Was Sour Wine a Metaphor? If So For What?
The story I refer to is found in Matthew 27:46-51, the actual event is in verse 48. We break into the account of the crucifixion of Christ in verse 46 where we find Jesus on the cross and near the end of his life;
46And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 47Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. 48And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. 49The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. 50Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. 51And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;(KJV)
In verse 48, We read that Jesus is offered sour wine, or vinegar, after He cries out for someone the people think is Elias. But there is no indication that Jesus ever took any of the sour wine offered on the sponge before He died, only that it was offered. Sour wine was a common beverage of the day and a common drink of the Roman soldiers.
In verse 48, We read that Jesus is offered sour wine, or vinegar, after He cries out for someone the people think is Elias. But there is no indication that Jesus ever took any of the sour wine offered on the sponge before He died, only that it was offered. Sour wine was a common beverage of the day and a common drink of the Roman soldiers.
Throughout the ministry of Jesus beginning at the wedding feast in the town of Cana of Galilee, with his first miracle of turning water into wine, He frequently used parables and analogies to teach lessons. Most of these were lost to the readers because God was not calling everyone to accept Christ at that time.Many people heard the parables and stories, but did not understand. Even his own disciples often misunderstood requiring Christ to explain. The metaphors Christ used were often intentionally used to obscured understanding from the Pharisees. His use of Wine as a metaphor is one He used to teach a number of powerful spiritual lessons that went mostly over the heads of the hearers.
This article will reveal the lesson that Jesus was revealing through the use of Wine as a metaphor concerning the Old and New Covenants of God.But first we need to collect some background information to begin our understanding of this subject.
1) To begin, It must be understood by the reader that the New Testament teaches that when Christ died He ended the Old Covenant, or the Law of Moses, the Jews know this as the Torah. The Commandments "contained in ordinances" as Paul writes in Ephesians 2:15; "...having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances..." Both the Apostles and Jesus Himself taught this clearly. Armstrongism teaches a contradictory doctrine of Christ that the Old Covenant was not replaced by the New Covenant but merely modified by Jesus and not fulfilled and abolished which is not scriptural. Paul taught this clearly in Colossians 2:14 concluding the matter.
Christ used wine in metaphorical ways to demonstrate the process in the plan of God concerning the ending of one covenant and the beginning of another as we will see.
Christ used wine in metaphorical ways to demonstrate the process in the plan of God concerning the ending of one covenant and the beginning of another as we will see.
2) Secondly, we need to understand what Christ taught about the New and Old Covenants using wine in a metaphorical way found in Luke 5:37;
37 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. 38 New wine must be stored in new wineskins. (NLT)
The lesson: The old wineskins are symbolic of the old covenant given at Mt. Sinai. More specifically the wine skins were symbolic of the statutes and ordinances that contained the commandments.[1] Jesus taught that all of the Law and Prophets hang on these commandments (Matt. 22:40).The new wine is the new covenant that replaces the old covenant. Paul taught that the old covenant had served it's purpose as tutor of Israel (Gal. 3:24) and prophetic of Christ (Gal. 3:19). Beyond usefulness and stretched to it's limit it could not contain the symbolic new wine, or new covenant. The old skins, like the old covenant, had no more usefulness. The new wine would be contained within the believer on a spiritual level. The body of the believer became the Temple of the Holy Spirit. God is writing his law in the hearts and minds of His children as He teaches in Jeremiah 31:33;
"But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people."[2]
The science and physics involved here is that wineskins were made of animal skins in those days not synthetic materials. Wineskins were elastic and could stretch a considerable amount.They were good for wine storage being both water tight and elastic. Therefore the wine was kept safe.
Even after the initial fermentation ends the wine stored in a sealed, air tight skin, gives off carbon dioxide gas which stretches the skin like a balloon, eventually being stretched to the maximum. And like a balloon, the skin could pop spilling the contents. Reusing the old wine skins for new wine risks bursting and the wine will spill and be lost. A very expensive loss considering the time and effort involved. So the practice was to use new wine skins that can stretch adequately for new wine, preventing lost of the wine.
3) Third is the lesson of the old verses new wine found in Luke 5:39; “No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.”
