed any priestly duties there. Israel had its own priests.

#2: The New Testament book of Hebrews emphatically teaches that even though Jesus is a High Priest, He isn’t of the priestly order of Aaron. He is, instead, of the priestly order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 5:1-6; 7:1-27) Interestingly, Melchizedek ministered in a time before the building of the Jewish tabernacle or the temple.

#3: In Genesis 14:18-20, the only Old Testament passage that speaks of Melchizedek, he brings two particular items to Abraham. Guess what they are: bread and (you got it) wine.

And so, in conclusion, what answer are we left with at the end of this post? Did Jesus drink alcoholic wine or not? The truth is, there is simply no way to take the Bible and build a 100% case for either a yes or a no answer. But if you pin me up against a wall and force me to state my opinion, I’ll say that I believe that, on occasion, He did. I just don’t think those Jewish religious leaders completely fabricated that charge about Him being a “winebibber.” Obviously, He never drank wine to excess because that would have been a sin. But I lean toward thinking that those guys had at least seen him drink some wine. And as for the argument that Old Testament law concerning the priesthood kept Him from drinking, as I’ve shown you that argument can be refuted pretty easily.

The missionary, sensing that the Holy Spirit was working on the chief, started preaching again. This time he told the Indians that God, in giving us Jesus, had given us His absolute best. The chief listened carefully, considered the matter, and then walked forward again, this time carrying his blanket. He laid the blanket at the missionary’s feet and said, “Chief give his blanket to Jesus.”

But that still wasn’t the response the missionary was seeking, and so he went to preaching again. He told the Indians how Jesus, even though He was rich in heaven, had become poor for us by being born in a manger, living a humble life, and dying by way of a cruel, humiliating cross. This compelled the chief to leave the meeting, go and get his horse, bring the animal to the missionary, and say, “Chief give his horse to Jesus.”

Now the chief thought to himself, “I have given everything I have to Jesus, who gave Himself for me.” The missionary, however, started up yet another round of preaching. This time he explained that Jesus had arisen from the dead, appeared to many in His post-resurrection body, ascended back to heaven forty days later, and was now seated at the right hand of His heavenly father, calling men and women to Himself. And it was then that the Indian chief finally understood why the missionary had never seemed satisfied with the fine gifts. The chief stood up again, walked forward, bowed himself at the missionary’s feet, and said, “Chief give himself to Jesus.”

Ah friend, there it is! That is the decision that Jesus wants from each of us, and it is a far cry from merely attending church, putting some money in the offering plate, owning a Bible, praying prayers, trying to live a moral life, etc. Certainly each of those things is proper when understood in its rightful place. But, really, when it comes to salvation, they are all just tomahawks, blankets, and horses. What Jesus truly wants is you, lock, stock, and barrel. And, just to be honest about it, when He has you like that, He’ll have you keep all your tomahawks, blankets, and horses and use them in service to Him.

Over the course of time, though, people figured out how to remain safe during such a time. The trick was to take a match and start another fire in a circular pattern in the grass. Once the grass inside that circle was consumed, a stand could be taken inside the burned spot. The praire fire would burn all around the spot but not come inside it. It couldn’t come inside because the grass there to fuel it was already burned.

When God looks down upon the earth, He still sees a certain spot just outside the old city of Jerusalem. It is a burned spot that the fires of His holy wrath consumed some two thousand years ago. The spot goes by different names: Calvary (Luke 23:33), Golgatha (John 19:17), and the Place of a Skull (Matthew 27:33). Scholars debate the precise location of it, but God knows exactly where it is. It was at that spot that Jesus died on a Roman cross for the sins of the world. The burning of the spot reached its climax when Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46)

The fact is, the fire of God’s wrath must sweep through the life of each sinner. His indescribable holiness demands it. Those who have believed in Jesus as Savior are granted the privilege of standing inside the burned spot of the cross. Jesus has already taken God’s wrath for us. We can watch in safety as the fire rages all around us but never touches us. On the other hand, those who have not believed in Jesus as Savior must face the fire of God’s wrath out in the open, on their own. As John 3:16-18 and 36 put it:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God…He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

 

 

Obviously, this is a beautiful verse that conveys a very pleasant idea. But we must be sure to take the verse’s context into account. This isn’t Paul writing to Christians. This is God speaking through the Jewish prophet Jeremiah to the Old Testament Jews. God is telling them what He is going to do for them once their seventy-year captivity in Babylon has ended. The previous verse, verse 10, makes this clear. It says: For thus says the Lord: “After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place (Jerusalem).” So, you see, there really isn’t anybody alive on Earth right now who can specifically claim verse 11 as their own.

