Grapes

           When they reached the Valley of Eshkol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. (Number 13:23)

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so,  and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. (John 2:7-11)

This is one of those cases when things have come together for me. When the spies went into the Promised Land, they returned with a bunch of grapes on a pole, telling how fruitful and plenteous the land was. That should have been the beginning of their conquest of the land. And at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, He turned water not into grapes, but into wine, which was a likely end for the grapes found in the Valley of Eshkol or would have been if they had conquered the land.

For the Jews, such a repetition (even if not exact) was poetry and pointed toward Jesus as God’s representative (at the very least) or as God, Himself. It should have been recognized as the inauguration not just of Jesus’ ministry, but of His conquest (on His terms) of the Promised Land.

To all of that, I say, “Cool!” but while it should have been a huge neon sign to the Jews, what does it really have to do with Gentiles living 2000 years later? First, we should notice that God doesn’t repeat the pattern exactly. One of the characteristics of epic, heroic fantasy is that at the end, the hero is supposed to return to his home, and may find things changed, or (more likely) find that everything is the same, but he has changed. The return isn’t quite to the beginning, but to what one might call “level two.” That’s the pattern here.

The spies brought back the grapes at the beginning of what was to be the start of their conquest of the Promised Land. They rebelled and didn’t ultimately enter for 40 years. Jesus made wine from water, so grapes again at the beginning of His ministry, and while that began His conquest of the Promised Land, it was a spiritual conquest. Toward the end of His time here, He speaks of our receiving the Holy Spirit. One illustration of the Spirit is wine. He describes Himself as the Vine, and we are the branches, and He gives to us the fruit of the Vine, the Spirit. The pattern, iteration 3. And the question remains as in the first iteration. Will we enter the Promised Land and fight the battles to possess it, or will we allow the world, the flesh, and the devil continue to occupy?