(my apologies for my lack of writing lately, school has been more time-consuming as of late)
Continuing our three-day look at the accusations that Jesus received in Matthew 11, we come to the second perversion of His character as seen by His enemies – Jesus as a drunkard. Jesus is a fun guy, a wild guy, one of those people that draws things out of you that you didn’t know were in you. You know people like this, I’m sure of it. There are those who make it feel safe and easy to be wild because they exude such a freedom that you can enter into it just by personal proximity. These people change the atmosphere around them, they make some people uncomfortable and others are accelerated in living free of restraints. This is what Jesus was like, He brought people out of themselves and into Himself; out of bondage and into freedom. He probably was the Life of the party.
Obviously this offended the religious leaders who thought very highly of themselves and were threatened by those who could draw the crowds that they could not affect. This brought on the accusation, undoubtedly. Their jealousy does not diminish make this accusation completely untrue, it actually gives us a glimpse into what Jesus was perceived to be like. Have you ever known someone very well and heard someone else’s opinion or perception of your friend and thought that the accusation was completely ridiculous? There are ministries and people I have done ministry with that people have dishonored and their accusation was completely contrary to the truth. One of these ministries was accused of being greedy for wealth, when in reality this ministry is one of the most giving ministries I’ve ever been involved with and the leaders actually live very simply and not at all extravagantly. But the accusation was not entirely wrong. They are actually very financially minded, but they have the Kingdom in mind.
Consider this, as well, Jesus’ first miracle was at a wedding and it was the creation of wine from water. Not just wine, really good wine. Jesus knew how to party. Don’t allow religious mindsets get you to believe that it wasn’t wine, it was wine and it wasn’t just a cultural thing because He made wine worth commenting on. We know that alcoholic drunkenness is sinful, but the state of being drink is not. Paul encouraged one of his churches to be drunk with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. Just as the soul can be divided up into mind, will and emotions, the spirit of a person is divided into wisdom, communion and conscience. Applying this understanding to being drunk in the Spirit, this revelation emerges: we are to be inebriated with the wisdom of the Spirit, be socially awkward in our communion with the Spirit and have our expressed opinion about the circumstances around us coated with the conscience of the Spirit.
Drunkenness in the Spirit is not just being goofy and not being able to function as a normal human being because we are on a spiritual high, though that is part of the expression of the “Pneumatic Inebriation”. One who is addicted to strong drink will keep going back to their addiction despite its seemingly negative affects on their life, so it is with those with a spiritual drinking problem. They will keep returning to the foolishness of their addiction because it provides something more valuable to them than what they lose. They may lose self-awareness and fear of man, but they gain an exhilarating yet embarrassing intimacy with the wisdom of God which is foolishness to the world. We must get beyond our desire to fit into the world, because the things of the Kingdom simply do not work in the systems of the world. Jesus knew this and lived accordingly.
*Wild Man of God, teach us to be foolish in Your wisdom, in bondage to You, and lead us to religion-free assessments of reality as we increasingly become like You. Amen*
