Basic HTML Version
Elsewhere in the New T estament,
oinos
is used severa! times in the
context of someone being drunk.
Revelation 17:2 talk.s a bout " the
wine [Greek,
oinos]
of whose forni–
ca tion the dwellers on the earth
have
become drunk."
Al so Ephesians
S: 18: "And be not
drunk wirh wine
[G reek,
oinos].
..."
Nobody ever got
a ny thing but a sick stomach and a
purple tongue from drinking too
much grape juice.
Now, ba ck to the account of
Jesus' first miracle in John 2, start–
ing in verse 6: " ow six stone jars
were standing there, for the Jewish
rites of purifi cation,
each holding
twenty or thirry gallons.
Jesus sa id to
them, ' Fill the jars with water.' And
they fi.lled them to the brim. He said
to
them, 'Now draw sorne out, and
take it to the steward o f the
feast. .. .' When the steward of the
feast tasted the water now become
wine [Greek,
oinos]
...
the steward
of the feast called the bridegroom
and said to him, Every man serves
the good wine first ; and when men
have drunk freely, then the poor
wine; but you have kept the good
wine until now" (verses 6-1
O,
RSV).
As a long mea! wears on, the
senses are gradually dulled and the
tas te of the wine is not quite as
sharp as it was. Then a wily host
could slip in wine of poor vintage.
This is yet another proof that this
was wine and not grape juice.
Jesus did not do the things his
generation expected of him. His ac–
tion.s were incongruous to his society
-a far cry from what they expected.
He just couldn' t seem to satisfy any–
body.
He himself said: "But whereunto
sh all
1
liken this generation? lt is
like unto children sitting in the mar–
kets, and calling unto their fellows ,
and saying, We have piped unto
you, and ye have no t danced ; we
have mourned unto you, and ye
have not lamented. For John carne
neither eating nor drinking, and
they say, He hath a devil. The Son
of man ca rne eating and dri nking
[wine], and they say, Behold a man
glutton o us, a nd a
winebibber,
a
friend of publicans and sinners"
(Matt. ll : 16-19).
Neither did Jesus do the things
that this present genera tion thought
he did . The real Jesus simply does
32
not fit in to our society's traditional
image of him. For instance, many
have been under the mistaken im–
pression that Jesus converted people
to Christianity during his 3
1
h -year
ea rthly ministry. But the shocking
truth is that Jesus Christ not only
did not personally conver t one
single person at any time during his
physical lifetime on this earth , but
a lso never even had acq uaintance or
association with one solitary con–
verted person.
Jesus Didn't Disturb Spirltual
Blindness
It comes as a profound shock to
most to realize that Jesus d id not
a ttempt to convert people
then,
nor
did he even attempt to get the world
saved. It just goes against the gra in.
But the Bible is plain on the subject.
Jesus frequently spoke to the gen–
eral public of that day in parabies –
all sorts of símiles, analogies, and
int eresting stories mainly based on
the agricu lture of his generation.
But neither those Jewish people nor ·
even his disciples seemed to have
the faintest idea of what he was
talking about when he was con–
versing in parables.
His disciples asked him why he
spoke in parables. They wondered
why he was confusing people. No–
tice it in Matthew's account: "And
the disciples carne, and said unto
him,
Why speakest thou unto them in
parab!es?
He answered ... Because
it is given unto you (the disciples
and fu ture apostles] to know the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,
but to them (the general public]
(t
is
nor given
"(Matt. 13: 10-11).
Conventional "Christianity" has
always taught its Sunday-school
children that Jesus spoke in para–
bies because he wanted people to
better understand the gospel mes–
sage. But Christ continued in verse
13 : "Therefore speak
1
unto them
in
parables: because they seeing see
not ; and hearing they hear not, nei–
ther do they understand."
Jesus then added: "And in them
is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias
[Jsaiah], which saith, By heari ng ye
sh all hear, and shall not under–
sta nd; and see ing ye shaU see, and
shall not perceive: For th is people's
[Jesus' generation - and it is no
di.fferent today] he·art is waxed
g ross, a nd their ears are dull of
hea ring, and t heir eyes t hey have
closed: lest at any time they sh ould
see with their eyes, a nd hea r wi th
the ir ears, and should understand
with their hea rl, and should be con–
ve rted, and I should hea l them"
(verse 14-1 5). And then Jesus went
on to explai n a nd expound tbe real
mean ing of the parable to all of bis
disciples in the very pla inest of la n–
guage.
Does this sound like Jesus was
desperalely on a "soul-saving" cam–
paign to the people of his genera–
tion? Or didn'l he say in another
place: "Fear not,
/i((/e
ftock; for it is
your Father's good pleasure to give
you the kingdom"? (Luke 12:32.)
L ater on in Luke's account some–
one asked Jesus: "Lord, are there
few
that be saved?" (Luke 13:23.)
Jesus' answer was: "Strive to enter
in at the strait [narrow] gate; for
many, 1 say unto you, will seek to
en ter
in,
and shall not be a ble"
(verse 24).
Not Even Hls Own Dlsclples
Believe it or not, Jesus d id not even
convert his own disciples- and that
includes the twelve apostles. In the
very last moments of bis ministry
while he was in Jerusalem, Jesus
told Peter: ". . .
When thou art con–
verted,
strengthen thy brethren," ac–
knowledging he was not yet
converted up to that time.
To sum it all up, Jesus Christ was
a very normal person in the human,
sense except that he did
not
sin in
any way or break the grea t spiritua l
law of God, though the potentia! for
it was there. He was a flesh and
blood human being just like you
and me. He constantly called him–
self "the Son of Man," alluding to
his humanity.
Jesus knew how to sing; he knew
how to laugh; he was masculine and
hard -wo rkin g ; he was com–
passionate and understanding to the
suffering masses of bis day; he
helped people on a day and nigh t
basis.
Only this Jesus - the real Jesus –
could qualify to be anybody's Sav–
iour. Read the gospe ls of your own
Bible and come to know more fully
the lremendous personality, gener–
os ity, humility, and
divinity
of the
real Jes us!
o
The
PLAIN TRUTH October 1976