Reflective Bible Study

As we continue moving through Luke’s gospel, we come to a parable Jesus shared that is very challenging to reconcile if we take this parable out of its context, and especially if we leave off the opening verse of this event.

In this passage, Jesus shares exactly what He wants His followers to learn from the illustration He shares, and the only way this parable makes sense is if we look through the lens that Jesus gives us to help us understand it.

With that said, let’s read this parable and discover what Jesus wants to teach us through it. Our parable and passage are found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 18, and we will read from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us that:

¹ Then Jesus used this story to teach his followers that they should always pray and never lose hope.

I want to stop briefly and draw our attention onto this significant verse. Jesus is about to share an illustration meant for all of His followers that we should always pray and never lose hope. This is the lens we must look through when seeking to understand the parable Jesus is about to share, and this lens may be even more important for us living today than it was for Jesus’ disciples living in the first century.

Continuing in verse 2, Jesus continued saying:

² “In a certain town there was a judge who did not respect God or care about people. ³ In that same town there was a widow who kept coming to this judge, saying, ‘Give me my rights against my enemy.’ ⁴ For a while the judge refused to help her. But afterwards, he thought to himself, ‘Even though I don’t respect God or care about people, ⁵ I will see that she gets her rights. Otherwise she will continue to bother me until I am worn out.’”

⁶ The Lord said, “Listen to what the unfair judge said. ⁷ God will always give what is right to his people who cry to him night and day, and he will not be slow to answer them. ⁸ I tell you, God will help his people quickly. But when the Son of Man comes again, will he find those on earth who believe in him?”

In this parable and the follow-up verses that Jesus shares about it, we discover that we are never to give up on praying and we are to never lose hope. This tells us that we should be like the widow in this parable.

Does this mean that God is then represented as an unfair judge who doesn’t care about anyone but himself? On the surface, it may appear so, but Jesus counters this idea in His follow-up statement in verse 7, “God will always give what is right to his people who cry to him night and day, and he will not be slow to answer them.”

In this parable, we are challenged to continue bringing our requests to God day and night, God will always give His people what is right, and God will not be slow to answer them.

This brings up an interesting dilemma. When God gives us the answer of wait, or an answer that the time isn’t right yet, does this mean that He is slow to answer, or that we are being impatient?

When it seems as though God is silent, does that mean that God is really being silent or that the timing isn’t right?

In my own mind, I have to conclude that if I don’t clearly see an answer to prayer, then the actual answer is to wait and be patient, because God gives us answers quickly, and He will always give what is right to His people. God has a much bigger perspective than I can even imagine, and it is helpful to understand that God will answer our prayers most often from His perspective and not from ours.

However, if God appears silent and unresponsive to our cries for justice, does that then mean that He is like this unfair judge. Again, this might appear to be the case, however, I don’t think that the quantity of our prayers are enough to change God’s mind or God’s timing. I don’t believe that more prayers to God will wear Him down like these requests to the judge.

What if instead of the focus being on the judge, it is on the widow. What if the widow’s persistent requests actually drew her to the judge. While this sounds crazy in the context of this parable, the more we pray and the more earnestly we pray, the more we are drawn to God and the more we realize our ultimate dependence on Him.

I wholeheartedly believe that God does not withhold answers to prayers because He wants us to pray more. A good God who always gives what is right to His people would not display that type of attitude. However, God has a bigger perspective than we do and His perspective wants us with Him in heaven and sin to never return into a perfectly recreated universe.

This means that this parable, and the big message that Jesus shares in it, is applicable for everyone at every point in history, and especially for those living in the time of the end. This parable, and the challenge to continually persist in prayer never giving up hope, is Jesus’ challenge to us living near the end.

The prayer of God’s people when the world is wholeheartedly, unjustly, against them is the prayer of this widow. This widow’s prayer in verse 3 is simple: “Give me my rights against my enemy.”

