The Substitute for Wine in the Lord's Supper is Water Not Grape Juice

1For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3and all ate the same spiritual food, 4and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

I Corinthians 10 is an amazing passage for many reasons. This is just one small one that I have been thinking about for some time. As this passage reflects, the Jews, as they left Egypt in the Exodus, drank water from the rock. This was their spiritual drink. They ate manna from heaven. This was their spiritual food. Jesus, in the gospels, clearly took these symbols to himself, saying that he was the bread of life coming down from heaven. The book of John highlights this symbolism repeatedly. John also reports Jesus claimed in John 4 that whoever drinks the water he gives them will never thirst again. Likewise, John makes this symbolism clear in telling of Jesus’ first miracle, turning water into wine. But in changing water into wine, he is preparing for a greater symbol. He is preparing for his sign of the “new covenant” where he commands, “Drink of it all of you.” He does not command the drinking of water or of grape juice, but of wine.

Why is it that some of us use wine in the Lord’s Supper? It is because we don’t want to cause our brother to stumble, of course. Yet, how is it that our Lord made and distributed “good wine” to those who had already been imbibing for some time? Did he cause the least one of them to stumble? I dare say not. So if our Lord did not cause someone to stumble by serving wine, how is it we can cause someone to stumble if we obey his command to serve wine as part of his covenantal sign?

If we must make a substitute for wine in our covenantal meals, let us make the correct substitute. Let us substitute water once again for the spiritual drink. But wait a minute. Bread and water, what does this remind us of except hard labor in prison? Didn’t Paul speak of this in Galatians?

1I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave,
though he is the owner of everything, 2but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Galatians 4.

Do we really want to return to a symbol of slavery? Isn’t it better to follow the lead of our Lord and take to ourselves a symbol of joy, rejoicing, weddings and celebration?