Sermon on The Wedding at Cana (John 2: 1-11)
There are a lot of stories in the bible that I wish included more details, or that we had “video replay” of. Well-written stories really help you picture the scene and understand the nuances of what’s happening. Of course, there’s no video available and unfortunately, story detail wasn’t always the priority for the biblical authors, in particular, the gospel writers.
Especially in the gospels, the storytelling is often very sparse, and even when we do get some descriptive detail included, a lack of complete knowledge about the culture and language of the time, can make it difficult for us to know if we’re correctly interpreting the scene.
And, when it comes to the dialogue in particular, we run into that issue we often get in our era with texting: we’ve probably all had that experience where you get a message from someone on your phone - or by email - and because tone and body language are missing from those mediums, we’ve accidentally misinterpreted what was being said. Perhaps something was said jokingly, but you didn’t pick up on that, or they were being sarcastic and you took it literally.
Today, we heard John’s account of the wedding in Cana. It’s longer and has more detail than Luke’s baptism story, for sure - but there are still some issues we need to contend with as we try to figure out what’s going on, and what Luke’s angle might be.
As the second chapter of John’s gospel opens, Jesus is at a wedding in Cana in Galilee. At this point, Jesus has already been baptized by John and has started his public ministry. And he has some disciples.
John writes: “On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.”
So, just in verse 1, we know 1) there’s a wedding, 2) it’s the “third day” and 3) Jesus and his mother are both there.
And there are already some issues and questions we need to ask.
The first issue: lack of detail.
John says “On the third day” a wedding took place in Cana. But there’s no other context given, so we’re left wondering: “On the third day OF WHAT? Of the week? Of a journey?
The phrase “on the third day” appears in other places, most notably when Jesus speaks about the destiny of the son of man (who will be raised on the third day), and of course in the resurrection stories themselves which state that it was “on the third day” after the crucifixion that Jesus is raised from the dead.
So we might wonder if John is using this phrase as possible foreshadowing of Jesus' death and resurrection. But even if we have an idea as to why John is using this phrase, we’re still left wondering: ‘on the “third day” of’ what? When did this wedding and this “miracle” of Jesus take place?
And there are more questions we could ask: Whose wedding was it? And why was Jesus there? We know, according to John, that Jesus and his disciples were invited guests, as was Jesus’ mother. So since there’s no birth narrative in John’s gospel, this is actually the first introduction to Jesus’ family members that we readers get from John. To this point, John has only presented Jesus as “Jesus of Nazareth”.
So now we know that Jesus has a mother.
Strangely though, Jesus’ mother is ever actually named in John’s gospel, although she is mentioned quite a few times. Jesus father Joseph is named (in 6:42), but not Mary. Yet other Mary’s – notably, Mary the sister of Lazarus and Martha, and Mary Magdalene – are mentioned by John by name.
So to recap so far, we we know there’s a wedding; we know Jesus and Mary are there. this whole narrative starts off by leaving us with unanswered questions. We don’t know when the wedding happened. We don’t know what third day is being referenced. We don’t know who was getting married. And that’s just verse one.
Next we find out that the disciples had also been invited, although they don’t figure at all into the story, except for John’s mentioning that they were there with Jesus.
Some other questions we could ask: Why were Jesus and and his mother invited to the wedding? What was their relationship to the people being married? Was Jesus’ father Joseph invited? Was he there?
We can ask these questions, but since we don’t have a lot of clues to help us make educated guesses, we’ll stop there and work with what we have.
One thing that John does seem to make clear at least, is that Jesus and his mother were among the invited guests, which mean they wouldn’t have been responsible for providing the wine at the wedding. So presumably they are simply enjoying the wedding banquet when at some point, it becomes apparent that the wine has run out (gasp!). And it’s at this point where I’d love to have video and audio of the exchange between Jesus and his mother.
According to John, Jesus’ mother comments to him, “They have no wine.”
Perhaps it was just an empathetic comment, an observation where you tap the person next to you at the table and maybe point to the corner where people with empty wine glasses are being turned away by the wine steward.
“Look, (grimace) they’ve run out of wine!
Or perhaps there was some annoyance: Looks at own glass, then up… “Oh great they’re out of wine”... and my glass is empty!"
+ + +
Or was it something else? Jesus’ response may point to a different tone Mary might have been using - something more along the lines of a hint, or an urging.
(Mary jabbing elbow into Jesus' side, then gesturing): “They have no wine!…”
(Then Mary gestures for jesus to go over and do something)
If that’s what was happening, if Mary was trying to promote Jesus to take action, then another question arises: WHY did Mary think Jesus could solve the situation? And if she did think he could fix things, HOW was she expecting him to do that?
Because Jesus’ response in the next verse does seem to indicate she thought he could - and should - help out.
“Woman, what is it to me and to you? … In other words, why should we care? We’re guests, we’re not responsible for supplying the wine.
Then, cryptically, Jesus says: “My hour has not yet arrived.”
Now at first glance, Jesus’ response sounds pretty curt, pretty disrespectful to his mother. But one wonders if this response from Jesus sounds more disrespectful than it should because of the way it’s translated. Some have suggested that if we were to substitute “Ma’am” “Señora” or “Milady” for the word “woman,” maybe we would be closer to the tone that is probably intended. Or, it’s possible Jesus was just outright annoyed by what he thought his mother was suggesting.
Then there’s this statement, “My hour has not yet arrived.”
It seems that Jesus’ main objection isn’t that it’s someone else’s ‘wine fail’ - which again, shouldn’t be their problem. \It’s something else.
Now when we look through John’s gospel, we find a few references to “the hour” and Jesus, which seem important to consider.
7:30 Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come.
8:20 He spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury of the temple, but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.
