REMEMBER: WITH WINE OR JUICE

 

  Just what is to be eaten and drank while remembering Jesus? Should we or should we not drink wine? Is there evidence either way? Let is see.

  Christians to this day are called “Nazarenes” in scripture because of scripture, “And when He was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, ‘Who is this?’ And the multitude said, ‘This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee’” (Mat 21:10-11). 

  Of course, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, not Nazareth but He was from Nazareth. Also, it is written, “Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, ‘We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph’” (John 1:45).

  The obvious question is where did Moses write about Jesus of Nazareth? Credit is given to Moses for writing the Torah but not the account of his death which was written by Joshua. Hence, the Torah (Pentateuch) is all about Jesus of Nazareth, but it did not end there. What the prophets wrote is also all about Jesus of Nazareth.

  It came to me one day that the Old Testament, just as the New, is all about Jesus and wherever I looked, like Philip, I find Jesus right there along with Moses and the prophets. The Old Testament would be better named “Finding Jesus in the Word” since Jesus is the “Word” of God (John 1-3,14). Moses and the prophets wrote the Word, and wherever “Word” is used that is Jesus speaking.

  God is not three beings, nor even technically, three “persons.” Jesus is the One Person of God with the Personality of God. Jesus is the material substance of the One True God. His other two “substances” are Spirit and Truth, the latter being the Word from the Mind of God. Jesus is not a separate Being nor another “God.” He IS the I AM (Existence) manifested to mankind.

  When Moses spoke to God, the Words returned to him were audible Truth and was the Voice of Jesus. The God who walked in the Garden of Eden had a Voice and spoke Words. Moses was not there but while on the Holy Mountain, “Jesus” revealed the story of His kind.

  One of many places that Moses wrote of Jesus was in the Book of Exodus chapter thirty-four. Today, the focus is on this passage: The key verse, “Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left unto the morning” (Exod 34:25).

  Passover was when death “passed over” the first-born sons of the Jews who used the blood of the lamb on their doorposts and lintels of their homes in Egypt. The Angel of Death recognized the blood of propitiation as sufficient for preservation of those within the walls of the homes.

  The “Angel” was the Messenger of God who was the very Presence of God in Spirit. Again, never separate the substances of God; that was Jesus who passed over the Israelites because fresh blood still warm from lambs was recognized as a sufficient sacrifice.  In other words, the Passover was all about Jesus and the Blood that He would propitiate at the Passover on April 3, 33 AD.

  Paul recalled the conversation that Moses had with God during the exodus: “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” (Rom 3:25). It seems that it is our past sins, and it does include all of us, but specifically it was forbearance… when Jesus bore the sins of the Israelites all along and specially at all the previous Passovers after that first one in Egypt.

  That shalt not compares well with the Third Commandment: “Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain” (Exod 20:7). That is not saying the Name of the LORD GOD, but “taking” it in vain, or frivolously. Taking His Blood and Body unworthily is vanity.

  The Mosaic Covenant can be condensed to one idea: “In all places where I record my Name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee” (Exod34:24); then God revealed where His Name would be recorded in blood in verse twenty-five.

  God was speaking to Moses. His Voice was the audible manifestation of Jesus. He had no Flesh yet, but Jesus was still Jesus!

  God (in verse 24) spoke of His Name. Scripture revealed the Name long after — that He is called “Jesus” and “God With Us” (Emmanuel). God recorded His Name in the Third Commandment and He recorded it in Blood at the crucifixion. The propitiation of His Blood on Calvary bore record of the sins of man and grace for sins past, including those of Moses, Aaron, and the Israelites.

  Who was there all the time bearing record of the Acts of God with Moses? Joshua bore witness to the Commandments, God on the Holy Mountain, and God in the Tabernacle. Joshua’s name is “Jesus” in another form. Not that Jesus was Joshua, but he was the name that bore record, and he really did so after Moses died. He bore record of Moses, and long after, Moses was there on the Holy Mountain of God again, seeing the namesake of Joshua.

  He had seen the backside of Jesus and there on the Mount of Transfiguration, he finally saw the Face of God on the Body of Jesus.

  A good guess is that Joshua and Jesus looked alike, and that Joshua, just as Adam, was the Image of God in Person!

  Now review the key verse: “Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left unto the morning.”

  There is much significance in that one verse: First, the Passover could not wait until morning, and Jesus’s death was the last evening of the Passover before morning. The death of Jesus was the “Angel of Death” passing over the Israelites, but not only for their past sins but those of all mankind.

  When Jesus passed over Egypt, if the Egyptians had put the blood on their lintels in faith as the Israelites did, they too would have been passed over. They would have been Israelites inwardly.

