A Moveable Feast
Harry Gipson
5/20/98
A Moveable Feast
When Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, the master of the banquet tasted it, 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 last.
The term wine in the Bible is often used as a symbol of joyful fellowship. For instance, God invites men into joyful fellowship with himself by saying
come, buy wine and milk without money and price. Isaiah 55:1. To ancient minds,
to be without wine, was to be without joy. So to run out of wine in the middle of a wedding feast as happened on this occasion would be been almost the equivalent of admitting that neither the guests, or the bride and groom were happy.
The joy and gladness which we experience through our
fellowship with Christ is far better than any pleasure this world can offer.
The world gives its best wine, first, and then that which is worse. It’s joy and pleasures are soon diminished and exhausted. But Christ saves the best for last. With him, the feast is always getting better, the tides of joy are always rising higher, and the best is yet to be.
Ernest Hemingway once wrote a biographical account concerning his early years in Paris. He entitled it:
A Moveable Feast, in it he wrote:
If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.
I’m not sure about Paris. I suspect, however, that its pleasures are soon diminished as is every other pleasure in the world. But this I do know. Fellowship with Christ is, truly, a moveable feast. Wherever you go, he goes, bringing the wine of joy and gladness with him.
—HARRY GIPSON
