Weddings are special. All normally goes well, even though I
always warn the happy couple that something can easily go
wrong...and often does (as all the footage on America's Funniest
Home Videos through the years regularly attests). My advice to
wedding parties is to LOOK for something to go wrong, then
consider it as God's good gift to keep us on our toes.
Weddings can be adventures. I will never forget one several
years ago that went just beautifully until the very end of the
ceremony. In that tender moment when bride and groom kissed, the
bride's five-year-old brother, the ring bearer, let out with a
"YUK!" The congregation was on the floor laughing. As people
left that afternoon, the placed glowed with everyone's grins.
And in years to come, when people think of that wedding, the one
thing they will remember is YUK!
In a way, that is what we are confronted with in our gospel
lesson. This one ALMOST became one of those weddings to remember
and for a reason which would have mortified the bride and groom.
Consider the scene...a village wedding feast, a really
notable occasion, especially in this exceptionally poor, dusty
region of Judea...a genuinely joyous event. Your invitation
would have come from the groom (the one who would be footing the
bill, a practice that some of my friends who have many daughters
would like to see resumed). The ceremony would be scheduled for
a Wednesday evening (that was the rule to allow travelers to
avoid the necessity of going any distance on the sabbath). Then
the other card in the envelope would say, "Reception to follow
over the next seven days and nights.(1) RSVP." They needed to
know how many would be showing up so they could make adequate
preparation for food and drink. They would certainly not want to
run out of anything, because in that part of the country, a lack
of hospitality was a terrible social faux pas.
As to the ceremony itself, it would be preceded by a huge
feast with the actual exchanging of the vows late in the evening.
Afterwards, the couple would be led on a winding trek through the
town by the light of flaming torches, a canopy over their heads,
allowing the other townspeople the opportunity for
congratulations and good wishes ending up at the couple's new
home. Then for another week or so, the newlyweds would host an
open house. They would wear crowns and dress in their bridal
robes. They were treated like king and queen and, for that week,
their word was law.(2) In a life of poverty and hard work, such a
week was truly a great occasion.
As to this specific wedding in Cana of Galilee, about four
and a half miles from Nazareth, no doubt much of the town was
involved in the festivities. Jesus' mother, Mary, was there, so
probably, the principals were relatives of hers or, at the very
least, good friends. Joseph is not mentioned, and scholars
believe that by this time, he had died. Some even indicate the
belief that Jesus remained in Nazareth until he was thirty years
old because Joseph had died and the family needed the care of the
eldest son until the brothers and sisters could become self-supporting, but that is just conjecture. Mary was probably close
enough to the wedding family to have helped with the
arrangements, for, as we shall see, she had authority over the
servants to get things accomplished. Jesus was invited. And he
showed up...WITH his disciple friends. A good time was being had
by all when, horror of horrors, the wine ran out.
Now, nobody runs out of wine at a Jewish wedding. It is an
insult to the guests, for as we mentioned, hospitality in the
East is more than a social grace, it is a sacred duty. It would
be a terrible humiliation for the bridal couple, and, in a small
town, it would have been talked about for a generation. ("YUK!")
EXPECTATIONS, you see.
Understand something here about wedding "rules" in Jesus'
world, and especially the rules about wedding gifts. There were
four classes of wedding guests: the poor guests were not expected
to give any gift; the honored guests (for example, a ruler, or a
rabbi) should not give gifts. Guests who were merely
acquaintances or who were relatives living in a different village
were expected to make some contribution to cover the cost of the
week-long feast. Guests who were close friends and relatives of
the bridegroom were under obligation to reciprocate for wedding
gifts which the groom had given to them at their own weddings (or
to give with the expectation that they would be reciprocated at
their future weddings). If a guest did not reciprocate with the
correct and appropriate monetary gift, the groom could file a
suit against him in court!!! The groom and his parents were
expected to provide food and drink for the guests - if the
feast had to end prematurely, because of the lack of food or
drink, the groom would be expected to "make good" with a larger
gift to his friends and relatives at their (future) weddings.
That could be a substantial financial loss for this young man.(3)
Are you beginning to see? The lack of wine was much more than
just embarrassment or inconvenience.
So Mary came to Jesus, the head of her household, the one to
whom she probably came for years with problems like this, ever
since her husband died. "My son, they have no more wine."
Jesus responds, "Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time
has not yet come."
There is no indication as to whether Mary had the slightest
clue of what he was talking about, but she did have every
confidence that he would come up with a solution, so she just
told the servants, the ones waiting on the tables, "Do whatever
he tells you." Come to think of it, that is good advice anytime
we encounter Jesus, isn't it?
Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they
filled them up to the brim. Six huge stone water jars normally
used for washing road dust or mud from a traveler's hands and
feet, each holding between twenty and thirty gallons - that means
between 120 and 180 gallons total. Okee Dokee! Jesus then
instructed, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward"
(the maitre d'). We know the rest of the story. The water had
been turned to wine. Gallons and gallons and gallons of it! Is
there a warning here? Be careful when you ask the Lord for
something? His sense of proportion is different from ours. When
the Lord steps in, things HAPPEN...BIG time!
