Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God.
This is Jesus speaking at the Last Supper — his final meal with his closest followers the night before his arrest and crucifixion. The "fruit of the vine" refers to wine, a central element of the Passover meal they were sharing. Passover was an annual Jewish celebration remembering God's rescue of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt — a deeply significant meal loaded with meaning about freedom and covenant. Jesus makes a solemn declaration: he will not drink wine again until he does so in the fully realized kingdom of God. This statement looks forward to a future heavenly banquet — an image the prophets used for the ultimate restoration of all things. Jesus is saying that what lies immediately ahead will be the darkest moment in history, but there is a celebration still coming on the other side.
Lord, you set the cup down and walked toward the cross with your eyes open — and your eyes forward. When my hands are empty and the waiting stretches long, give me that same kind of held hope. Remind me the feast is real, and you'll be there. Amen.
Picture the weight in that room: candlelight, the smell of bread, the sound of a city settling in for the night. His friends gathered around him, most of them not yet understanding what the next twelve hours would bring. Jesus lifts the cup — and in essence sets it down with a vow. The next time I do this, it will be in the kingdom. There's grief in that line, but there's also fire. He was walking toward the cross with full knowledge of what it meant, and this was his way of saying: I can see the other side. Not resignation. Not a man who didn't know the cost. The most forward-looking thing he could have said, in the most fragile room in history. If you're in a season of hard waiting — if something has been taken from you, if the celebration feels impossibly far off — you're not sitting in a different kind of darkness than Jesus himself walked into. He set the cup down. He walked toward the worst Friday imaginable while holding the promise of a coming feast. Whatever you've had to set down — a dream, a relationship, a version of yourself you thought you'd be by now — the waiting is not the end of the story. The feast is still coming. And Jesus, who made the vow, will be there when it arrives.
Why do you think Jesus made this particular vow at this particular moment? What does it reveal about how he understood both what was about to happen and what lay beyond it?
What does it mean to you that Jesus faced the cross while looking forward to the kingdom — not just enduring suffering, but holding a specific hope through it?
This verse suggests history is moving toward a completion — a kingdom celebration. Do you find that idea genuinely comforting, or does it feel distant and abstract? What shapes your reaction?
Is there someone in your life right now who is in a dark season of waiting — grief, illness, loss, uncertainty? How does this verse change how you might come alongside them?
What is one thing you are waiting for — in faith, in life, in healing — that you could consciously release into the "not yet" of God's kingdom this week, rather than carrying alone?
And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
Amos 9:14
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
Matthew 26:26
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
Amos 9:13
For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.
Zechariah 9:17
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
1 Corinthians 10:16
And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.
Psalms 104:15
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Matthew 5:18
But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.
Matthew 26:29
I assure you and most solemnly 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."
AMP
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.”
ESV
'Truly I say to you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.'
NASB
“I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.”
NIV
Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
NKJV
I tell you the truth, I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new in the Kingdom of God.”
NLT
"I'll not be drinking wine again until the new day when I drink it in the kingdom of God."
MSG