I am doing some research for a new study Nancy and I are working on called "Wine and Dine through the Bible". This is just a basic Bible study that focuses on the wine, food and festivals in the Bible. There is a lot of this sort of stuff throughout the Bible and it all has so many meanings.
One of the common metaphors I discovered is the act of "pouring out wine" in the bible. This metaphor is often used to describe God pouring out anger and destruction toward a people. Thinking about this for just a moment got me thinking about when Jesus 'poured out' a cup of wine for the disciples at the Last Supper.
Often interpreted as Jesus' blood being poured out in love, but what if Jesus is using a common and rich Biblical metaphor of wine being poured out in anger and destruction?
It seems to run counter to our image of Jesus, but as I further reflect on this and apply the lens of Rene Girard, it seems to make perfect sense.
Is Jesus reminding us we need to be angry and destroy cycles of violence? As the one who willing became a scapegoat in order to reveal the single victim mechanism humanity is duped into believing as the only way to resolve societal scandals. This cycle of blaming and finding scapegoats is so powerful that we can become drunk on it so much so that we cannot even walk straight (Psalms 60:3).
Perhaps in the Last Supper Jesus turns to his disciples and reminds them that God does not stand for the cycles of violence in the world and that God's anger will be poured out and that cycle will be destroyed.
But what makes God in Jesus radical is that God's destruction of the cycle of violence is not by violence. Rather God destroys the cycle of scapegoating by resurrection of the Christ.
This needs to be further developed and refined in order to make greater sense to those outside my own mind. Additionally, this needs to be developed as further evidence to add to the claim that Jesus did not die as a substitution for sin.
One of the common metaphors I discovered is the act of "pouring out wine" in the bible. This metaphor is often used to describe God pouring out anger and destruction toward a people. Thinking about this for just a moment got me thinking about when Jesus 'poured out' a cup of wine for the disciples at the Last Supper.
Often interpreted as Jesus' blood being poured out in love, but what if Jesus is using a common and rich Biblical metaphor of wine being poured out in anger and destruction?
It seems to run counter to our image of Jesus, but as I further reflect on this and apply the lens of Rene Girard, it seems to make perfect sense.
Is Jesus reminding us we need to be angry and destroy cycles of violence? As the one who willing became a scapegoat in order to reveal the single victim mechanism humanity is duped into believing as the only way to resolve societal scandals. This cycle of blaming and finding scapegoats is so powerful that we can become drunk on it so much so that we cannot even walk straight (Psalms 60:3).
Perhaps in the Last Supper Jesus turns to his disciples and reminds them that God does not stand for the cycles of violence in the world and that God's anger will be poured out and that cycle will be destroyed.
But what makes God in Jesus radical is that God's destruction of the cycle of violence is not by violence. Rather God destroys the cycle of scapegoating by resurrection of the Christ.
This needs to be further developed and refined in order to make greater sense to those outside my own mind. Additionally, this needs to be developed as further evidence to add to the claim that Jesus did not die as a substitution for sin.