Learning to Drink Wine Here

I alluded to this in the sermon:  It is here at the Table of the Lord that we learn about drinking wine.  Wine portrays many things in the scripture.  It is pictured as the cup of wrath to be poured out in places like Psalm 75.  It points to the blood of Christ which declares both the wrath of God and the life of Christ for us.  It is used to describe the enjoyment and rest at the end of hard work, the celebration of good things in feasting, and the act of giving thanks and partaking of thanks.

And so it is important to note that the Lord took wine, gave thanks for the thanksgiving cup, declared it to be His blood of the new covenant, and then told his disciples to drink it – all of you.  Grape juice is offered here not for those who do not have a preference for wine, but for those who still have questions about the use of alcohol based on temperance laws of the past.

Actually, I think the Lord instructs us to drink wine here so that we might learn to drink wine appropriately throughout the rest of our lives.  He brings us here, to a Table where the work is finished, where rest and celebration is offered and received, where fellowship is enjoyed and unity is treasured  - unity with God and with one another.