This prayer is the prayer for God’s people living in the end times. When it appears as though God is silent and an unjust world has turned against us, never give up hope, never stop praying, and continually trust that God has a bigger perspective than we do and His perspective extends infinitely farther into the future than sin lasts, because God’s perspective extends into eternity!

Faith, hope, trust, and prayer draw our hearts to God, and even when times are bad, we can know and trust that God will always give what is right to His people, and that He will ultimately judge fairly all the unjustness we experienced in our lives in a sin-filled world.

As we come the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As always, continue to seek God first in your life and intentionally put your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus. Never give up hope and take everything to God in prayer because prayer opens our hearts, minds, and lives up to God and prayer lets the Holy Spirit into our lives!

Also, as you continue persisting in prayer, keep studying the Bible for yourself as well. Through prayer and Bible study, discover how to open your life to God, discover how His words and His promises never fail, and ultimately learn to see your life in the big picture of His story known as history. Our lives are best looked at through the lens of what Jesus did for us, and this lens is found in the Bible, specifically in the gospels we focus this podcast on!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue the theme of the past several podcast episodes looking at prophecies that were fulfilled while Jesus hung on the cross, and connection points between the Old Testament and Jesus’ ministry, let’s turn our attention onto a prophecy that Jesus fulfilled that some in our listening audience may have thought I missed. However, instead of focusing on this detail several episodes ago, I saved this connection point because the prophecy and description contained in this Old Testament psalm points to more than one aspect of Jesus’ time on the cross.

With this said, let’s read this psalm, and uncover what it can teach us about the time Jesus spent on the cross. Our passage is found in Psalm, number 22, and we will read it from the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 1, the psalm opens with the words:

¹ My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.
² O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer;
And by night, but I have no rest.
³ Yet You are holy,
O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
⁴ In You our fathers trusted;
They trusted and You delivered them.
⁵ To You they cried out and were delivered;
In You they trusted and were not disappointed.

⁶ But I am a worm and not a man,
A reproach of men and despised by the people.
⁷ All who see me sneer at me;
They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying,
⁸ “Commit yourself to the Lord; let Him deliver him;
Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.”

⁹ Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb;
You made me trust when upon my mother’s breasts.
¹⁰ Upon You I was cast from birth;
You have been my God from my mother’s womb.

¹¹ Be not far from me, for trouble is near;
For there is none to help.
¹² Many bulls have surrounded me;
Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.
¹³ They open wide their mouth at me,
As a ravening and a roaring lion.
¹⁴ I am poured out like water,
And all my bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax;
It is melted within me.
¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
And my tongue cleaves to my jaws;
And You lay me in the dust of death.
¹⁶ For dogs have surrounded me;
A band of evildoers has encompassed me;
They pierced my hands and my feet.
¹⁷ I can count all my bones.
They look, they stare at me;
¹⁸ They divide my garments among them,
And for my clothing they cast lots.

Let’s stop reading here. While this psalm continues describing trials, struggles, and prayers to God, there are several verses of this psalm that foreshadow Jesus’ time on the cross, including a verse that describes what would happen to Jesus’ clothing. While it is possible that David had something like this happen to him, I would find it unlikely. The only way this verse about clothing makes sense is if David describes something he suspects happened when an enemy found a stash of his clothing while he was elsewhere.

However, in Jesus’ case, the gospel writers draw considerable attention onto this event. In Matthew’s gospel, we find clear references to several of the verses and ideas found within this psalm. In Matthew, chapter 27, starting in verse 33, Matthew writes:

³³ And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull, ³⁴ they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink.

³⁵ And when they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among themselves by casting lots. ³⁶ And sitting down, they began to keep watch over Him there. ³⁷ And above His head they put up the charge against Him which read, “THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”

³⁸ At that time two robbers *were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left. ³⁹ And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads ⁴⁰ and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” ⁴¹ In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, ⁴² “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. ⁴³ He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” ⁴⁴ The robbers who had been crucified with Him were also insulting Him with the same words.

