I often wonder what it would be like if we had someone show up at Church on Sundays, sit in the back, and just watch. In my imagination this person would have little or no understanding of not only what we are doing but would be unfamiliar with the words we read from the Gospel each Sunday. I suppose they would not have to be here too many Sundays before they came to understand that a person named Jesus was important. His name gets mention a lot and stories that he is in seem to make him out as unique.
There is more about Jesus than healings and miracles, but if you hadn’t heard much about him, those stories would certainly stand out. We don’t usually hear stories like that and when we do, they stand out. There are a lot of stories where Jesus shows up and helps those who are in drastic need- he feeds the hungry, gives sight to the poor, helps those who are paralyzed walk and even casts out demons from those possessed. We even have a story of Jesus raising someone from he dead. These stories all seem to have something in common, they address the suffering of people and restores them to the fullness of life, both physically and spiritually.
But if are visitor was here today, they might be scratching their head after hearing the gospel. I know we don’t do this, but for our visitor, it would be easy to think that Jesus came to take care of issues that lead to desperate actions because so many of them are almost life-threatening. But this story has none of that. There is no crisis of illness or hunger. There isn’t a glimpse into a story that made lead to total and complete disaster. No, this one is very different from what they may have heard.
This story is a miracle but if you were new to all of this, it would surprise you. We are told that this one Jesus’ first miracle and it seems to be on a whole different level than subsequent ones. I guess what I am trying to say is that this miracle, his first one, seems so weird.
Let’s take a close look at it. There’s a problem here but not one that would seem like it would take a divine intervention to overcome. Indeed, why even bother oneself with this. You heard it as well as I did. The wine ran out. Did you hear that, they ran out of wine? This isn’t an existential crisis. No one was going to die. If one were to rank miracles, and I suspect we all do, this would fall under the category of “so what” or “couldn’t he have just gone to Spec’s and picked up a few bottles of wine? Really, what is the worst thing that could have happened if Jesus had intervened? They would have jus shut down the party early. No big deal. No one dies because of it. Sure, the hosts would have probably been embarrassed but other than that, we’re good.
I can’t just leave us here because this odd, rather pedestrian sounding miracle is going to take on some more characteristics that may leave our guest scratching his or her head.
Jesus’ mom gets in on the act and, once again, we may be left with wondering what’s really going on. Before we start to unpack this, I have got to say this sounds so normal and mundane. Jesus goes to a party where the hosts forgot to make enough wine to last the entire party, are embarrassed that the wine of all things ran out, look to Jesus for help, finds Jesus’ mother stepping right into the middle of the scene, instead of stepping aside to let it resolve itself, thinks that Jesus can be of help. She tells her son to help and Jesus tells her to butt out. The Gospel of the Lord.
No, it doesn’t stop yet. At first, it’s easy to read into the scene and interpret the brief conversation Jesus has with his mother. I know I do that. I can Jesus getting a bit worn out about the whole deal and rather rudely dresses down his mom. “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4). Whoa. Wait. This “hour” of which Jesus speaks perhaps refers to he event of his death, resurrection, and ascension to the Father. Or it could mean that Jesus isn’t quite ready for this all to start. If he intervenes, people will notice. If they notice, they will talk. If they talk, they will scheme. If they scheme, they will plot. And if they plot they will try to silence him. And the only way to silence him is to hand him over to the Romans. And if they do that, maybe the Romans will do away with him. I am not sure they would think crucifixion would be a mighty fine way to end all of this, but if Jesus stepped on enough toes, who knows? Maybe if he’d just wait, all of this wouldn’t start yet. With that in mind, I suggest that Jesus may have been look at both a clock and a calendar when Mary asked him to intervene. “Not yet Mom”, he may have been thinking.
