In reading your recent article on Passover something really rocked and shattered me, and I am in need of an explanation. In my quest for truth I am at peace when I come to an understanding, and things make sense. However when I find contradiction, it utterly upsets me. I am not one to try to discredit the word of God, in fact I try to find every possible scenario that could work. I want it to make sense and I try to make it so. But here I need a little help.
In Mark 14:25 it reads:
“Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
OK, I also know when Jesus says, “Truly”, he means it. Then in John 19:28-30 it reads:
“After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said, “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”
It is plain to see that Jesus did indeed drink the fruit of the vine and not in the new kingdom of God, but on the cross. How can this be? Please explain to me how this can be so.
In Luke 22:18 Jesus said he wouldn’t drink any wine again until the Kingdom came. John 19:28 says that knowing that all was now completed and so scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus accepted a drink of wine. Then He said, “It is finished” and died.
There are two phases to the Kingdom of God. The first phase is sometimes called the invisible Kingdom because it consists of the body of believers who have accepted the Lord into their hearts. It’s the Church on Earth. The second phase begins with the 2nd Coming when the Lord inaugurates His 1000 year reign here.
By accepting a drink of wine on the cross, the Lord was showing us that with His death phase one of the Kingdom had come. Thereafter, all who accepted His death as payment for their sins would immediately be considered part of the Kingdom, and would either be resurrected or raptured into phase two when it comes.
There’s also a Messianic tradition that the sip of wine the Lord took from the cross symbolized the 4th Cup of the Passover. This tradition holds that Jesus stopped the Passover meal the previous night at the 3rd Cup when He instituted the communion memorial. By taking this 4th cup He was recalling the 4th promise of the Passover from Exodus 6:6-7, and telling the Church “I will take you as my own people and I will be your God.”
Some say that John was referring to this when he wrote that Jesus asked for a drink to fulfill Scripture, but he could have been reminding us of Psalm 69:21, They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.