⁴⁵ Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. ⁴⁶ About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” ⁴⁷ And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, “This man is calling for Elijah.” ⁴⁸ Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink. ⁴⁹ But the rest of them said, “Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him.” ⁵⁰ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

In Matthew’s description of Jesus’ time on the cross, we discover several references to the psalm we just finished reading, as well as giving us a reminder of several of the prophecies we’ve already looked at over the past several podcast episodes.

Not only does Matthew’s gospel draw attention to the treatment of Jesus’ clothing while Jesus was hanging on the cross, Matthew also draws our attention onto some of the phrases that the religious leaders used to mock Him. In verses 42 and 43, Matthew tells us the chief priests who were present mock Jesus by saying: “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

Let’s contrast that framing with a few verses within our psalm. In Psalm 22, David writes in verses 7 and 8 that: “All who see me sneer at me; They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying, Commit yourself to the Lord; let Him deliver him; Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.”

When reading how these religious leaders taunted Jesus while on the cross, it is amazing in my mind that they would pick the exact same concept that David wrote in the psalms. If these religious leaders were trying to avoid Jesus fulfilling prophecy, of all people, they should have known better, since they knew the Old Testament scriptures the best in that society.

However, a careful observer to how the psalm frames its verses with how Matthew frames the religious leaders’ words will note that there is a slight difference. In the verses in the psalm, David smoothes over the idea that God the Father delighted in the Messiah. It is in many ways assumed in what David wrote. We can also see this present in the times when God the Father speaks from heaven during Jesus’ ministry. Delight in Jesus would be one easy way of describing the words God the Father speaks.

However, in the religious leaders’ taunting of Jesus, they take the psalm’s words and make them conditional. They acknowledge Jesus’ trust in God, but then they take the phrase about rescue and frame it as conditional with the word “if”: “He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him”. (v. 43)

In a subtle way, the religious leaders actually challenge God the Father in their accusation and taunting of Jesus. These religious leaders challenge God to rescue Jesus, and the only way this frame for taunting makes sense is if Satan were behind these words challenging God the Father regarding Jesus’ pain and death.

To round out the connection points in this psalm with Jesus’ time on the cross, we have the words the psalm opens by saying, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (v. 1)

These words are directly quoted by Jesus as He is nearing the end of His life. Matthew records these words Jesus cried out in verse 46: “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’”

While some might claim God the Father was being heartless or cruel while Jesus hung on the cross dying, the only reason God the Father didn’t call off the entire event was because of you and me. God loves you and I so much, and Jesus loves you and I so much, that no amount of pain, torture, or death would stop them from showing you their love while also making the way possible for your forgiveness and redemption.

The entire Godhead loves you. Jesus demonstrated that in the clearest way. It is now up to us what we will do with this great news!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open by challenging you, intentionally seek God first in your life and intentionally place your hope, trust, faith, and belief in Jesus. Lean on Jesus’ sacrifice as payment for your past sins and resolve today to move forward with God as a way of saying thank you to Jesus for what He accomplished on the cross.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each day. Through prayer and Bible study, discover just how much God loves you and how badly Jesus wants you included in heaven.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

While Matthew’s gospel shares a lot more details surrounding Jesus describing what the world would be like leading up to His return, Luke includes some interesting pieces of Jesus’ teaching on this. However, unlike Matthew’s gospel, which frames Jesus teaching about the end after the disciples ask a question, Luke’s gospel seems to frame this around the Pharisees asking Jesus a question, and putting a thought into His mind.

Let’s read what Luke tells us Jesus shared about the coming of God’s kingdom and what Jesus’ followers should expect regarding His return.

Our passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 17, and we will read from the New International Reader’s Version. Starting in verse 20, Luke tells us that:

²⁰ Once the Pharisees asked Jesus when God’s kingdom would come. He replied, “The coming of God’s kingdom is not something you can see. ²¹ People will not say, ‘Here it is.’ Or, ‘There it is.’ That’s because God’s kingdom is among you.”

Let’s pause briefly here because in the next verse, Luke shifts directions slightly and I don’t want us to miss the big idea Jesus shares in this opening.