Here Jesus is using Old Wine as a metaphor for the Old Covenant and New Wine as a metaphor for the New Covenant. The very first miracle that Jesus performed was to turn water into wine. When Jesus and His disciples were attending a wedding in the city of Cana in Galilee, His mother informed Him they had run out of wine. He proceeded to turn water that the servants had collected in six thirty gallon water pots into wine. This account is found in John 2:1-11.
The amazing part was that when the Master of the Feast tasted the wine he found it was better quality that the first wine that had been drunk up. The wine that Christ had made from the water was high quality, BETTER TASTING THAN THE OLD WINE. This was to set the stage for the metaphorical application of wine to the covenants throughout Jesus' ministry.
The majority of Jews were unwilling to receive the good news the new covenant contained. They preferred the old covenant, the old wine. They said it is just fine. Therefore they rejected the message God sent to them through His Son. By rejecting Jesus, they also rejected God, the Father.
The amazing part was that when the Master of the Feast tasted the wine he found it was better quality that the first wine that had been drunk up. The wine that Christ had made from the water was high quality, BETTER TASTING THAN THE OLD WINE. This was to set the stage for the metaphorical application of wine to the covenants throughout Jesus' ministry.
The majority of Jews were unwilling to receive the good news the new covenant contained. They preferred the old covenant, the old wine. They said it is just fine. Therefore they rejected the message God sent to them through His Son. By rejecting Jesus, they also rejected God, the Father.
4) Fourth, Jesus used Wine as a symbol of the blood of the new covenant. Many things were consecrated or set apart for special religious purposes with blood in the Old Testament. See Exodus 29:20-21 as an example. The blood of a slaughtered ram was put on the tip of the right ear, on the thumb of the right hand, and on the big toe of the right foot, and sprinkled on the garments of Aaron and his two sons to consecrate them as the ministers to God, as Priests.
When Christ introduced the new covenant, he used wine in Matthew 26:28, as the symbol for this concentrating blood. But the blood of the new covenant was his own shed blood. When He was scourged (Matthew 27:34) before he was crucified He was marred like no other man. This gory scene was depicted in The Passion of Christ movie by Mel Gibson some of you may have seen. But it was probably worse in real life!
Christ was smeared from head to foot with His own consecrating blood. On his right ear, his right thumb, his right toe, and all over His body. Thus the new covenant fulfillment of the consecration of Christ as or new High Priest replacing the Aaronic Priesthood of Exodus 29 above.
5) Christ was offered bitter wine which he rejected just before He was crucified as recorded in Matthew 27:34. Here the soldiers offered Jesus wine mixed with gall to drink. But after tasting it, he refused to drink it. Gall is a very bitter substance similar to bile in the stomach. The combination of Wine and Gall was said to numb the senses of the condemned person. A type of pain killer.
Christ refused it for three reasons which were:
Christ refused it for three reasons which were:
A) The Priests were forbidden to drink wine when they were on duty in the Tabernacle. Leviticus 10:9. Jesus Christ had replaced the old priesthood, becoming our new High Priest. He followed all of the Laws of the old covenant including those that pertained to the priesthood.
B) Christ stated at the introduction of the new Passover symbols of bread and wine that He would not drink wine again until it was new in the kingdom found in Matthew 26: 29. Some passages say sour wine, or vinegar, but this is wine for this passage. Later on the cross they offered Him sour wine which was the common beverage of the Roman Soldiers of the day and it was to quench his thirst rather than kill the pain.
C) Christ was carrying the grief and sorrows of all mankind brought on by sin. He was intentional in this and would not accept a pain killing potion that would diminish His suffering and lesson the value of His sacrifice in any way. Isaiah 53: 1-10, ".. He suffered for us."
At the very end of Christ's life while on the cross He had one more thing to fulfill concerning the old covenant. This is found in John 19:28, He said, "I thirst." But why did he say that? Verse 28 explains; "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I thirst."
What He set out to fulfill, and had fulfilled at this point in His own words was the Law and the Prophets. Jesus told us He had not come to destroy the Law and Prophets, but to fulfill them. Read this in Matthew 5:17-18; “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. (NIV)
At this point Jesus had fulfilled all of the old covenant requirements that He referred to in the prior passage. He spoke in John 19:28 of this fulfillment.
