Our gospel reading is one of the Bible stories that I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to have fun with. I’ve preached a couple weeks ago about many Bible passages being lighthearted and some outright funny. Well this is certainly a lighthearted one. I mean, Jesus turns water into wine. You do the math. There’s six stone water jars, 20-30 gallons each. That’s something like 180 gallons of fine wine! I know wedding receptions can get pretty big. Sometimes lots of alcohol gets consumed, but 180 gallons of wine?!? Can you imagine the looks you’d get if you went into a liquor store and attempted to buy 180 gallons of fine wine? And through it’s lightheartedness, this Bible passage is also teaching us some big things about God.
It starts off by introducing the scene – a wedding in Galilee. Among the guests are Jesus’ mother and his disciples. This is a big wedding of someone quite well-to-do. Typically these wedding celebrations would go on for several days. The wine gives out, and now the situation could get embarrassing. Mary, being a good Jewish mother volunteer’s her son’s services. Jesus replies, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?” Jesus isn’t being derogatory here to call his mother “woman”. True, it is unusual, but it isn’t rude or hostile. Jesus frequently addressed women with this greeting. Some have suggested that by Jesus calling Mary “woman” he is signifying that she is somehow a new Eve, but this isn’t so. What he is basically saying is, “Mom, who cares? It’s not my problem, nor is it yours.”
But like any good Jewish mother she ignores him and says, “Do whatever he tells you.” It’s kind of funny to think of Jesus as a grown man being ordered around by his mother, while he can rebuke demons and refuse all sort of other demands placed upon him. I think the image is supposed to be a bit comic, but it sets up the stage for this big teaching. Mary continues to trust in Jesus’ ability to act, but still respects his freedom. That’s a big thing for all of us to remember when asking God for things – trust God’s ability to act, but still accept God’s freedom for how and when to act.
The second part of Jesus’ reply here is really significant. He says, “My hour has not yet come.” When will be that hour? At the crucifixion. In a way, this joy filled scene at the beginning of the gospel is intended to be a bookend to the sorrow filled scene at the cross. And to prove that John intended us to connect this with the cross, consider that Mary only appears twice in John’s gospel. Once is here. Jesus says, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” And what does John record him saying from the cross? John 19:26 says, “When Jesus saw that his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciples, “Here is your mother.”
Just as a new family is created in a marriage, and just as Mary shows up only at the wedding in Cana and at the crucifixion, so too a new family is born here at Jesus’ true hour of glory – the hour of the cross.
Returning to the wedding at Cana, John’s gospel says, “Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them to the brim. Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward. So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
There are several things to note about this. First about these jars. These are not ordinary earthen vessels. Clay pots were regularly made, used, and then broken. Clay pots were the Styrofoam cups of the day. But these weren’t clay pots. These were stone jars. Someone had spent a lot of time carving these things. They were valuable, and they had a clear and specific purpose – for holding water for the rites of purification. These valuable stone jars, once used to hold water for purification before God are now used by God to supply an overabundance of blessings to people; 180 gallons of wine. A new reality has dawned. These stone vessels are doing new work – holding abundant blessings.
A second thing to note is this – God has saved the best for last. God hasn’t served the good wine first and left us with the leftovers. No, God has an abundance of good things for us too. The steward of the reception has made a mistake. He thinks the good wine is the gift of the bridegroom, when in fact the wine comes as a gift from Jesus, the ultimate bridegroom as we learn about in 3:29.
Mixed with this story is God’s ability to provide, and not provide scantily. God didn’t provide enough bottles of wine for the family to save face from the lack of wine. God provided to excess. And God’s providence is complete; everything from basic nourishment, the wine, to all the way to emotional health, saving embarrassment from running out of wine.
The message for us is clear – God will provide. Life is filled with good things, and not things as in “stuff” you buy at a store. Good things like wholeness, happiness, joy, love, peace, fullness of life, etc.
And before we leave this text, we have to remember that part of its point is it’s unpredictability. Commentator Gail O’Day notes, in the typical dry fashion of biblical commentators, “…the miracle challenges conventional assumptions about order and control, about what is possible, about where God is found and where God is known. Indeed, the impact of the miracle is lost if one does not entertain these and similar questions, because the force of the miracle derives precisely from its extraordinariness, from the dissonance it creates…. It is a miracle of abundance, of extravagance, of transformation and new possibilities. The grace the miracle offers and the glimpse of Jesus glory it provides run outside conventional expectations and place the reader at with how he or she thought the world was ordered.” (New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 9, pg. 540)
It certainly does. In the midst of what we think of as the serious work of God’s kingdom; in the midst of a world of limited resources, scarcity, and hunger; in the midst of our lives which we run with good stewardship of time, talents, and possessions; comes this miracle of abundance with no deep purpose, at least according to our standards. Who cares if they run short on wine? It wasn’t really that important. And how on earth could they responsibly consume 180 gallons of fine wine? You can’t.
I believe this miracle invites us into God’s life of unexpected surprises, unconventional logic, and a glimpse into God’s joyous nature. God smiles. God has fun, simply because it is fun to have fun.
God was at hand, first hand meeting people. And God was having fun with them. God wants to have fun with you, in you, and through you too. Sure, there is serious work to do. But we are encouraged to embark upon that serious and important work with a deep joy, inspired by our God’s miracles. Amen