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out, desiring lo speak with him.
Then one said unto him, Behold.
lhy molher and thy brethren sta nd
withouL desiring to speak with thee.
But he answered and sa id unto him
tha t told him, Who
is
my mother?
and who are my brethren? And he
stretched forth his hand toward his
disciples [showing his family and his
disciples were two distinct groups]
and said, Behold my mother and my
brelhren! For whosoever sha ll do
the will of my Father which is in
heaven, the same is my brolher, and
sisler, and mo ther ."
Here, Jesus is simply capi lalizing
on circumstances to leach a vital
spiritual lesson by way of an anal–
ogy to his physical family. But the
account does
not
remotely indicate
he had no physica l brothers and sis–
ters. but proves the opposite - that
he was the firstborn of seven chil–
dren.
Jesus Hobnobbed With the Upper
Crust
Some people claim that Jesus did
not associate with anybody in the
"establishment." They apparently
believe tha t he ate with the poor
class only, avoiding the upper levels
of society almost entirely.
But the Bible plainly speaks of
Jesus as a guest in the homes of
some of the greatest and most re–
spected men of the day. He was per–
sonally acquainted with people on
the topmost rungs of the economic
and socia lladder. (That is not to say
that Jesus showed these people any
more special attention than he did
the masses. He was never "a re–
specter of persons. ")
Notice an example in Luke 7:36-
39. "And one of the Pharisees de–
sired bim tba l he would eat with
him. And he [Jesus] went into the
Pharisee's house, and sat down to
meat [or to eat a mea l]." Tax collec–
tors (although very unpopular with
the people of the day because they
collected laxes from the Romans)
The PLAIN TRUTH October 1976
were part of th e wea l thy in–
telligentsia or upper class. Some
were counted among Jesus' personal
friends and acquai ntances. One of
the twelve apostles (Levi or Mat–
thew) was an ex-tax collector.
But Jesus also kn ew o thers. No–
lice now the narrative of Jesus' visit
lo Jericho. "And Jesus entered and
passed through Jericho. And, be–
hold, there was a man named Zac–
chaeus , which was the chief among
the publicans [tax collectors], and
he
was rich.
And he soughl to see Jesus
who he was. ... And when Jesus
carne to the place . .. and said unto
him, Zacchaeus ... today
I must
abide at thy house.
.. . And he [Zac-
chaeus] ... received him joyfully"
(Luke 19: 1-6) .
Jesus was fa irly well acquainted
with Joseph of Arimathaea, who
eventually obtained Jesus' d ead
body from Pilate and buried him.
Look at what the Bible tells us of
th is man. " When th e even wa s
come, there was a rich man of Ari–
mathaea, named Joseph, who also
himself was Jesus' disciple" (Matt.
27: 57). Further: "And, behold, there
was a man named Joseph,
a coun–
sellor
[of the great Sanhedrin or Jew–
ish legislative body]; and he was a
good man, and a just: (the same had
not consented to the counsel and
deed of them [to crucify Jesus]; ) he
was ofArimathaea, a city ofthe Jews:
who also himself waited for the king–
dom ofGod" (Luke 23:50-51). Jesus
was also a personal acquaintance of
Nicodemus, a Pharisee and ruler or
the Jews. (See John 3: 1-1 2; 7:50-53:
19:39.)
The occasion of the healing of a
centurion's servant is another case
in point. A centurion was a leader
over one hundred men, which in al!
Iikelihood , meant the head of lhe
Roman garrison at Capernaum.
The wedding feast at Cana in Ga–
Iil ee was ye t ano ther case where
J esus was hobnobbing with the up–
per crus t. Such a great feast with so
many people present (attesled to by
the amounl of wine) was obviously
given by a wea lthy host. This brings
up a nother subj ect. Was Jesus a to–
tal absta iner, or did he drink wine
when lhe social occasion demanded
it?
Jesus Drank Wine on
Social Occasions
Because of society's cont inua) a buse
of alcoholic beve rages, ma ny people
recoil at the ver y thought that Jesus
migbt have raised a glass of wine to
bis li ps. But he did! (Both the Old
and New Testament strongly con–
demn drunkenness [Deut. 21 :20;
Prov. 23:29-32; I Cor. 6: 10; Eph.
5: 18], bu t
not
drinking in moder–
ation [Amos 9: 14; Gen. 14: 18; Eccl.
10:19; I Tim. 5:23, etc.].)
Jesus Christ drank wine at the
New Testament passover just before
he was led away to his tria! by the
religious leaders. "1 tell you I shall
not
drink again
[proof that he had
just done it] of this frui t of the vine
until that day when
1
drink it new
with you in my Father's kingdom"
(Matt. 26:29, RSV).
Jesus drank wine regularly
enough that sorne of his enemies
fa lsely accused him of being a wine–
bibber (Matt. 11 : 19). This in itself
ought to tell us that the wine he
dra nk was real fermented wine and
not
grape j uice. His first public mir–
acle involved turning water into
over
lOO
gallons of wine, showing
that he did not discourage the use of
wine ata wedding feast.
The account begins in John 2.
"On the third day there was a mar–
riage at Cana in Galilee, and the
mother of Jesus was there; Jesus was
also invited to the marriage with his
discipl es. When the
wine
fa iled, the
mother of Jesus said to him, 'They
have no wine' " (verses 1-3, RSV).
(The G reek word here r endered
"wine" in English is
oinos
- a fer–
mented beverage with a natural al–
coholic content.)
Jesus Christ of Nazareth knew how to sing; he knew
how to laugh; he was masculine and hard-working; he
was always compassionate and understanding to
the suffering masses around him; he was continually
helping those in need on a day and night basis.
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