[The wicked] eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence (Proverbs 4:17).

I don't know how many dozens of times I read this verse before its contrast with the Lord's Supper stood out to me.  Bread and wine... bread and wine.  You'd think the connection would be obvious.  But it wasn't for me.

Now that I've noticed it, however, I appreciate the contrast.  I admire the incidental prophecy embedded within this simple Proverb, pointing us to the one day when wickedness and violence would be transformed into righteousness and peace.  I'm awestruck to find such an allusion to the Gospel, 1000 years before its fulfillment in Christ, in this book of the Bible that's not typically prized for its prophetic content.  In our wickedness and separation from God, we are forced to eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.  But thanks to Jesus, that's not the end of the story!

When Jesus came, he gave us alternative bread and alternative wine.

Jesus is the bread of life (John 6:25-59).  We don't have to eat the bread of wickedness anymore but can come to Jesus instead, who says: "I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty... For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."  Similarly, Jesus is the true vine (John 15:1-17).  We don't have to drink the wine of violence anymore but can come to Jesus instead, who compares the fruit of the grapevine to the love of God, saying: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."

When we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we take the bread and the wine as symbols reminding us of Jesus's sacrifice that restores us to a place of righteousness and peace before God.  The very elements that can symbolize wickedness and violence, as described in Proverbs 4:17, can also describe the exact opposite in Jesus.  Isn't that incredible?!?  That's the power of the Gospel -- to turn sinners into saints, wickedness into righteousness, violence into peace, and bread and wine into sustenance.