On Wine and Communion…
Dear Family and Friends of Devenger Road,
Each New Year has many marks of new things and happenings. We come up with new resolutions, start new Bible reading plans, put up a new calendar, and prepare for many other new things. One of those new things that we will be doing as a church is serving both juice and wine for our monthly communion, beginning on January 1st, 2023.
In preparation for this, the Session would like to offer some food for thought and some answers to the anticipated questions of “Why?”. I hope to make this letter palatably brief while also being adequately thorough. If you would like, you can simply read the sub-headings to get a snapshot of our reasoning. That said, I encourage you to read through to the end!
Wine is used faithfully and without sin in the Bible
Our prime principle as Christians must always be that Scripture is the only perfect authority on all things that God reveals about himself and requires of his people. As such, let us consider a few Scriptural foundations that not only allow but even encourage the faithful use of wine.
In this, we must first recognize that nowhere in the Bible can be found a condemnation of moderate use of wine. In the Old Testament, one will find three different Hebrew words used for “wine.” Each of these words refer to real, fermented wine (see Prov. 23:31; Is. 49:26; Hos. 4:11) and are used to describe or refer to the positive use of wine.
Psalm 104:14-15 tells us that wine is ultimately provided by God for the gladness of man just as he provides food for the sustenance of man.
“You [God] cause the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart.”
Deuteronomy 14:23 shows that drinking wine was a commanded element of the worship of God by his people, done in his presence for his glory:
“And before Yahweh your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear Yahweh your God always.”
Joel 3:18 describes the restoration of Israel and what the favor of the Lord looks like for his people:
“And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of Yahweh and water the Valley of Shittim.”
We see the same faithful use of wine in the New Testament. Jesus Christ’s first miracle was to turn water into wine at the Wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11). The drinking of wine is promised in Luke 22:18 as part of the feast of the coming of the Kingdom of God in its finality. This feast is described in more detail in Isaiah 25:6, “On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine – the best of meats and the finest of wines.”
We also see a rich spiritual significance in the use of wine as we consider the Last Supper.
Wine was served at the Last Supper
This point is, of course, rooted in the previous point that wine is presented as a good thing in the Bible and it is only in its abuse that we find a sinful use. With this, we see Christ and his use of wine not only in his teachings, but also in his practice. The most significant of which is seen in Christ’s institution of the Lord’s Supper.
The gospels portray the Last Supper as a Passover meal (Matt. 26:17-18; Mark 14:12-16; Luke 22:7-13). Wine was the drink typically used in the Passover feast. When Jesus picked up the Passover cup, it would have been a cup of wine. After the first communion Jesus said, “For I tell you that from now on I will not drink f the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes” (Luke 22:18), indicating that wine was the drink he had used in the institution of the Lord’s Supper. It seems suitable then to use the same elements in the Lord’s Supper today as Jesus used in the origination of the sacrament.
Wine has been used in the Lord’s Supper all through the History of the Christian Church
The fact that the use of grape juice in communion is well-known to be a relatively recent practice. It has been the historical practice of all the various traditions of the Christian church to use wine for communion. However, out of a growing concern over drunkenness in the latter part of the nineteenth century, many protestant churches in America began offering grape juice either alongside or instead of wine. This change informed and was informed by the Prohibition Movement, which further heightened the societal stigma of drunkenness.
As a result, the use of juice in communion became the dominant practice in American protestant churches. Because the use of grape juice has now become so prevalent, there are some who perceive the practice of using wine as odd or out of place. For this reason, and also because there are some who believe that the use of wine is intrinsically sinful, we will continue to offer grape juice for those whose consciences are violated by the use of wine.
With these biblical and historical aspects of the use of wine in communion in mind, let us consider what it is that wine symbolizes.
Wine is a Symbol of Fellowship, Celebration, Favor, and Judgment
All through Scripture, including in the New Testament, wine was a symbol of fellowship. As the traditional table drink at the time, it was an expected part of mealtime with family, friends, guests, and strangers. This aspect of communion with one another and with God is also present
in the Lord’s Supper. God in his mercy prepares a table for us, our heads are anointed with oil, and our cup overflows.
Wine is also a symbol of celebration as we saw previously in Deut. 14:23 and Joel 3:18. This reality of celebration is present in the Lord’s Supper today as we celebrate what God has done in Christ. One day, this celebration will be fully experienced when the Kingdom of God comes in its glory. How appropriate, then, for wine to be used in communion as a celebration of Christ’s finished work on the cross!
Wine is symbolic of favor, as well. Among many other examples, Ecclesiastes 9:7 presents this most clearly, “Go eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a glad heart, for God now favors your works.”
Finally, wine in the context of drunkenness is a symbol of judgment. The Old Testament prophets clearly present the fact that drunkenness and its accompanying symptoms are part of God’s judgment, sometimes literally and sometimes in a spiritual sense. Isaiah 63:6 says, “I trampled down the peoples in my anger; I made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.” Similarly in the New Testament, Revelation 16:19 tells us that “…God remember Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.
It is in this that we see another connection with Christ’s work on the cross. In Matthew 26:38-40 we find Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying to his heavenly Father, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will, but as you will.” As we all know, our Savior did indeed drink the cup of the wrath of God. It is right, then, for God’s people to drink of that same cup. But the cup that we drink is not like the cup of the Savior. In drinking the cup, Christ took on himself fullness of the wrath of God. We drink of the cup to celebrate his triumph and find fellowship with him in his suffering.
One final note on wine symbolizing judgment. You will remember that our practice is to “fence the table” before we partake of communion together. This means that I, the one administering the sacrament, make careful note to caution against unfaithful participation. Why? Because those who would partake of Christ’s Supper must first partake of Christ. To do otherwise would be eat and drink judgment on oneself (1 Cor. 11:29).
Wine is required in our ARP Standards
Finally, as we consider our own Christian tradition as Reformed Presbyterians, we want to note the language of the Westminster Standards as a guiding interpretive structure for what we believe and how we worship.
In our doctrinal standards, wine is presented as the second of the two elements of the Lord’s Supper, the first being bread. In Chapter 29 and paragraph 3 of the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) we read, “The Lord Jesus hath, in this ordinance, appointed his ministers to declare his word of institution to the people, to pray, and bless the elements of bread and wine, and
thereby to set them apart from a common to a holy use.” Wine is prescribed three more times in the WCF and another seven in the Catechisms.
Reasons in a nutshell: Scriptural Consistency, Historical Christian Practice, and Denominational Authority
For all of these reasons above (and many others that would take many more pages to expound), we believe that it is faithful and right to serve wine for the Lord’s Supper. Our desire is to serve Christ as truly and faithfully as we know to do. A central part of that is to, like Paul, be “all things to all people” and to faithfully follow the example of Christ in such a way that we can say, “Follow us as we follow Christ.”
What to expect
As we talked through the principles, theology, and mechanics, we wanted to keep things as straightforward as possible. To this end, while the communion tray will look a little bit different, not much will change by way of mechanics. Please take note of the following:
- Each tray will have both wine and juice and they will both be red.
- Each tray has three rings – an outer, middle, and inner ring.
- The outside ring will be grape juice. The inside ring will be wine. The middle ring will be empty.
- As the Elders bring the tray to your row, simply take the cup of your choosing.
In closing, I encourage you to read what our standards teach us about what the Lord’s Supper means and how truly significant it is.
May God bless you in his peace that passes understanding as you rejoice in his goodness,
On behalf of the Session of DRPC,
Pastor Andrew