Are you ready for that? One of our most eloquent writers
has asked, "Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power
we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a
word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with
their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday
morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet
gloves to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets..."(4)
The wine, of course, was excellent. The maitre d' even
joked to the bridegroom, "Hey, this is better than what we
started out with. Most people would use the really good wine
first and then come out with the Mooby Fooby (remember that
stuff?) after everybody is blitzed." Perhaps he thought, "Well,
what can you expect from a newlywed?"
Little did he know...and when it comes right down to it,
little do we know. We know the result: the water was turned to
wine and the celebration was saved. How did it happen? The
problem was turned over to Jesus. That is all we know, other
than the fact that he handled it.
I remember one of those old "Kids Say the Darndest Things"
shows with Art Linkletter. Art, himself a preacher's kid, asked
a little girl what her favorite Bible story was, and she
responded with this one about Jesus turning the water into wine.
Linkletter asked what we learn from the story. The girl
answered, "If you run out of wine, pray."(5)
I think it was Mark Twain who quipped after a reading of
this story, "No wonder Jesus was invited to so many parties!"
Indeed.
Another little girl who had just been told this story from
the gospel was asked what does this story teach us? She replied
with wisdom beyond her years, "I guess it teaches us that when
you have a wedding, it's a good idea to have Jesus there."(6) Amen
and Amen!
I remember the story of the cynic who commented to a friend
that he could not believe that Jesus actually turned water into
wine. The friend, who happened to be a recovering alcoholic who
had come to trust Jesus as Lord and Savior, replied, "I don't
know anything about that. I just know that, in my house, Jesus
changed whiskey into furniture."
As I said at the beginning of this, IN A WAY, our lesson
confronts us with the story of an ancient, small-town wedding.
IN A WAY! You see, the gospel of John NEVER tells stories...this
one or any other...for just their narrative value. As you Bible
scholars know very well, of all the gospel writers, John ALWAYS
has a point to make. The setting here is a wedding, an image
long associated with God's marvelous provision for the faithful.
Centuries before, Isaiah could pick up the spirits of the exiles
returned to Jerusalem: "As a young man marries a maiden, so will
your sons marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so
will your God rejoice over you."(7) At the end of history, the
book of Revelation describes "a new heaven and a new earth...And
I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven
from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her
husband."(8) For John, this scene in Cana is not about a miracle.
In fact, John simply calls it a SIGN. What do signs do? Point
us to something. In this case, John comes right out and tells
us: HE THUS REVEALED HIS GLORY! If I recall my Greek well
enough, the word we translate as "glory" (doxa) means more than
radiance or light, but it also carries with it the sense of
weight or heft. Put all that together and the message for John
(and remember he places this event right at the beginning of
Jesus' earthly ministry) is not about Jesus rescuing a party, it
is that this Jesus whom we are about to get to know is some
HEAVY-DUTY fellow, someone to take exceedingly seriously!
For those who were meeting this incredible man for the first
time, this was an important note. For those of us who have met
him so many, many times - so often that we are almost inclined to
take him for granted - this is an important word as well.
Our old friend Fred Craddock once said that he tried to
condense everything about a text into one sentence. This was the
heart of what he would say in the pulpit, drawing of course, as
he preached, from all the research done during the week. Interesting idea. And it did not take too much wrestling with
this text to come up with that one sentence summary. It is this:
THIS JESUS IS SOMETHING! This Jesus is something. This JESUS is
SOMETHING!
Has the wine run out in your life? Has the joy of your
faith gone away? Is your life like those jars, just sitting
around, empty? Surely, one of the lessons of this wonderful
story can be that "THE BEST IS YET TO COME." When we invite
Jesus Christ into our stories, the ordinary can become
extraordinary and we will be rejuvenated as never before.
There is an ancient account around about the priest who was
pulled over by a state trooper because he had been weaving all
over the road. The officer came to the side of the car, looked
in, saw the priest, and at the same moment, saw what looked to be
a thermos. "What's in the bottle, Father?"
"Nothing but water, officer."
"Let me check." The officer sniffed. "Water, nothing.
This is WINE."
Whereupon the good father clasped his hands together, looked
reverently toward heaven and said, "Praise be, He's done it
again!"
Has the wine in your life run out? Remember, THIS JESUS IS
SOMETHING! And he can do it again. He can do it again.
Amen!
1. See Judges 14:12
2. William Barclay, The Gospel of John, Vol. 1, Daily Study Bible Series, (Philadelphia:
Westminster, 1975), pp. 96-97
3. Janet Hass, via Ecunet, "Sermonshop 1998 01 18," #138, 1/15/98
4. Annie Dillard, Teaching A Stone To Talk, p.58
5. Ann Brizendine, via Ecunet, "Sermonshop 1998 01 18," #33, 1/13/98
6. Bass Mitchell, via Ecunet, "Sermonshop 1998 01 18," #25, 1/12/98
7. Isaiah 62:5
8. Rev. 21:1-2
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