There are actually two big ideas in these first two verses. The first big idea is one that I find amazing, especially when I look at the majority of the gospels. This first idea is that this group of Pharisees seems to ask Jesus a genuine question. More often than not, the Pharisees were leading the broader group of religious leaders in planting traps and challenges for Jesus. However, that is not what we discover here.

In the opening verses of our passage, we discover how the Pharisees ask a genuine question and receive a genuine response. This tells me that Jesus treated every situation independently, and Jesus didn’t hold grudges against those who seemed to most openly oppose Him. This also challenges me to be like Jesus and treat every situation independently and to not hold grudges against those who most openly oppose me.

The second big idea is in Jesus’ response. While the kingdom that all those in the first century were looking for was a military kingdom to arise and challenge Rome, Jesus describes the arrival God’s kingdom as not something easily seen. The arrival of God’s kingdom is invisible, and one reason for this is because God’s kingdom is a kingdom unlike what we would often think of as a kingdom.

Jesus finishes off this second idea by saying that God’s kingdom was already among them. This is powerful because when these religious leaders were looking for a kingdom to arrive, Jesus tells them they missed the kingdom’s arrival and that it was already here. This tells me that God’s kingdom is anywhere that God is present. This means that when Jesus walked the earth, God’s kingdom was present. This also means that anywhere the Holy Spirit is present, God’s kingdom is also present.

When we let the Holy Spirit into our lives, we enter God’s kingdom, and we ally ourselves with it! God gave Jesus’ followers the Holy Spirit, and while the Holy Spirit works in different ways through God’s people at different points in time, allowing the Holy Spirit into our lives is never the wrong choice.

However, our passage isn’t finished yet. With the question of the coming of God’s kingdom on Jesus’ mind, we continue reading in verse 22:

²² Then Jesus spoke to his disciples. “The time is coming,” he said, “when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man. But you won’t see it. ²³ People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ Or, ‘Here he is!’ Don’t go running off after them. ²⁴ When the Son of Man comes, he will be like the lightning. It flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. ²⁵ But first the Son of Man must suffer many things. He will not be accepted by the people of today.

²⁶ “Remember how it was in the days of Noah. It will be the same when the Son of Man comes. ²⁷ People were eating and drinking. They were getting married. They were giving their daughters to be married. They did all those things right up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

²⁸ “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking. They were buying and selling. They were planting and building. ²⁹ But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven. And all the people were destroyed.

³⁰ “It will be just like that on the day the Son of Man is shown to the world. ³¹ Suppose someone is on the housetop on that day. And suppose what they own is inside the house. They should not go down to get what they own. No one in the field should go back for anything either. ³² Remember Lot’s wife! ³³ Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it. Whoever loses their life will keep it. ³⁴ I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed. One person will be taken and the other left. ^35-36 Two women will be grinding grain together. One will be taken and the other left.”

³⁷ “Where, Lord?” his disciples asked.

He replied, “The vultures will gather where there is a dead body.”

In Jesus’ big message to the disciples about His return, we see a huge theme present. When Jesus returns, it will be sudden and visible to everyone like the lightning. Jesus’ return will be quick, because those who woke up that morning thinking they were going to experience a normal day discover this day would be anything but normal. And Jesus’ return should prompt us to leave anything and everything of this world behind.

Anything less global than a world-shattering event is likely not Jesus’ second coming.

While the disciples want to know where Jesus’ return will take place, the only answer Jesus gives them is that His return will be wherever vultures gather when there is a dead body. While many people could understand this response in different ways, I understand Jesus’ words to basically mean that this will be world-wide, or specifically wherever there are people living in the world.

Right now, there are people living in almost every place on the planet. Some places are more crowded than others, but every continent has people living on it, including Antarctica which is home to various groups of scientists and researchers.

While vultures don’t live in all parts of the world, I don’t think that the idea of vultures is as significant as we might think at first. While vultures were the primary predatory bird in that culture and region, I suspect Jesus would have used any predatory bird or animal if He’d been sharing in a different part of the planet.