13:1 Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father.
17:1 Jesus… looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you…
So it seems as though Jesus’ “hour” has to do with the moment when God has determined that his identity as the the son, and his purpose as the Messiah, will be revealed.
So, in our story today, it’s likely that when Jesus is telling his mother that it’s not yet “the hour” - he is sensing that it’s not God’s will in that moment, for his “gifts” and his purpose to be revealed.
But Mary isn’t having it. We can’t really be sure what her motivation is in pushing Jesus to act in the moment, but she does seem to be pushing. She brushes off Jesus’ objection by motioning to the servants and telling them to “Do whatever he (Jesus) tells you”.
Again, we don’t have the benefit of seeing her body language or hearing her tone of voice, but you can imagine… the pursed lips, arched eyebrows and slight nods - it’s clear that she’s expecting Jesus to act. And, surprise, Jesus gives in: he tells the servants to take the six empty stone jars that are sitting nearby and gets them to fill the jars up with water. Once they’re filled, he tells them to draw some water out and to take it to the chief steward.
They do so, and when the chief steward tastes what’s in the jars, he immediately realizes it’s wine, and not just any wine, it’s better wine than the guests have been drinking all evening.
Another somewhat curious thing: John doesn’t seem too concerned with “how” the water is changed into wine. It seems to simply happens the jars of water are being carried over to the wine steward.
The details of when the liquid transmogrified from water into something entirely different is left up to our imaginations. That it happened: yes. How it happened: nope, no details - apparently not that important. It’s what this water being turned into wine signifies that is absolutely, super important to John.
I keep coming back to Jesus’ comment about his hour having not yet arrived. And the other references to “his hour” by John all having to do with Jesus’ impending arrest, which leads to his eventual trial and his execution. It’s on the Mount of Olives just before his arrest that Jesus, in prayer with God, acknowledges that the hour has now come for “the son to be glorified”.
Of course, we know what happens: Jesus is arrested, and put to death.
And all seems lost. The Jesus party, if you will, has come to a tragic end. Jesus’ family and his disciples are grieving and in hiding. And it’s just then that we find out God - on the third day, no less - has one more surprise in store. And not just any surprise.
God has, in fact, saved the best for last.
When we look at the account of the wedding at Cana, what do we see?
A wedding feast that’s about to be ruined, along with the reputation of the family hosting the wedding. For we know that in a culture where honour and shame and hospitality played a significant role, it would have been deeply embarrassing and for the host family to run out of wine during he wedding feast. In fact, it probably would have been close to disastrous for the family’s reputation.
It's also worth noting that John calls Jesus’ turning water into wine not a miracle, but a sign (semeion in Greek). And signs (there are seven in John’s gospel) are meant to point us to something beyond themselves. Like road signs, they’re meant to alert us to something that lies ahead of us, that’s coming up.
The sign of Jesus changing the water into wine at the Cana wedding then, we can assume is pointing us to something far more valuable than good wine saving a wedding. John seems to be wanting here to give his readers a sign of something yet to come, something to look forward to. Something Jesus himself will do and/or will reveal to us.
Let’s not forget too, that the image of the wedding banquet itself is used frequently in the Hebrew testament as a metaphor for the restoration of Israel, and wine is frequently used as a symbol of the joy and celebration associated with the salvation of the people.
So, what if this is more than a “Jesus’ first miracle story”? What if John understood what happened at the wedding at Cana as actually a foreshadowing of the resurrection?
It would be easy to assume that the new testament writers picked up on this and that we would then see, as in John’s account today, an intentional use of the wedding feast to illustrate the salvation they believed Jesus, their Messiah, had accomplished.
I said earlier that Jesus’ disciples don’t figure into the story at all, but that’s not quite true. They aren’t part of the action, but at the end of the story, John tells us that “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him” (v.11)
For the early Christian community, Jesus’ resurrection was God’s “one more surprise” - revealing through Jesus that death cannot defeat the power of God’s love.
And that’s the message within the story - that we’re working with, some 2000 years later. John lifts up this story of water being turned into wine at the wedding feast as one way of testifying for his readers to this good news.
So what about us? Can this story speak to us?
For me, I can think of ways that it feels like the party is on the verge of possibly ending.
More than one party.
I worry that the “democracy party” in our part of the world is in danger of running out of the wine of people willing to support it.
I worry that the “liveable planet party” we’ve enjoyed thus far throughout human history is running out of the wine of a healthy atmosphere.
I worry that the “being able to disagree without becoming enemies” party is running out of people willing to listen to each other with empathy.
I’ve had times in my life when I’ve been overwhelmed with the feeling that the party that is supposed to be my one wild and precious life, is running out of the wine of joy and hope and purpose.
I’m guessing I’m not alone in feeling like there are a lot of life-giving parties that we’ve been invited to, that are low on metaphorical wine these days. And into the rising fear and anxiety that can come with this feeling, God wants to speak words of life to us.
We may hear it through John today, reminding us that just as the party seems to be over, God has another surprise in store for us.
We may hear it in Paul’s words, the other reading today, reminding us that we are the body of Christ, and that we each have gifts to use in Christ’s ministry that we carry on. And part of that ministry can be taking stock of the party, looking around, getting creative and allowing grace and love to flow through us, turning ordinary things in to the wine of new life.
Pick your party, folks. And with Christ’s love in your hearts and with the gifts of the spirit, make that wine flow.
PRAYER:
God, just as your grace flowed through Jesus in turning ordinary water into the wine of new life, grace and renewal, we ask that our spirit guide us, as Christ’s body in the world, to use our gifts in love and trust that we may also be participants in keeping the wine of abundant life flowing in the feast of life that is your desire for all things.
Amen.
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