John 2:11-11
On the third
day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there,
and Jesus and
his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
When the wine was
gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
“Woman, why
do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
His mother
said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Nearby stood
six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial
washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus said to
the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
Then he told
them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did
so,
and the master
of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not
realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water
knew. Then he 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 now.”
What Jesus did
here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he
revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Prayer for Understanding
Lord, we thank you for the gift of your Word and as we think on these things, open our hearts and our minds to hear you. Amen.
Weddings in Ancient Israel were a big deal. They usually happened in the autumn after the harvest was complete. Marriages were arranged and were a unifying of two families. Fathers orchestrated the betrothal of their children and the bride and her family were each given a dowry by the groom’s family. The bride continued to live with her parents for a year after the betrothal ceremony. After the year, the wedding took place. The family of the couple would have prepared for the wedding ceremony and the celebration that surrounded it the whole year between the betrothal and the wedding ceremony, so they were expected to pull out all the stops. The celebration lasted for days.
At the beginning of the wedding celebration, in the evening, the groom and his family processed to the bride’s family home to “take possession” of the bride. After the groom’s arrival, the bride was carried on a litter to the groom’s home, followed by her bridesmaids. Everyone sang songs along the way. When the bride and the groom arrived at the groom’s home, the parents bestowed a blessing on the couple. Prayers, games, and dancing followed.
The huge wedding feast would start the next day. Everyone in the village would take the day off and participate in the festivities. At the end of the day, there was a large meal. The bride and groom would sit under a large canopy. At the end of the evening, the bride and the groom would vanish, but the party continued,, usually for several days.
Running out of wine was a disaster. The problem of the wine running out at the wedding of Cana was a humiliation for the families of the bride and groom. For them, it was a social bouncer of epic proportions.
Jesus, his family, and his first disciples attended the wedding soon after Jesus’ baptism and time in the desert. Jesus had begun to have disciples, but his public ministry had not fully begun. When Mary discovered the wine was gone, she approached her son and told him to fix the problem. Jesus tried to beg off, the wine was not his problem. But, Mary was an assertive mother. She did not take “no” for an answer. Instead, she told the servants to do whatever Jesus said.
I guess Jesus knew there was no point in saying no to his mom, so he had the servants bring water jugs. And he turned the water into wine. The 6 jars held between 20 and 30 gallons of water, so Jesus made between 120 and 180 gallons of wine. That is a lot of wine.
In the Bible, wedding banquets are notable….they represent the extravagance and abundance of God. As the Prophet Isaiah wrote “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.” God is depicted as humanity’s husband, bestowing blessings upon humanity.
When Jesus turned water into wine, he did it extravagantly. He didn’t just make a few bottles of wine — he made between 120 and 180 gallons of wine. A regular bottle of wine is ⅕ of a gallon, so Jesus made between 600 and 900 bottles of wine. And, it wasn’t plain old mediocre wine – it was the most delicious wine the steward had ever tasted.
Jesus turning
water into wine is a sign that with the arrival of Jesus, life, joy and
salvation have arrived. As the first chapter of John says: “In Jesus was
life, and that life was the light of all humankind. The light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
When we become followers of Jesus, our problems are not all over. Bad things still happen. Pandemics still happen. Car accidents still happen. We can have broken bones and broken relationships with other people. It isn’t like a magical “poof” and everything is better the moment we commit our lives to Christ.
But, although we still encounter problems in our lives, our lives are infinitely improved by our relationship with Jesus. Through our relationship with Jesus, we are the recipients of God’s loving grace: God loves us, believes in us, and forgives us when we fail. God extends the Holy Spirit to us – The Spirit is with us no matter what we face. We are never alone because God is with us. God comforts us when we suffer and rejoices when we rejoice.
Some scholars think it is strange that Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into wine. Jesus didn’t do something amazing or profound. Wine making is not the same as restoring sight to the blind, or raising the dead, or walking on water. But, Jesus’ first miracle was extravagant….Jesus made abundant quantities of wine, the most delicious wine in the world. This miracle is Jesus’ debut as the Messiah and points at the reality that everything was different once Jesus entered the picture. Through Jesus, we experience God’s extravagant love in a bigger-than-life, over-the-top way. Through Jesus, all things were made new and we all became invited to the party – through Jesus, we are adopted into the family of God and become united with the community of Christ.
Thanks be to God
Amen.
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