  When the Father sacrificed His own Flesh, the Death Angel passed over those who were Jews but also those who were Jews inwardly (Rom 2:29), which would make the Gentiles God’s chosen and peculiar people just like the ancient Israelites that He passed over (Deut 14:2; 1 Pet 2:9).

  Hence, the key verse is a picture (forbearance) of the sacrifice of God’s own Flesh.

  Jesus would be the final Passover sacrifice. That was what Moses wrote and what God was talking about!

  The shalt not there is in the offering. The offering was to be pure blood not contaminated by leaven. Leavening in the Hebrew is chometz and means “risen.” Chometz of wine is not yeast as in bread but any foreign substance that would make the wine ferment like some sugar-eating fungus. Therefore, juice is “leavened” by fungi to make wine (Blech, Rabbi Zusche Josef; www.kashrut.com; “Bread… And Wine and Beer”).

  With that explained, Judas sopped his bread in the “fruit of the vine” at the Last Supper. At the Last Supper, Jesus referred not to “wine” but the “fruit of the vine” (Mat 26:39). The other apostles took the unleavened bread and fruit juice separately and only Judas sopped.

  Because the bread and juice were symbolic of the Body and Blood of Jesus, to sop would have been to put the “blood” on the “body” of Jesus which Judas would do with his betrayal.

  Partaking of the juice and bread must be done appropriately. Paul wrote about remembering the Name of God: “Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord” (1 Cor 11:17).

  Just what is unworthily? As Judas did! He sopped but that was not all; he was ready to betray Jesus. Great care must be taken with the Body and Blood of Jesus, and the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation is unworthiness.

  Judas took the “Blood” of Jesus with “leaven” so to speak. He caused the Body of Jesus to “leaven” — to rise into the heaven. He also contaminated the “blood” of the Savior with His “Body” by sopping the two together.

  Judas leavened the juice with an added substance and God forewarned Moses of that. It would be taking the Lord’s Name in vain as Judas would do long after, and it would be what billions of people do when they fail to remember the Blood of Christ that was shed for them and take the elements frivolously. Moses was told that that was coming!

  Unleavened bread was eaten at the Last Supper. Why would they use fruit of the vine that was leavened? They would not have. With that said, when offered wine at a service in remembrance of Jesus, I refuse it because it is leavened. That was a serious offense to God in the time of Moses and it remains so to this day by taking the elements unworthily.

  There is no record of Jesus drinking wine. He drank nothing at the Last Supper; he merely passed His Virtue on to the others, and only Judas corrupted what Jesus provided.

  Now back to Jesus of Nazareth. He is THE true “Nazarene,” and like John who neither ate bread nor drank wine, the evidence is that Jesus was not only a Nazarene from Galilee but a Nazarite from birth. So, what is a Nazarite?

¹ And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, ² “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, ‘When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord: ³ He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried. ⁴ All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk. ⁵ All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. ⁶ All the days that he separateth himself unto the Lord he shall come at no dead body. ⁷ He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration of his God is upon his head. ⁸ All the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord.’” (Num 6:1-8)

  Note that Jesus did not even eat at “His” Last Supper. It was not even His supper as supper had ended long before (John 13:2)! It turned out that it was Judas’s last supper before he hanged himself. It was his last supper because he betrayed Jesus and took the Body and Blood of the Savior unworthily.

  Jesus ate no bread and drank nothing from the vine, The Nazarite, during his separation from the world could drink neither the fruit of the vine nor partake of wine. Jesus did neither at the Last Supper, and neither should Christians.

  Jesus was not just a Nazarite but one from birth like Samson, but where Samson failed, Jesus succeeded. If he ate bread or drank juice before is unclear but He certainly did not when He was finishing His separation from the world during the Passover.

  Someone tried to make Jesus unworthy! On the Way to His death, “They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink” (Mat 27:34).  Vinegar is fermented juice. He, as thirsty as He was, would not break the Nazarite vow.

  The Roman soldiers would drink sour wine and vinegar mixed. That was offered to Jesus, and He refused because He was surely a Nazarite who was separated from the world from birth.

  The gall that was mingled with it was wormwood, a poisonous species of ornamental plant. If he drank the juice of wormwood, that too would have violated the vow of the Nazarite, and rather than shed blood, he would have been poisoned without doing so.

  Jesus recognized that men and women would drink wine even to insobriety and that could make them vulnerable for the Devil to devour (1 Pet 5:8). It is not the wine per se that is the problem but too much wine. While remembering Jesus, any wine is too much wine. Jesus would not even drink the juice, but we can do that because we are not Nazarites.

  On the other hand, it is still God’s will that, “Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven” and that is specific to the “Blood” of the “Body” of Jesus while commemorating Him.

(picture credit: Pedestrian TV; "Holy Grail")