Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
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John 2:1-11
Jesus Changes Water to Wine
On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
4 “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, 9 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 10 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.”
11 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.
The Gospel of John includes a number of stories that aren’t in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Several of those stories are among my favorites from the life of Jesus. This is one of them. It’s also the subject of one of the most affecting episodes of Season One of The Chosen.
Maybe the reason I like this story so much is that it shows Jesus in a somewhat more relaxed setting – taking part in an event where people are having fun. Where people are celebrating. And Jesus acts to help those people have fun. He performs a miracle that isn’t a matter of life and death, but one that adds to people’s joy on an important day in their lives.
My sense is that lots of followers of Jesus – including most of my fellow Presbyterians – tend to picture our master as extremely grave and serious all the time. (My suspicion is that we picture Jesus looking like one of us – like a Presbyterian. But we’ll let that go for the moment.) But that image of Jesus as terminally grave is probably wrong. The gospels say that both children and people who weren’t religious flocked around Jesus, and both of those groups are attracted to happy, smiling, joyful people – not grave and serious people.
In the story we’re thinking about today, his mother Mary comes to Jesus when the wine runs low at a wedding feast. That suggests to me that Mary thought her son would want to keep the celebration going. So Jesus must have been engaged in the celebration. If he was sitting in the corner agonizing over the burden of sin, don’t you think she’d be a lot less likely to approach him about replenishing the wine?
This is obviously a well-known story – just about everybody knows what you’re referring to if you mention “turning water into wine.” But as well-known as the story might be, it’s been my experience that people get a puzzled look on their faces when you ask them what the point of the story might be. I asked that question in a Bible study class once, and a very devout lady said it’s in the Bible to show that Jesus could do miracles. But there are plenty of other stories in the gospels about Jesus doing miracles in more life-or-death settings. And besides, he always refused to do miracles just to show he could – so it’s unlikely the Holy Spirit would put a story in the Bible just for that purpose.
But aside from showing that Jesus was in favor of people celebrating and having fun sometimes, two related points leap out at me when I read this story.
First of all, as we’ve said on a number of occasions about the miracles of Jesus, the New Testament scholars say those miracles should be understood as “signs” or previews of the kingdom of God. In that kingdom, the sick will be healed, the blind will be given back their sight, the dead will be restored to life, and those who are hungry in this world will be satisfied. So when Jesus performs a miracle in the gospels, he is giving us a glimpse of that kingdom to come.
So what about this story? Why would turning water into wine be a preview of the kingdom of God?
A couple of thoughts: Prophesies about the coming kingdom of God (like the Beatitudes) suggest that those who struggle with scarcity in this world will find abundance in the kingdom. Those who are forced to settle for the poor and the cheap in this world will experience richness and abundance in the kingdom. And Jesus making a whole bunch of wine – and very good wine – would seem to point to that future richness and abundance.
And what’s more, in the Bible, wine is often used as a symbol of joy. So maybe this miracle promises that in the heavenly kingdom, those whose joy runs out in this world will find it replenished abundantly there.
Which brings me to the second point this story makes. It seems to me this story is an invitation for those who follow Jesus to expect joy in the things of this life.
We Presbyterians are Calvinists. And there’s an old joke about Calvinism that defines it as “the sneaking suspicion that somebody somewhere is having a good time.” OK, so we Calvinists probably deserve our reputation for terminal seriousness. But this story seems to invite us to lighten up – to find joy in the worthy things of this life – like the celebration of a wedding.
And, by the way, don’t forget that Jesus says in Luke 15 that there’s a celebration in heaven each time a sinner turns back to the Father. The experts on church life say that 2,000 people a day become followers of Jesus, so celebration would seem to be the main thing going on in heaven. Maybe if we’re serious about helping God to bring about his kingdom “on earth, as it is in heaven” we should make it a habit to foster joy in ourselves. After all, joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit.
It might seem odd to be talking about joy in the middle of turbulent times like these. But we live in a time when our chance of dying a violent death are about half of what they were 100 years ago. Hunger has been reduced by more than half in the last 25 years. Several of the most deadly diseases have been all but wiped out. (Mostly by the same vaccines that so many Americans now refuse to accept.)
And on top of that, we have the assurance that our greatest hope is not in this world anyway. We have been promised a new and abundant life in Jesus, and a share in his resurrection.
So, even in the most challenging times, who has more to be joyful about than the followers of Jesus? What could be more appropriate than a story in which our master miraculously restores abundant joy to a wedding feast?
Let’s Pray. Lord, we thank you for the kindness of Jesus’ gracious gesture at the wedding of this couple, and we thank you for the sign it gives of the joy we will share in your heavenly kingdom. Even in the midst of these scary and difficult times, help us to be agents of the joy of Jesus in the lives of those we encounter. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
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