Not only this but Jesus was about to begin his public ministry and there were plenty of things he had to deal with, like the calling of the disciples to follow him, a whole passel of struggling and sick people to address, a lot of teaching to do… Jesus had a lot on his plate. But hand to Mary, remember she’s Jesus mother and knows him better than anyone else. “Do whatever he tells you, “She tells the servants (John 2:5). She seems to know that despite Jesus’ response, he will do something.
I wonder what she knew that led her to address him in such a way. It was almost she said to him, “you can do something, don’t overthink this, just help out.”
From reading the story, we don’t quite understand the significance of Mary’s request. We hear that there are six stone water jars and we know, with some interpretive skill that they each held 20-30 gallons each. So when one filled each with water, that Jesus is about to turn into wine, we get a total of 120-180 gallons of wine. Whoa.
But let’s keep going. We quickly learn that not only does this miracle results in copious amounts of wine but that it’s no Mogan David wine. Or Boones Farm. This is high quality, the best of Napa Valley or French wines. It is quality. Let me repeat what the chief steward said after taking a sip. “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk, but you have saved the good wine until now” (2:10).
I am not going to comment on how inappropriate that custom was but it’s easy to get stuck here. Both the amount and the quality indicate that this was an extravagant miracle. Large amounts of high-quality wine. Nice first miracle.
The story reveals to us that the chief steward is clueless about who it was that did what just happened. Jesus, as we know, is the responsible party but the chief steward doesn’t. We know, Mary knows, the servants know but that’s it.
One of the issues we face is that we lose sight of what is happening. I blame it on the wedding liturgy in the Book of Common Prayer but that’s just because I am an Episcopal priest. In that liturgy, the priest says that marriage is special because that is the place where Jesus performed his first miracle. That’s right but John, the Gospel writer might disagree.
John doesn’t call it a miracle. He calls it a sign. It’s the first of seven signs that John will write about. You know a sign isn’t a miracle; no signs point us to something beyond themselves. You know a stop sign is just a warning that the intersection straight ahead may have other cars waiting to go down the road or turn right in front of you. We are being alerted that something lies ahead of us so be alert. When Jesus changes the water into wine at this wedding in Cana of Galilee, we are being alerted to something more important than the wine itself, no matter how much was made or how good it was. This sign points us to the one who is the source of all life and joy.
Biblical scholars tell us that images of wedding banquets appear frequently in scripture to point toward the restoration of Israel and when wine is mentioned, we are to be reminded that it is a symbol of joy and celebration. Not just any joy and celebration but the kind associated with salvation itself. The prophet Amos speaks of the day when “the mountains shall drip sweet wine. and all the hills shall flow with it,” for example (Amos 9:13). Isaiah speaks of the feast that God will prepare for all peoples, “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines … of well-aged wines strained clear” (Isaiah 25:6). The abundance of fine wine is a symbol of the abundance of joy that awaits not only Israel, but all peoples on the day of God’s salvation.
Our visitor sitting in the back may be a bit titillated by all this talk of wedding feasts and wine, but if I could sit next to our guest, I would whisper something in her ear. This story is a sign that in Jesus, life, joy and salvation have made their appearance and are not going anywhere. I would point her to the start of John’s Gospel in order to read that “in him was life, and that life was the light of all people” (1:4). And later in the Gospel, Jesus will tell us, “I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly” (10:10).
You see along with our guests sitting in the back, we all need to know or be reminded that Jesus brings us abundant life which means a life that is more than just a white knuckle holding on of existence and survival. No, abundant life is to have a relationship with a God who loves us so much that he doesn’t know hat it means to stop giving. He gives and gives and loves and loves.
But just so our guest doesn’t excuse me of bait and switch, I would quickly add that this isn’t the same as a life of ease, comfort, and material possessions. It’s also not a life where suffering and sorrow are somehow magically erased. But it does mean a life where we can find abundant, extravagant grace that will sustain us and see us through. Because, you see, being in Christ means that we are joined together with the source of true life, which as it turns out, can only be described in the extravagant story of turning water into wine at a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee.