Wine – The great enigma

You know, alcohol made early civilization possible. Without it, there was nothing safe to drink in urban areas.

One day when Jesus was feeling especially picked on he chose to chastise his audience (Matt 11:16-19). He had this to say: “You people are like a bunch of kids in the marketplace who complain to their friends saying ‘We played music for you, but you didn’t dance; we complained and you didn’t feel bad for us.’ When John was preaching in the desert he didn’t feast or drink wine and y’all said he was possessed by a devil. When I showed up feasting and drinking wine, y’all said that I’m a glutton and a drunk; that I’m friends with sinners and tax collectors.”

Of course the reason educated people harassed Jesus for drinking was the strong scriptural condemnation of alcohol. According to the Old Testament abstaining from wine makes you smart, wine takes away the heart, and wine causes you to commit wicked acts. Because of this, drinking wine was consistently forbidden by God and his prophets.

Jesus was all about the wine though. His first public miracle was to turn water into wine, he commanded his followers to drink wine so they would be able to remember him, and after his death, his disciples taught that drinking wine was a good thing: e.g. 1 Timothy 5:23 “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities (KJV).”

Too bad they didn’t have Mary Jane back in the day, or I’m pretty sure Jesus would have endorsed that too: the damn hippie.