At the very end of Christ's life while on the cross He had one more thing to fulfill concerning the old covenant. This is found in John 19:28, He said, "I thirst." But why did he say that? Verse 28 explains; "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I thirst."
What He set out to fulfill, and had fulfilled at this point in His own words was the Law and the Prophets. Jesus told us He had not come to destroy the Law and Prophets, but to fulfill them. Read this in Matthew 5:17-18; “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. (NIV)
At this point Jesus had fulfilled all of the old covenant requirements that He referred to in the prior passage. He spoke in John 19:28 of this fulfillment.
With the Old Covenant being thus ended, the metaphorical old wine that the Jews thought was just fine was no longer acceptable to God. There was a new Priest and that required new laws, Hebrews 7:11-12. In another place we see God's stated purpose that led to this. Christ was born at the appointed time, of a woman, UNDER the law (Gal. 4:4). He obeyed the Law of Moses perfectly without sin, without transgressing even the least of the laws or commandments during His life. Christ told the disciples that He had fulfilled all of the above in Luke 24:44.
Before Christ's last breath the sour wine was lifted to His lips and without accepting the offered drink, He uttered His last words which were, "It Is Finished." The old wine had become sour wine, or vinegar, and no longer acceptable. The old wine had gone bad, and was replaced by the new wine of the new covenant and of the Kingdom of God that would dwell in the hearts of the believers from then on for all who would accept Jesus Christ as their Atonement.
In the beginning of this article I mention several verses in Matthew 27, verse 51 was the rest of this story; “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;”
Immediately after Christ said, "It is finished" there was a violent earth quake and the veil in the Temple was rent. The veil refers to a curtain that blocks the entrance to the most holy place, or holiest place in the Temple where the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord is kept and upon it the mercy seat. (see Exodus 26:33-34 for details) Only one time a year on the old testament Day of Atonement did the High Priest enter to sprinkle the sacrificial blood there as a very special offering. No one else could go in because the presence of God was there on that day. Anyone else entering at that time or any other time was killed.
The veil being torn at Jesus' death represents a change in access to God. Now saints, the baptized believers in Christ, may freely approach the spiritual mercy seat in heaven at the throne of God where Christ is now the full time High Priest performing intercession for us continually in a spiritual sense. He hears our prayers continually. Believers are no longer required to go through the old priesthood to petition and worship God the Father. Now we have direct access. This is what Hebrews 4:16 explains: "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."
The veil being torn at Jesus' death represents a change in access to God. Now saints, the baptized believers in Christ, may freely approach the spiritual mercy seat in heaven at the throne of God where Christ is now the full time High Priest performing intercession for us continually in a spiritual sense. He hears our prayers continually. Believers are no longer required to go through the old priesthood to petition and worship God the Father. Now we have direct access. This is what Hebrews 4:16 explains: "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."
Also Hebrews 7:26-28: 26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 27Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. 28For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; ...but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.
Thus marking the end of the Old Covenant, the end of the Priestly system of sacrifices, the end of first fruits and tithes, the end of the annual Sabbaths and all other aspects of the Law of Moses and now beginning the new covenant of Grace. All being fulfilled by Christ, consecrated for evermore, as our new High Priest. The sour wine that was offered to Christ on the cross before He died was a metaphor for the old wine or the Old Covenant which now ended at the cross. It is now the New Wine, the New Covenant, that He will drink again with us in the Kingdom.
[1] The Decalogue also known as the ten commandments are found in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.The statutes and Ordinances are found in various places in the first five books the old testament known as the Law, the Torah, or Pentateuch. These books are believed to have been written by Moses. Places in the Pentateuch where the statutes and ordinances are found; Numbers ch.28-29, Exodus ch. 20-40, Numbers ch 17-19, Deuteronomy ch. 5-8, 12-34.
[2] Translations used in this article; King James Version, New Living Translation, 21st Century King James Version.
[2] Translations used in this article; King James Version, New Living Translation, 21st Century King James Version.
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