There’s a great discussion on the Out of Ur blog called Trouble Brewing concerning the alcohol consumption of church leaders. One of the questions that was posted was if Jesus were here today, would he have changed the water into wine?
One of the key aspects in understanding Jesus turning the water into wine was that was an important thing at a Jewish wedding 2000 years ago.
I believe that if Jesus was in our churches, he’d change what came out of those terrible 100 cup coffee peculators, and hand out fair-trade, French-pressed coffee. Perhaps he would have also changed the Welch’s grape juice to wine for our communions.
If Jesus were attending the Super Bowl and they ran out of water on the sidelines, I’m not sure he would have changed the water into wine. He probably would have changed into Gatorade (or he would have cleared this American temple but I hope not because I love the NFL and hope God does too).
I speculate that if Jesus was walking through Africa, he may have changed the dirty water into pure water or if he were in Vancouver, he may have changed the soda into hot chocolate.
You can see that I’m not as quite committed to the wine but I do not want to dismiss it entirely either. I think Jesus liked wine and it’s worth noting. While not everyone needs to like or consume alcohol, it’s a topic that we should reflect on.
Below is what I posted on the Out of Ur post:
Worthy topic to discuss here. It’s hard to disassociate ourselves from our American-evangelical context (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but I think considering the worldwide Church community is helpful. Like some have already alluded to, drunkenness is condemned in Scriptures, not the consumption of alcohol. In light of the liberty described New Testament and the countless tragic stories many of us have experienced, we cannot be trite here. Indeed some have stumbled by the alcohol use of others, while some doors have been opened by the exact opposite. I know I’ve experienced both and again, this is why we should avoid being dogmatic about this. I think among the problems is that local congregations have been too one-sided favoring one side while demonizing the other. Conversations would be helpful here.
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