Have you ever read John Steinbeck’s epic novel, The Grapes of Wrath? I did not because I was particularly interested in the refugees of the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s, but because I was fascinated by the title. What do grapes have to do with wrath I wondered? The same phrase pops up in the famous “Battle Hymn of the Republic” penned by Julia Ward Howe in 1862. You remember how the first stanza goes:

Mine Eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.

Again what have vintage wine and grapes have to do with God’s vengeance and wrath? Well, the imagery comes from the Bible. In the Bible wine (a product of grapes) often symbolizes blood and it is not hard to understand why, for one thing their appearance is similar. Dark red wine looks very much like blood. Furthermore, since God requires the payment of blood for sin-the payment of death-the Bible sometimes portrays God in his wrath against sin stamping out sinners as a laborer who crush grapes with his or her feet in a wine press. Being just and hating sin, God has every right and duty to do so. The prophet Isaiah uses this metaphor in the 63rd chapter of his book when he announces that an angry Yaweh is about to tread on the nations to fill the cup with the wine of his wrath, with their blood:

The price for sin then is death, the shedding of blood. The shedding of blood was also the price of a covenant. Whenever a covenant is made in the O.T. blood is spilled to seal the deal. The actual wording is to cut a covenant. We see this in chapter 15 of Genesis when God makes a covenant with Abram, some animals are cut in half and The LORD passed between the pieces to seal the agreement. Later the Lord again requires blood be spilt by Abraham with the covenant of circumcision. This blood-letting or sacrifice then becomes an integral part of the Israelites worship with the giving of the law in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

This is especially true when it came to the slaughter of the Passover lambs -their lifeblood was spilled so that the angel of death would pass over God’s covenant people, leaving them safe. And at the Passover meal they drank four cups or warm dark red wine symbolizing the blood of the freshly sacrificed lamb. Of the four cups, the third cup was the cup of blessing or the cup of redemption commemorating God’s promise to free the Israelite slaves. When Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples on Maundy Thursday evening, he probably took the third cup of wine, the cup of redemption, because the Bible tells us it was “after supper.” He them blessed it with the traditional Passover blessing, gave it to his disciples, and said “this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you.

No longer did that cup of warm dark wine merely symbolize the blood of a sacrificed animal. Now it contained the blood of the perfect sacrifice of redemption, the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. It was Jesus’ blood, the Blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In giving them the cup of redemption, he was saying that God’s wrath would crush him as payment for sin and that his blood would form a new covenant, a new relationship between God and man.

Yet even as Jesus said the words none of them understood the terrible price he was about to pay. Little wonder that Jesus pleads with his Father just a few hours later in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” He cup he had to drink contained God’s full wrath and fury again all the sin of mankind, including yours and mine. All of God’s anger against every sin was concentrated on Jesus the next day. Or in the words of Isaiah:

The horrible price of our redemption was every last drop of the blood of Jesus, yet by his death, the wrath and anger of God against our sin is fully appeased. It is important that you understand that. As a believer in Jesus Christ, God is no longer angry with you. The sin that you may think is so serious that it cannot be forgiven is. You have been bought by the blood of the lamb.

God has therefore established a new and better covenant with us, the one that Jeremiah foretold and was reiterated by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit:

No more sacrifice, thank goodness we do not have to come up here as the priests of the O.T. did and continually slaughter one animal after another. Jesus our great high priest has made the perfect sacrifice of his own blood and we are redeemed. We now have full access to Him and to our heavenly Father by faith given us by the Holy Spirit in our Baptism where our hearts were sprinkled and our bodies washed with pure water and the Word. Faith also strengthened when we came and partake of Christ’s body and blood under the forms of bread and wine as we do this night, remembering all he has done for us.

What can we do but rejoice, rejoice in the knowledge that God’s wrath has been turned away and that he has made an everlasting covenant with us. A covenant of grace, mercy, forgiveness and a promise. A promise that is found also in our Gospel lesson this evening when Jesus took the cup and said:

What does he mean? He is saying that they would not drink of the fourth cup, though the rabbinic writing say the Passover is not over until the fourth cup the cup of completion is consumed. So there is a cup of wine still waiting and I daresay it is waiting for the end of time when Jesus our great Pascal king returns triumphant and raises us up from the dead and casts out sin and death forever and the high wedding feast of the lamb begins. But in the meantime let us drink the cup of redemption and give thanks to him who gave it, until we sit with him and those we love in his glorious kingdom. Amen.