At weddings, wine is more than just a festive beverage. It’s a sign. In the Old Testament, wine was a sign, a symbol of God’s grace. A symbol of joy and abundant blessings and even hope for the future. And at weddings it’s that for us too. Wine is a sign, a symbol that God has blessed this couple and this family with good things. Wine is an invitation to make merry- with appropriate moderation.
Wine is even a sign, a symbol of the couples joyous future life together- as wine takes time, loving care, patience and the payoff is down the line, something to enjoy to the fullest a little later.
In our gospel reading Jesus goes to a wedding, and that wine which is a wonderful sign of God’s blessing runs out. Jesus is going to take care of that. But in doing so he gives a gift greater than just wine for a wedding feast.
At the wedding at Cana Jesus gives us signs of things to come. Filling the six stone jars was a sign that the old Covenant was coming to fulfillment in the new. The famous wedding at Cana for whatever reason was a wedding that wasn’t well planned for.
Relatives had come from all over the region to celebrate with a couple whose names we are not told. The emphasis is never on the couple who are married, but on the wedding party and their family as a whole. Jesus and his disciples are there at the wedding, connected in some way by a close family relationship. In one way or another this wedding is part of Mary’s family.
And Mary informs Jesus of the problem the wedding is encountering early on in the celebration. She tells Jesus, “They have no wine”. Nearby there are six stone jars, usually used to hold water for ceremonial washing before offering sacrifices and prayers.
As is the case throughout the gospel of John, symbols are used as signs of deeper meanings. The Holy Spirit is communicating something about God’s kingdom with the stone jars. The stone jars are a symbol of the old covenant between God and his people Israel. Now after the Word made flesh was born to us and is at this wedding at Cana, the purification jars stand empty.
If wine is a sign of abundance and blessing over time, what are empty stone jars a sign of? Like an empty swimming pool or an empty store front avenue that is not what it once was, the jars were no longer serving the purpose they were made for. Purification would no longer be coming from ceremonial washings and sacrifices at the temple or any of the other mean revealed to God’s people- instead people will now become holy and pure through Jesus- God’s own Son.
Mary tells the servants to do whatever Jesus says, and he gives the commands. The stone jars are to be filled with water. What was once used for ritual washing is now turned into the wine of the new kingdom.
The covenant was always intended to run its course as a placeholder, and now keeping the law has been replaced with a new covenant of the forgiveness of sins through new life in Christ. This new covenant is a gift, it is a God’s grace, it is a joyful wedding celebration that we are all invited to.
God’s perfect law, that light to guide our path, now had begun to be fulfilled by Jesus the light of the world. His light will lead his people into eternity.
What an amazing sign Jesus gives with those 6 simple stone jars- the Old Covenant coming to fulfillment in the new. But there is more in the miracle. Before Jesus turned the water into wine he spoke about the time it is. Not the time such as 3’ o clock in the afternoon, but the time in God’s kingdom, the season in salvation history.
Turning water into wine was a sign that the coming Messiah was here. As Galatians describes, the Fulness of Time had come. The servants take a sample of the wine from the water jars to the master of the feast. The master of the feast tastes the wine and discovers that it is better than what they had before. The wedding party now was in possession of gallons upon gallons of the choicest wine, the good stuff.
The feast can now continue without embarrassment. Only the servants are aware what has happened behind the scenes with the wine shortage and the provision Jesus created. It is our human nature to be highly motivated to avoid embarrassment.
People will indeed go to great lengths to give to the public the appearance that all is well. In our previous few generations in America, covering up embarrassment was from my observation- particularly important to people. So many of us Midwestern European Americans cared more about their family looking good to the outside world than they cared about how healthy those within the family are. The result of this foolish concern with outward appearances is that love and empathy toward one another in the family was often put aside.
God’s Word is not concerned about such outward appearances in society. Saving people from embarrassment in society is not the great priority of God’s kingdom. The miracle of changing water into wine was about more than saving the wedding family from embarrassment. It was about things that matter far more. Things of God’s kingdom.
As is the case with so many of Jesus’ miracles, he took a bad situation and made it a moment to show the kingdom of God is at hand, he showed the time of the reign of the Messiah was now here. This first miracle of Jesus, this first sign as John calls it, brings them to believe in Jesus. The Messiah the world has been waiting for is here!
Jesus’ words to Mary were a sign of things to come. Recall how Jesus first answered his mother: “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come”
Although it sounds to our modern ears as a put off, it is not impolite at all. Jesus knew he would not put off when his hour would come. Jesus’ words to Mary were a sign of the time, the hour for which he had come into the world.
Jesus knew the cross loomed ahead of him. That would be his hour, his time. This would be the hour the time when he would redeem the whole world from sin.
That is what it, everything is all about- your life, your family and friends, your joy and abundant blessings, your future hope -Every good gift is our because Jesus’ death on the cross has reconciled us to the Father, brought us back together with the Giver.
The master of the feast comments how refreshing it was to save the best wine for the end, when people are not going to notice as much in the spirit of merriment. This man had no idea how true his words were with respect to Jesus. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world
In the fullness of time Jesus came as the last of the prophets because all prophets pointed to him. And Jesus death on the cross was the- save the best for last- act of unimaginable love. The greatest of his miracles was the crucifixion and his resurrection.
Because Jesus turned the water into the wine and showed he was the Messiah, because Jesus willingly laid down his life on the cross and became exalted above every name under heaven and on earth, we know with absolute certainty that the best is yet to come for us.
In the meantime, our Christian faith is one of waiting in patience and in prayer for those gifts Jesus brings to us. When you feel weighed down by life challenges, that is particularly when the events of John chapter 2 are very important to listen to and meditate on.
Jesus made himself known as Messiah with his first miracle in a context of merriment and joy- at a wedding feast. This joy is here for you and I today. The Lord’s Supper is given to you today as a sign and participation of the wedding feast of the lamb and His kingdom, of we the church the bride and Christ the bridegroom. And as we pray in our liturgy, this is indeed a fore taste of the feast to come, this is only the beginning.
Water into wine at the wedding at Cana is more than a party saved- It’s a sign of the time, the hour Jesus would save all of us- save us from our old sinful lives, save us for new lives of love and marriage and caring and serving, save us for eternal life, and the feast where the wine never runs out. Amen.