Taste the Wine
Jackson Snyder, April
1994
Snyder
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PREVIEW
That We May Perfectly Love Thee: Preparing Our Hearts
for the Eucharist Robert
Benson - a fine devotional
Once upon a
time I was invited to a wine tasting. A
wine tasting is one of those rather formal affairs in which various vintners
invite the public to sample their wares for a nominal fee. The wine tasting I attended was at a country
club, and semi-formal dress was required.
There were several tables set with white linen, at each table was a
waiter, and on each table was four or five bottles of wine, and some cheese and
crackers. Each bottle of wine was
labeled with its name, the year it was bottled, and the retail price. The prices of the wines ranged from about
$2.50 to over $125 per bottle.
The procedure was to go from table
to table, sniffing then tasting a little of each wine, and making a personal
judgment as to which was the best liked.
The wines that were supposed to be the best occupied tables with lesser
wines, so that the taster would be able to more easily compare the better and
the lesser, and hopefully would then buy the better, which was, of course, more
expensive. But someone who had
previously been to a similar "tasting" told me that the fact is, the
more wines you tasted, the better they begin to taste, regardless of their
value. Therefore, if the taster wanted
to get the full impact of the $125 wine, the best policy would be to taste it
first, before the head became boggled with the intoxicating qualities of the
lesser brands.
I began with the most expensive and
valuable wine. It was called Moet and
Chandon. As I swished the wine around
in its glass, sniffed its bouquet, then gulped it down, I briefly relived for
myself the story of Jesus on the cross, when they touched his mouth with the
sponge containing the bitter vinegar.
For the Moet and Chandon was as sour as gall, yet I watched others
drinking it with utter devotion.
It
wasn't long before I was able to make my choice of the wine I considered to be
the best tasting of all. It was a brand
called Gallo White Zinfandel. Its
retail price was about $3 per bottle, and it can be found in any supermarket. It was a little sweet and very fruity, and
it tasted great.
Through this experience, I learned
that making a choice for one's favorite wine is a very subjective
experience. Not possessing an
"educated palate," I chose the less expensive but, to me, better
tasting brand.
If the inexpensive Gallo beat out
the much more expensive Moet and Chandon in my taste test (speaking for
uneducated palates everywhere), it makes me wonder if taste alone could be the
only standard of evaluating wine. What
is it that makes wine valuable, anyway?
Our own "little ol' winemaker," Mr. Dennis, filled me in on
the subject.
A wine is judged valuable by three
standards, its ingredients, its flavor, and the feeling it imparts.
Wine's
ingredients, flavor, and feeling
Its ingredients: The wine is
considered valuable for the rarity of the grapes used in its production. For instance, a bottle of wine may only be
called Champagne if the grapes that went into its making were grown in one
small portion of the province known as "Champagne" in France. Real champagne is quite rare. Although there are many imitations, none are
as valuable or authentic as the real Champagne. A unique grape provides a valuable wine.
Its flavor: The flavor of the
wine really comes from three factors, the taste, the body, and the
bouquet. A wine will taste more dry or
sour or will bite as the acid content increases. Of course, the amount of sugar left in the wine after the yeast
have eaten their fill determines the wine's sweetness.
The wine's body, that is, its
quality of heaviness or lightness has a great deal to do with its ultimate
flavor. Most wines are actually
diluted, because the natural juice of the grape is full of
"residuals," or solids. A
heavy wine often tastes overpowering - a light wine is easier on the
palate.
Then, of course, the bouquet is a
factor in flavor - actually, the first "taste" of the wine happens
when it is passed under the nose - the bouquet registers almost immediately
with the brain through the olfactory nerve.
Its feeling: As for the
feeling of wine once it is drunk - most have experienced it, but who can
explain it? An apocryphal source likens
wine drinking to the behavior of animals:
after the first glass of wine, one becomes
gentle as a lamb;
after the second glass of wine, as daring as a lion;
after the third glass one is apt to make a
monkey of himself;
and after the fourth glass of wine, a man
behaves like a pig.
And it
certainly has proven true that the abuse of wine causes grave problems, but
this was not the creator God's original intention for it. Rather, as the Psalmist sings, wine is among
the staple blessings of God, and has a particular and useful purpose:
You cause greens to grow for
cultivation...
to bring forth food from the earth,
and bread to strengthen souls;
Oil to make faces shine,
and wine to gladden hearts. (Psa
104:14,15 a paraphrase)
No doubt it was with this intention,
to gladden hearts, that wine was served at the wedding of Cana, where Jesus,
his mother, and his disciples were in attendance. Hear the story from John's gospel, chapter 2, verses 1 through
11.
:John 2:1-11 ([c] 1991 Jackson Snyder) {1}
And on the third day there happened a wedding in Cana of Galilee: the mother of
Jesus was there. {2} Jesus and his disciples were called (eklethe) to the
wedding. {3} When wine was lacking, Jesus' mother says to him, "They don't
have any wine!" {4} And Jesus says to her, "What's that to me and
you, lady? My hour is not yet
come." {5} So his mother says to the servants, "Do whatever he tells
you!" {6} And there were six stone watertanks left from the cleansing of
the Jews standing by, each containing about 20 gallons. {7} Jesus says to the
servants, "Fill the watertanks with water," and they filled them to the
brim. {8} Then he says to them, "Now draw some water and take it to the
headwaiter (architriklinoi)," and they took it. {9} But as the headwaiter
tasted the water become wine, and not knowing where it came from (though the
servants who drew it knew), the headwaiter calls the groom over {10} and says
to him, "Everyone else first puts out the good wine, and when they get
drunk, the worse. You have kept back
the good wine until now!" {11} Jesus did this in Cana of Galilee as the
beginning of the signs and displayed his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
The story of
Jesus at the wedding is full of symbolic meaning, of which we have only time to
touch on a little today.