This doesn’t mean, however, that the general principle of the verse can’t be carried over into our day. We shouldn’t think of God as creation’s mean-spirited policeman. We do Him an injustice when we depict Him as a cosmic killjoy who won’t let us have any fun. The truth is, He would much rather think good thoughts than bad ones toward people. He’d much rather devise plans for good than bad. He’d much rather bless than judge.

God didn’t enjoy allowing the Babylonians to conquer Judah and carry the Jews off to Babylon for seventy years of captivity. He only did that because those Jews needed chastening. For a 490-year period, they had ignored His command to let the land rest every seventh year (Exodus 23:11). This meant that they owed the land seventy individual years of rest. The land got each year of that rest during those seventy years the people were exiled in Babylon (Leviticus 26:27-35; 2 Chronicles 36:15-21).  

Certainly that punishment conveys one side of God’s nature. But it isn’t the only side. As soon as the seventy years of whipping were finished, what was God’s word to those Jews? It was, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Do you see the perfect balance? 

If there were ever any lingering doubts about God loving all people, they were dispelled when Jesus (God the Son) came into this world and became one of us. This was God giving to all humanity the absolute best He had: Himself. He did this even though He knew the gift would be ridiculed, misunderstood, mocked, rejected, arrested, whipped, and nailed to a cross to die. Why would God do such a thing? To save believers from their sins! As John 3:16 says: ”For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (N.I.V.)        

I don’t know how you are feeling right now. But I can tell you with all certainty that God loves you. He loves you so much that Jesus died for you so that God can spend all eternity with you. You’ve got to love someone a whole bunch to want to be around them forever!!! Jesus came to Earth so that you could go to Heaven. He lived and died so that you could die and live. He paid a debt He did not owe because you owed a debt you could not pay. So the next time you to start to doubt that God loves you, look to the cross. There you’ll find the indisputable measure of His love.

The symbolism of the Lord’s Supper isn’t hard to understand. The bread symbolizes the body of Christ, that physical, human body that hung dead on the cross for the sins of the world (Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19). The wine symbolizes the blood of Christ, the blood that coursed through that body, the blood that has the power to cleanse sin (Matthew 26:27-28; Mark 14:23-24; Luke 22:20). As Christians eat the bread and drink the wine, we proclaim Christ’s death until He returns (1st Corinthians 11:23-26).

The symbolism of believer’s baptism isn’t complicated either. However, Christians seem to have more trouble grasping it. Baptism is a two-fold object lesson. First, it shows what has happened in the Christian’s earthly existence. Second, it shows what has happened in the Christian’s eternal existence.

Concerning the earthly existence, when the Christian goes under the water he publicly says, “I am now dead to my old, sinful way of living” (Romans 6:1-3). When he comes up from under the water he publicly says, “I am now alive to walk in the newness of the Christian life” (Romans 6:4, 6-7, 11-23).

Concerning the eternal existence, when the Christian goes under the water he publicly identifies himself with Christ’s death and burial (Romans 6:4). When he comes up from under the water he publicly identifies himself with Christ’s resurrection (Romans 6:5, 8-10). You see, by submitting to baptism, the believer says, “Because Jesus died and arose from the dead, my body will one day be resurrected as well, and I will enjoy my resurrected body throughout eternity.”

But it is that symbolism involving the Christian’s earthly existence that I want to deal with a little more. Christian, what if the minister who baptized you caught you committing a sin and said, “You are certainly not living up to your baptism.” You would probably ask, “What do you mean?” He would reply, “When you went under the water that day you were saying, ‘I am now dying to my old, sinful way of life.’ When you came up from under the water you were saying, ‘I am now alive to walk in the newness of the Christian life.’ But what you are doing right now looks like your old way of living, not the newness of the Christian life.” How would that make you feel? Would it drive home the point that getting baptized is a BIG deal? Would it remind you that the Christian is supposed to shun sin and live differently than the rest of the world?  

Perhaps it would do us good if every Christian was required to wear his baptismal certificate around his neck. That way we could be constantly reminded of exactly what it was we committed to when we got baptized. Maybe us pastors need to carry copies of those certificates around so that we can pull them out whenever we see a Christian sinning. That would make for an interesting experiment, wouldn’t it? My guess is, it would cut down on the rate of sin quite a bit.

Consider the following passages:

-Mark 14:64-65: And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death. Then some began to spit on Him, and to blindfold Him, and to beat Him, and to say to Him, “Prophesy!” And the officers struck Him with the palms of their hands.     That’s not cheap. 

-Matthew 27:26: And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified. (A scourge was a whip in which the thongs were weighted with jagged pieces of bone or metal to rip away more of the victim’s flesh.)     That’s not cheap.

-Isaiah 50:6: I gave My back to those who struck Me, and my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.     That’s not cheap.