The last big idea I want to share from Jesus’ message isn’t a very positive one, but it is significant. Jesus’ return will mark the point when God’s people are taken while others are left. Jesus’ last words indicate that what is left following His return will be dead bodies, indicating that this world wide conclusion likely won’t leave anyone alive left on this planet. Those taken with Jesus will be taken to heaven, and those left will be vulture food.

While this sounds bleak, it is significant for us to pay attention to because any return that is any less earth-shattering than what Jesus describes here is more likely an impostor than Jesus. If we see, hear, or believe anyone’s claim that Jesus has shown up and His return doesn’t end the world, then whoever showed up wasn’t the Jesus of the gospels.

Jesus came to bring glory to God the first time He came, and the second time Jesus comes it will be to gather God’s people to come home with Him to heaven. Jesus’ second coming will be a much shorter visit than His first, because as He tells His disciples in John’s gospel as they are traveling to the garden on the night of His arrest, Jesus is making homes, rooms, or mansions for us in heaven. Our ultimate home is going to be with God, and we get to experience the home He has prepared for us when He returns to bring us home!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, continue seeking God first in your life and choose to ally your life with Him and His kingdom. Accept Jesus’ sacrifice as payment for your sins and accept the Holy Spirit into your heart, your mind, and your life. Also, continue looking forward to the day Jesus returns and takes us home to be with Him!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Through prayer and personal study, discover a God who loves you with all of His heart and a God who is willing to cross the universe to redeem you!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Moving forward to another prophecy that was fulfilled while Jesus was on the cross, we turn our attention onto several verses tucked within a psalm written by David. Within this psalm, we discover something that seems difficult to believe happened by chance, even though historians might say that this type of thing was common. While I don’t know how significant this connection point is, or if what was described ultimately became common practice for those being crucified during the first century, I do find it amazing how the details David describes are included within Jesus’ crucifixion, and in such a way that it is easy to see the connection.

Let’s read what David wrote. Using the New American Standard Bible, reading from Psalm 69, starting in verse 20, David writes:

²⁰ Reproach has broken my heart and I am so sick.
And I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
And for comforters, but I found none.
²¹ They also gave me gall for my food
And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

While it would be easy to continue reading, after describing what he was offered, David shifts his focus in the next few verses.

On the surface, while I suspect none of us would want to be put in a situation like David was in while He wrote this psalm, it is interesting in my mind that at a point where there would be no one to comfort or sympathize with him, he would be offered gall and vinegar.

Moving forward to the New Testament, and specifically Jesus’ time on the cross, Matthew’s gospel gives us insight into the fulfillment of this prophecy. In Matthew, chapter 27, starting in verse 33, we learn that:

³³ [And] when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull, ³⁴ they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink.

John’s gospel records this a little differently, though equally relevant. In John, chapter 19, starting in verse 28, we learn that:

²⁸ After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. ³⁰ Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

I will be the first to acknowledge that I don’t know whether Jesus was offered the wine multiple times during the hours that He hung on the cross. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were multiple points when the wine was offered to Him.

However, taking a step back for a moment, I thought it interesting that the Psalm described gall being mixed with vinegar, while Matthew’s gospel describes gall being mixed with wine. This prompted me to look up what, if any, difference there is between vinegar and wine, or more specifically sour wine, as John’s gospel describes the liquid that was present.

The short search I did turned up the information that vinegar as a term is pretty generic, and that sour wine shares many similar properties with vinegar. Being offered a vinegar that would be edible or drinkable would be very similar, or perhaps even indistinguishable from being offered wine that had turned sour. While some people might consider this change of terms a failed prophecy, I don’t. Instead, sour wine is in my mind a type of vinegar, and Matthew and John are actually describing a more specific substance under the generic heading of vinegar. It also wouldn’t surprise me if the vinegar David writes about being offered would be the same level of edibleness as the sour wine Jesus was offered.