To explain: We find it is the third day,
which, in John's way of speaking, meant that it was the day of Jesus'
glorification in the eyes of humanity, for it was the third day when he was
"lifted up" from death. And
the wedding takes place in Cana, the namesake of Canaan, the land known by Joshua
as God's promise to the children of Israel.
Thus John is setting up Jesus' first miracle as a sign of the
fulfillment of God's promise of a Messiah.
Jesus' dear mother, who knows better
than any other the mission and authority of her son, informs him of what seems
to be a rather trivial matter: "Son, they have no wine." "So what?" he replies, "My
hour is not yet come." In other
words, Jesus knew what she wanted him to do, to provide wine! But what of the dangerous risk of premature
exposure? Nevertheless, her son is
acquiescent. So with the authoritative
voice of a Jewish mother, Mary commands the servants to obedience - "Do
whatever he tells you!"
Jesus seemed always to be at odds
with the established religion, for Jesus was the new wine that would burst old
wineskins. It was an old Jewish
religious ritual that all must wash their hands before and after eating
food. This was not for the sake of
hygiene, but tradition. We recall that
Jesus had a dispute with the religious leaders about washing, as recorded in
Matthew 15:1-3 (NIV):
"Why do your disciples break
the tradition of the elders?" demanded the Pharisees. "They don't wash their hands before
they eat!" To this Jesus replied, "And
why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?"
So now Jesus makes these water tanks
of old, dead traditions to become the vessels of his glory! "Fill them to the brim with
water," he commands the servants.
This amounts to over 120 gallons!
And through a mechanism that we do not know, the water was made wine.
Winemaking in Jesus day was not the
science it is today. Producing a fine
wine was hit-and-miss, depending on the weather, the soil, the harvest, and
just how much bacteria happened to get into the fermentation process. But with the confidence of a wine-master,
Jesus commands the servants to "Take some to the headwaiter for a
tasting!"
Now the headwaiter did not know the
uniqueness of the grape, the vintage of the wine, the conditions of its making,
or who the winemaker was (though the servants knew). He merely tasted the wine!
It was not to dry, and not too sweet; it was not too full-bodied, and it
was not too light; and the bouquet strangely seemed to be a mixture of the
scents of fragrant flowers that had been nurtured by soil that was once desert,
now blooming.
Indeed, Jesus' wine was the very essence of who Jesus was: the Son
of Man come to earth to gladden hearts and make faces shine through the
shedding of his blood. "Usually
the good wine is served first, but you have saved the best for last!" the
headwaiter complements a gladdened groom.
And the wine of Jesus' glory, tasted though unrecognized by all at the
wedding but his mother and his servants, is not left untasted by we who, in
this place today, call ourselves his servants.
When we drink the good wine of his
presence, we remember his admonition to us, "I am the grapevine; you are
the branches. If anyone remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit;
for apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). Let us avoid the bitter leas of the false
vine, the vine of dead tradition, religiosity, and formalism, in favor of the
true vine of Jesus, everliving, everproducing, from which we receive
nourishment, and continue to abide in him.
Let us drink wine, the wine of his blood, and thus have his eternal life
within us, for the wine of his blood is drink indeed (John 6:53-57). And it has proven to be not only the true
vintage, but also the good wine, made new again and again, whenever his
servants fill the water tanks afresh.
John concludes the wedding story by
reminding the reader that the water-turned-wine was the first of Jesus' signs
that were meant for revealing his glory - the glory of Jesus personifying the
good wine. What makes Jesus so good,
and his vintage better than that of others?
Well, let us remember the three standards of wine-judging our
wine-making friend told us: a wine is judged by its ingredients, its flavor,
and its feeling.
Jesus is rare, uncommon, unusual,
fine, choice, incomparable, his vintage unique. He is the only begotten of God - the only Son; he is the only one
who has descended from Heaven to earth; thus he is the beloved groom who has
promised to return for his faithful bride, then take her home to his Heaven.
Furthermore, his flavor is pleasing,
engaging, enchanting to the palate, piquant, tangy, sweet. "How sweet are your words to my taste,
O Lord, sweeter than honey to my mouth" (Psalms 119:103)! Friends, "Taste and see that the LORD
is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him" (Psalms 34:8). And the body of his wine is rich, and is
food indeed;
"Your departed friends and relations
ate good food but they died. But here
is bread that comes down from Heaven, that you may eat and not die. This bread is my body," he said,
"which I give for the life of the world." (John 6:49-51
paraphrase).
And his
bouquet is like the aroma of Israel "Ah, the smell of my son is like the
smell of a field that the LORD has blessed" (Genesis 27:27). Yet it is so much more than the smell of the
blessed earth! "Pleasing is the
fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the
maidens love you" (Song 1:3)!
Finally, the feeling, having now
drunk so deeply of the wine of his presence, is that of utter intoxication,
transportation, and translation:
{4} He has taken me to the wedding hall,
and his banner over me is love. {2} Let him kiss me with the kisses of his
mouth-- for your love is more delightful than wine. {5} Strengthen me with
raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love" (Song
2:4,2,5).
Even the
practical Apostle Paul prefers this feeling over that of wine. He advises, "Don't get drunk on
wine...," there's something infinitely better, "be filled with the
Spirit" (Eph 5:18).