April Drinking Companion
This month’s drinking companion is our Lord, Jesus Christ since it is the season of Lent/Easter. Biblically speaking, Jesus is known to enjoy wine with the people. In the wedding feast of Cana, where Jesus performs His first miracle changing water into wine, it is seen as a symbolism of joy which He gives to the people. This same substance of wine, he later uses at the “The Last Supper” as a way of pointing us to a greater joy and communion with God inviting us to eat the bread and drink the wine of life which is His body and blood, literally in the form of those substances.
Biblically speaking Jesus is constantly eating and drinking with “sinners” throughout the good book. This is who God is, the great Logos and Creator of everything who embodies himself in Jesus Christ to be with His people in hopes of leading them back to the greatness He created them to be, and away from the brokenness we have fallen to in our human behaviors otherwise known as sin.
Throughout Jesus’ life on earth he goes to great lengths to fulfill the law, never allowing one letter to pass away by his own words, despite our modern perception. In this fulfilling of the law though is always communion and reunion. The 12 Apostles at the Last Supper for example, is a reunification of the 12 lost tribes of Israel who went astray in their divisions. These 12 tribes were once a unified family, but sadly due to human ways went their own ways. It was a meal though that he brought them together in, this is now the modern day Mass. Until this day, the Mass is a symbol of our unity despite all the division and unhealthiness in the world. This meal unifies all nations from all around the world, despite the 2000 year church history of unhealthy ways, it’s the one thing that unites us, just as it did in Jesus’ time. We saw unhealthiness among the Apostles, which is no different than today.
Consider the next drink or meal you have. Can it be one that brings others together as Jesus did so well? Can you appreciate the individual, no matter how wretched they are, like my friend Zacchaeus whose gospel led me back to faith. This selfish little man had a great encounter when Jesus came to dine with him that it forever changed his life. Personally for me, it’s what I’ve learned is the power of a good gathering, great conversation and great understanding to realize we are more the same than we are different. In addition to appreciate what is different.
One closing piece of historical information during this Lenten season. Very often we look at the Last Supper as Jesus just hanging with His people before He dies. This is anything but true. Jesus staying true to fulfilling the law is actually practicing the Passover as literally “the lamb of God.” He is the lamb who will be slaughtered, and every detail from the beginning of that meal, to the moment he dies on the Cross is the Passover. It is why when he says “it is finished”, he is meaning the Passover sacrifice, when he drinks the sour wine on the hyssop, the 4th cup of wine in the Passover, He has completed. Even in death Jesus is sharing in a drink of communion with His mother and beloved disciple (we are all His beloved). To learn more there is a book, and online audio called “The 4th cup” by Dr. Scott Hahn who elaborates on this sacrifice, which is still practiced until this day in the Catholic Christian churches. Ironically the Jews no longer practice the sacrifice, due to their temple being destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. shortly after Jesus’ death. This of course due to Jesus’ promise at the “Last Supper” that it is a “New Covenant” a new Passover meal.
I’ve always enjoyed this image. I saw it during a visit to Chicago at the CTU. It’s an abstract painting that captures the power of what was happening at the Last Supper