God Chose Wine

It should raise an eyebrow every time someone uses scarcity to explain Jesus’ actions, suggesting that He chose anything because a better alternative was not available. When that happens, it’s a pretty safe bet that person has forgotten exactly who Jesus is.

The God who spoke the world into existence doesn’t choose otherwise unacceptable alternatives simply because he didn’t have His first choice. God has no need for second choices or plan B’s.

Jesus didn’t choose fishermen because there were no seminaries nearby. He didn’t walk from town to town because He couldn’t afford a wagon or a bus ticket. And He didn’t drink wine simply because the water was impure. Anyone who has the slightest understanding that Jesus is God knows He was neither challenged nor motivated by scarcity.

I’ve often heard it explained that “Jesus’ first miracle” of turning water to wine at the wedding in Cana took place because the water was unfit to drink. Hmmm. So, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob could turn water to wine more easily than purifying the water?

This explanation most often comes from my brothers and sisters in Christ who frown upon alcohol and need an explanation for Jesus’ violation of their moral code. But I can’t help but wonder if the God of past, present, and future agreed with their teetotaler position why he didn’t simply brew some sweet tea, whip up some Coke floats or one of those Liquid Death Rest in Peach drinks. Whatever the reason, it’s undeniable – God chose wine.

Now, before your blood pressure gets too high, I’m not advocating for alcohol consumption. I well know the toll that alcohol over-indulgence has taken on countless families and have long counted many men and women ensnared by the bondage of alcoholism as friends and family.

However, if we approach Scripture with preconceived positions or moral codes and then either bend or explain the Scripture to make God’s message align with us, we risk replacing the power, majesty, and completeness of God’s Word with our own compromised or handicapped version. Then we fret the emptiness of what returns.

“so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Isaiah 55:11

In Genesis 49:8-12, Jacob blesses his son Judah. He refers to Judah as a lion’s cub, then says,

“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until all tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”

Genesis 49:10

I’m not sure about you, but I agree with the many scholars who interpret this as a prophecy proclaiming the coming Lion of Judah, Jesus Christ.

Then, in the very next verse, Jacob said,

“Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes.”

Genesis 49:11

Picture that. When the Lion of Judah arrives, he’ll tie his donkey’s colt to the choice vine. In other words, he doesn’t care if the colt eats the best of the grapes instead of drinking water… and he’ll “wash his garments in wine.”

Huh?

Jacob is proclaiming that, when the Lion of Judah arrives, wine will be as plentiful as water. Not just any wine, but choice wine, will be as plentiful as the water one would give donkeys or use to wash clothes.

This patriarch and namesake of Israel is giving all those who would follow him an obvious indicator of the arrival of the Lion of Judah, the Messiah. When He arrives, choice wine will be as plentiful as wash water.

So…

Why was Jesus’ first miracle turning big basins of wash water into choice wine?

It was not because the water was undrinkable. It was wash water. Though he could have surely purified it with just a word.

The first recorded miracle of Jesus’ ministry was turning wash water to choice wine to fulfill the prophecy of Israel and give God’s people in the moment and in hindsight a powerful, undeniable confirmation of the arrival of the Lion of Judah.

Be careful. When we filter God’s Word through our personal positions rather than filtering our personal positions through God’s Word, we find ourselves wielding our own disconnected and weak word rather than the powerful and intricately interwoven Word of God. Then, as our religion inevitably turns lifeless, we’ll be easily distracted and our focus will drift from joy to junk.