On Jesus' 1st Miracle: The Wedding at Cana

[Bill_Pick]

I didn’t know Baptists forbade alchohol. They forbid overindulgence.

My daughter is baptist and I had wine ever year at thankgiving but this year I was told I can not have wine ,if I did she will not be coming for dinner. Well I was not going to upset the whole family so we did not have wine. Next year is still up in the air.

 

[Ganyssa]

I was once Church of the Nazarene, and they don’t drink alcohol. I was also once told that the wine at Cana wasn’t wine, it was ‘fermented grape juice’

Apparently, now that we have refrigeration, the fermentation process can be stopped and it should be grape juice. Now I’m wondering how I never thought to ask, ‘How come He could rise from the dead but He couldn’t stop fermentation?’

–I don’t know if this is the official teaching, or if this was just what this particular Church of the Nazarene pastor made up on the spot.

 

[Bill_Pick]

Jesus drank wine. That said, let’s look at the historical circumstances. Grapes are harvested in the fall, and Passover (the time of the Last Supper) is in the spring. Without refrigeration, grapes (and grape juice) do not keep very well. Within a few days after the harvest, grapes begin to ferment and/or rot. The only methods of preservation available to the 1st century citizen were to extract the juice and let it ferment under somewhat controlled conditions (this is called wine making) or to dry the grapes which resulted in raisins. At the Last Supper Jesus said “I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine” (Matthew 26:29, KJV). In those days they made wine from a number of different fruits but the wine of the grape, the “fruit of the vine,” was alone used at Passover. Since this was spring, and the Passover liturgy called for all participants to drink four cups of wine, grape juice preserved by fermentation (wine) was most certainly used or at least one of the Gospel writers would have remarked about the departure from the natural; as they did so often about all His other miracles. The prescriptions for celebrating the Passover called for the cups of wine to be diluted with water. This was necessary because the fermentation process made it rather strong and also because the vessels they kept the wine in were somewhat porous and the wine tended to become thick with age as moisture escaped. This is the historical background behind why the priest adds a drop of water to the chalice during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Wine not well protected from the air while it was stored became sour wine (vinegar).

 

[Sunflower15]

Well, now I wonder…

What happens if a priest or deacon is a recovered alcoholic?
Are they also required to partake of the wine?

I know it turns to blood, but it still has alcohol…
Or can they just take the host and pass on the consecrated wine?

It is our belief, as far as I know, that each of the wine and host have the whole of the body and blood, so it is not necessary to have both. So, it should be fine if they only get one of the two, right?

However, I have always seen priests and deacons get both…

 

[Eucharisted]

Well, now I wonder…

What happens if a priest or deacon is a recovered alcoholic?
Are they also required to partake of the wine?

I know it turns to blood, but it still has alcohol…
Or can they just take the host and pass on the consecrated wine?

It is our belief, as far as I know, that each of the wine and host have the whole of the body and blood, so it is not necessary to have both. So, it should be fine if they only get one of the two, right?

However, I have always seen priests and deacons get both…

Check the AAA forum. Your question is answered there.