However, aside from the prophetic nature of this offer of wine, is there anything else that we should understand about this detail that was written into Jesus’ time on the cross?

In my mind, there is.

First off, focusing our attention onto the wine and gall mixture that Jesus was offered at the start of His time on the cross, and the detail that Jesus ultimately refused this initial offer, prompts me to understand that Jesus was not interested in hastening His death, or in deadening His senses, which wine and gall would have done. In some places, gall is described as a poison, while other places describe it as a bitter spice. Either way, wine and gall would have numbed Jesus’ senses to the pain of the cross, and while it seems difficult to imagine, if Jesus had done something to minimize the pain He faced on the cross, the case could be made that the price He paid, and the sacrifice He offered, was not as valuable.

Also tied to this thought is the idea that as Someone set apart from birth as dedicated to God, Jesus was to avoid any alcohol or fermented drink. Traditionally this would be called a nazirite pledge, though it is unclear whether Jesus’ life and ministry would be constrained in the same or in a similar way. Also complicating the nazirite pledge is passages that clearly describe Jesus as drinking wine – except that when I search for a passage like this, I cannot find one where Jesus drank wine prior to this crucifixion event. The closest suggestion to Jesus drinking is found in Luke’s gospel, where Jesus is contrasted with John the Baptist who didn’t drink, while Jesus is framed as eating and drinking too much.

Even when describing Jesus’ last supper with His disciples, there isn’t a description given for Jesus drinking from the cup prior to giving it to His followers. Jesus simply promises that He won’t drink from that point on. While it could be said that Jesus drank immediately prior to this statement, it could also simply be a reaffirmation to a non-drinking pledge that was already in effect.

Complicating Jesus’ drinking or not drinking of wine is the Bible’s generic usage of this term. Wine in the Bible is used to describe both fresh, unfermented grape juice, as well as the fermented grape juice that we would call wine in our culture today. This means that we must be extra cautious when understanding what is being described. When the word wine is used, does it mean every type of drink that is derived from grapes, does it mean only unfermented fresh grape juice, or does it mean only fermented grape juice that is more commonly called wine.

Sometimes we have a clue, since some places describe new wine or fresh wine and contrast it with old wine, giving us a clue that new, fresh wine would be unfermented, while old wine was fermented. A clear example of this usage is when Jesus is illustrating new wine being placed in new wineskins rather than in old ones.

My suspicion is that Jesus avoided all forms of grape juice as much as possible, and that the drink in the cup He connected spiritually with His blood would have been new wine, or unfermented grape juice. This is because Jesus’ life was pure and undefiled, and fermentation in a drink that represented Jesus’ life would make it impure.

However, what of Jesus’ time on the cross. While Jesus clearly rejected the wine mixed with gall when He was first raised up on the cross, multiple gospels describe what we read about in John’s gospel that describe Jesus being given sour wine right before His death. It is interesting though that the gospels are almost entirely silent on what Jesus did with the sour wine He was offered. The only clue is in John’s gospel where John says that after Jesus “received” the sour wine, which prompts me to believe Jesus ingested some of it.

If Jesus ingested some of the sour wine that was offered to Him, some might say this act broke His promise to His disciples the night before. However, to contrast the negative way of framing this idea is a powerful, positive symbolic idea: By ingesting some heavily-fermented, impure, sour wine, Jesus was internalizing sinful human nature and taking this imperfection with Him to the grave. This would be a symbolic way of saying that Jesus took our sins with Him to the cross.

While I have no idea whether Jesus ingested the sour wine right before taking His last breath, any way we understand this is powerful. Jesus took our sins, our imperfections, and our guilt with Him to the cross, and He offers us His perfect, sinless life in exchange. This is great news worth sharing and celebrating!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, continue to seek God first in your life. Accept Jesus’ offer of His sinless life in exchange for our sin-stained lives and lean on Him for help moving through life.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself, to purposefully grow closer to Jesus and to God each and every day. Through personal prayer and Bible study, discover just how much God loves you and just how much Jesus wants to redeemed into eternity.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!