Christ in the Winepress: Backgrounds of a Sacred Image

Christ in the Winepress: Backgrounds of a Sacred Image by Wilson F. Engel, III I. The Image: Christ in the Winepress in Poetry Seventeenth-century English poets, like their Continental counterparts, were fascinated with the motif of Christ in the Winepress. A quick glance through some of the major poets of this time period underscores not only the popularity of this image but also the impressive — and sometimes confusing — variety of meanings and associations attached to the winepress. The winepress image is literally at the heart of George Herbert's "The Agonie," a poem which I shall return to later in my essay. ' The second and middle stanza reads: Who would know Sinne, let him repair Unto Mount Olivet; there shall he see A Man so wrung with pains, that all his hair, His skinne, his garments bloudie be. Sinne is that presse and vice, which forceth pain To hunt his cruell food through ev'ry vein. 2 The Jesuit Robert Southwell also saw the Passion in the winepress image in his poem "Christ's Bloody Sweat," but the range of meanings here is somewhat different from that in "The Agonie": Fat soile, full spring, sweete olive, grape of blisse, That yeelds. that streams, that pours, that dost distil, Untild, undrawne. unstampt, untoucht of presse, Deare fruit, cleare brookes. faire oile, sweete wine at will 45 Wilson F. Engel, III Thus Christ unforst prevents in shedding blood The whips, the thornes. the nailes. the speare, and roode (Il 1-6) 3 Associated with the fruitful earth, with a well spring, with olives to be pressed for oil, and with the winepress, Christ sacrifices Himself, subjugating Himself to the Passion, whose instruments rightly belong to mankind on account of their sinfulness Christ's free choice to take on the sins of the world provided Henry Vaughan with a context for exploring the winepress image in "The Passion": Most blessed Vine! Whose juice so good I feel as Wine, But thy faire branches felt as bloud, How wert thou prest To be my feast! In what deep anguish Didst thou languish, What springs of Sweat and bloud did drown thee' How in one path Did the full wrath Of thy great Father Crowd, and gather, Doubling thy griefs, when none would own thee1 (II. 15-28) " The winepress-cross is here the central image, but other stations of the Passion are brought into play. One mustask just how inclusive was the image of the winepress? What moments in sacred history could it figure forth? Even a brief review of poetic uses of the winepress image raises many such questions. To answer these questions we need to turn first to the specific biblical sources for the winepress image and then to the equally important commentaries that explain and elaborate on these sources. 46 CHRIST IN THE WINEPRESS The Bible itself provides the links between the winepress image and four key moments in sacred history: the Passion, the Last Judgment, Christ's Resurrection, and the Salvation of Man. The most important biblical loci for the winepress image are Revelation 14:19-20 and 19:15, Lamentations 1:15, Psalms 81 and 80:1 , and perhaps most importantly Isaiah 63:2-3. The crucial text from Isaiah (in the King James Version) follows: Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. The passage poses a series of questions. Who asks about the red apparel and to whom is he speaking? Why does the man with stained garments declare that he has trodden the press alone? Why is vengeance so strongly emphasized? Are two separate acts involved, a past treading and a future treading? What is the significance of the blood reference? If the passage is to be understood metaphorically (and it seems tocall for that kind of reading), just how does the series of metaphors work? The context for answers to...