-Isaiah 52:14: His visage (appearance) was marred more than any man.     That’s not cheap.

-Matthew 27:28-31: And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head. And when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified.     That’s not cheap.

-Luke 23:35-36: And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.” Then the soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine, and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.”     That’s not cheap.

-John 19:32-34: Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.     That’s not cheap.

-Isaiah 53:5: But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him. And by His stripes we are healed.     That’s not cheap.

Many of us have seen the Mel Gibson movie The Passion of the Christ. Admittedly, the film is not without its drawbacks, most of which stem from Gibson’s Catholicism. For one thing, the virgin Mary is played up too much. For another, certain scenes are based upon the so-called “visions” of a nineteenth-century nun rather than the Biblical text. Still, though, despite these flaws, the movie has spiritual value in that it graphically depicts Christ’s death in a way that other films don’t. Actually, Gibson probably goes a little too far with the brutality of Christ’s scourging. At least, however, the film doesn’t try to clean up the very messy and bloody process of a Roman scourging and crucifixion.

The bottom line is this:  If we think salvation is cheap, it’s only because we don’t properly understand what it cost Jesus. Isaiah 53:7 says, “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter.” Let’s not miss the imagery of that word “slaughter.” A “slaughter” is not a pretty scene. It isn’t for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. Being whipped with a scourge produces real blood flowing from real stripes. Having a crown of thorns placed on your head produces real blood flowing from real cuts. Having nails driven through your hands and feet produces real blood flowing from real puncture wounds. Being pierced with a spear produces real blood oozing from a real gash.    

Why did they offer Jesus that sour wine as He hung on the cross? They did it because the wine was a narcotic that was used to deaden excruciating pain. Why did Jesus say to doubting Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side” (John 20:27)? He did it because those marks on His body were conclusive evidence of a terrible death.

And why did Jesus voluntarily submit to such a death? He did it to pay the sin debt of the entire human race (1 John 2:2). Now He asks each person to believe in Him as Savior so that death can stand good for the person’s sins and provide forgiveness for them (John 3:16). So, tell me, have you done that? If you haven’t, just know that you are ignoring a salvation that was very, very costly.

Down through the years some excellent Bible scholars have contended that Jesus was actually crucified on the Wednesday before Easter Sunday. The linchpin for this line of interpretation is Matthew 12:40, where Jesus says, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” As the argument goes, for Jesus to be in the tomb three literal days and nights He had to be crucified on Wednesday, not Friday. The list of well known preachers who have believed in a Wednesday crucifixion includes R.A. Torrey, Dave Breese, Howard Estep, Oliver B. Greene, and John R. Rice.  

However, other excellent students of the Bible continue to hold to a Friday crucifixion. They point out that the Jews considered any part of a day to be a whole day. Thus, if Jesus was buried Friday afternoon, that would be day one. He was in the tomb all day Saturday for day two. Then He arose just after dawn on Sunday morning, which amounted to day three.

Now let me complicate things even further. A few years ago noted prophecy expert Jimmy Deyoung came to our town and preached a three-night series of meetings. On the last night, he held a question and answer session. I didn’t get the chance to submit a question to him, but I stole a chance as he was shaking hands after the meeting. I shook his hand and asked him, “Was Jesus crucified on Friday or Wednesday?” Without a moment’s hesitation he said, “Thursday. Look it up.” I went home and did just that by doing a Goggle search on ”Thursday crucifixion.” Sure enough, I found an excellent article that laid out a believable case that Jesus was crucified on Thursday.

Frustrated yet? Please don’t be. If someone came to you and handed you a brown paper bag that had one million dollars inside it, how would you react? Would you say, “Let’s talk about this paper bag. The stores normally use plastic bags these days. I have to know every detail concerning this bag”? You wouldn’t obsess over the bag, would you? You’d want to spend all your time talking about the contents of that bag. Well, that should be our attitude toward Christ’s crucifixion. In our debating over the exact details of the event, let’s make sure that we don’t miss the event’s significance!

That significance is: Jesus died for your sins and my sins. There are so many passages that I could cite here, but I’ll go with Romans 5:6-8: “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Take some time today and dwell upon the fact that Jesus (God the Son in the flesh) died to pay the debt for your sins. He took your place. The godly died for the ungodly. The righteous died for the unrighteous. The sinless died for the sinful. How can you ever doubt that God loves you? What more could He have done to prove it? In return for His great love and sacrifice on your behalf, He asks that you place your belief in Jesus as your personal Savior (John 7:38; John 20:27-31; Acts 10:43; Acts 16:30-31). If you haven’t made this decision, I can think of no better day than Good Friday to make it. If you have made it, be sure to say, “Thank you” to Jesus today for dying for you.