2 Surprise Party: John 2.1–11
A sermon preached at Geraldton Anglican Cathedral 13th February 2022
John wants us to know Jesus, because knowing Jesus we will know God. He wants us to know who Jesus is, and what he has achieved. His method is to relate some of his own experiences. He hopes that as we see Jesus through his eyes we may believe as he does, and believing we will obtain life. Last week we learned about John’s first meeting with Jesus. Today he will tell us about Jesus’ first miracle. I will take us through the story.
On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.
There is a village named Cana a bit north of Nazareth on the way to the Lake of Galilee. It is often identified with the Cana in this story; this may be correct but is not certain. Here is the only mention of Cana in ancient literature—but the exact location of the village is not important. Jesus’ mother Mary has been invited to the wedding, and Jesus is included. Some of his disciples were also included, which means these men were already associated with Jesus, though this incident occurs before Jesus called them to leave their businesses and follow him on the road. There is no mention of Joseph; he is probably dead.
We need to think ourselves back in time. Policing was minimal in ancient societies. A woman’s chance of happiness in life rested on her family, and then her husband. Without the one or the other she was out in the cold and a prey to any man who wanted to use her for however long, and then cast her off. There was no social welfare to pick her up. Families, therefore, took good care of their daughters, and top of their list of priorities was to find her a suitable husband. A lot of family effort went into arranging a good marriage. The celebration of a marriage was an important occasion, not just for the bride and groom, but for the two families as well. It is still so in many parts of the world. A good wife was worth something, and In Israel the groom or his family had to pay a “bride price.” This is still the custom throughout Africa—called lobola. The going rate today is eleven cows or the cash equivalent, roughly USD1000 per cow. I don’t know what the amount was in Israel in the first century, but it was not small. In India women pay for their husband—the dowry system. Lorraine and I stayed with a family in Mumbai. Their son was studying engineering, and they were expecting he would fetch USD20,000 at his marriage. In Israel it was illegal to divorce your wife without first repaying the bride price, which was something of a protection for women.
We can be sure most people in Cana were present for this marriage, and friends and relations of the bride and groom’s families came from wherever. Food and drink needed to be provided, so, the cost was considerable, quite apart from the bride price.
I like to talk about Peter Kalangula. On my first visit to Ondangwa, near the border of Namibia and Angola, I was taken to his compound—a European-style house surrounded by a score of African rondavels—some for humans and some for grain—surrounded by a palisade fence. There was an ox tied up under a huge mopani tree. As we went in Peter said to me, “That’s your ox.” I had no idea what he meant. A while later there was a gunshot and when I came out of the house the men were butchering the animal with pangas. Peter told me there would be meat that night. When he took me round the town and introduced me to people he would say, “Why don’t you invite them to dinner?” So, when the time came it seemed like half the town was there. And the meat eating went on until the meat was gone—several days. Butchering an animal means a flood of meat, and where there is no refrigeration it has to be eaten. For people living near subsistence-level this is a godsend, but it is expensive for the provider. In Israel there was also wine to be bought.
Kenneth Bailey is a writer who lived for some time among the Palestinian Arabs. He studied their culture and believes we can understand Jesus much better if we think of him in that sort of society. That may be true to some degree, but he overlooks the 1500 years of Islamic influence. One obvious example of this is here in this story. Israel was a grape-producing and wine-drinking culture. Wine is forbidden for Muslims. Bailey makes a great deal of the Middle East being an honour-shame culture, and this was no doubt true of Israel in Jesus’ time—but it seems to me to be true of most cultures; people will do a lot to avoid shame. To run out of food or wine at a wedding was shameful—embarrassing to say the least. It’s no different now. I have never been to a wedding where supplies ran out. Most people over-cater like crazy, and some families put themselves seriously in debt. On this occasion the wine ran out, and the couple are about to begin their life together under a cloud of embarrassment and shame.
The mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Jesus’ mother wants him to do something. I wonder what she was expecting? John makes it clear that this was Jesus’ first miracle, so she would hardly have thought of a miracle. Jesus seems cross with her for asking. So what was she thinking?
At the time of his birth she was told he would be the promised king, the Messiah. It could not have been easy mothering him, knowing that. Thirty years have gone by, but Jesus has done nothing to suggest he is a king. He is now a grown man; surely it is time he made a move. I have no doubt that she knew from experience that he was clever and resourceful. I think she didn’t know what to expect, but was egging him on: “Do something! Start leading!” It probably wasn’t the first time she had pushed him. She was getting impatient.
Jesus pushes back. “Woman, what to you and to me?” That meant: “What do you and I have to do with each other? “Mind your own business!” Jesus adds, “My time has not yet come.” What time is that? It is the time for him to declare his kingship and announce his kingdom. He knows he is to be king, but the time has not yet come. This is odd, because we know from the story that his time had come. He pushes he mother away, and then turns around and does exactly what he told her he wouldn’t do. I can only think that the Holy Spirit signalled him in some way that actually his time had come. This means the start date for Jesus’ formal messianic mission was chosen by the Father God, not by him. This sounds strange to people who are used to thinking of the Trinity, but it is not surprising. John tells us the Word, who is God, became flesh. His human mission was to become the human king of Israel and eventually the world. As a man he looked to his Father and always sought to do his will. For thirty years that will was to work for his family, and God has not yet indicated a change. But now it seems God has decided that this was the time. And it may be significant that he chose a spoiled wedding feast as the occasion of Jesus’ “coming out”.
Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
A remarkable miracle! 700 litres of water turned into excellent wine. How good is that! There must have been a lot left over which the groom could sell to help him get started in his new life. What a wedding gift!
John goes on to say:
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
A miracle, but John calls it a sign! A sign points to something, so we need to ask what it points to. He has given us some clues. The first obvious meaning of the sign is that Jesus really is the person John tells us about in his first chapter: the Word that was with God in the beginning, the Word who is God, the Word made flesh, the one who perfectly makes the Father known. He is the also the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And then he is the Lamb of God, the new Moses who gets rid of all the world’s evil. He is the Messiah, the Christ, the one spoken of by Moses and the prophets in the Scriptures, the Son of God, the King of Israel, and the Son of Man. All this we learn in John’s first chapter. In chapter 2 we see him in action, doing his first miracle, and, of course, his disciples believed in him. Some people today believe in Jesus but not the miracles. They say that science makes miracles impossible. That just isn’t so. C.S. Lewis point out that changing water into wine is nothing special; it goes on in every vineyard, and back yard grapevine. This is just God working in his normal way, and that is what science is all about. Everything is miraculous when you think of it that way. What is to stop God, if he wants to work in a different way sometimes to make a point? John is clear that he and his friends believed in Jesus because of the miracles he did. If that is not true, and there was some other reason, why doesn’t he tells us what it was? No, the first thing the miracles point to is that Jesus is the Spirit-empowered Messiah who will bring in the kingdom of God—the new world.
But why these stone water-pots? Why does John bother to tell us they were for Jewish ceremonial washing rituals, and how much they held? If you visit Jerusalem today and go to the Wailing Wall you will see the Jewish men stop to wash their hands at the ritual water stand. Jewish religion was and still is full of symbols and rituals: washings, special foods, sacrifices; think of all the paraphernalia in the temple.
Was there something wrong with Jewish religion? No; it was given to them by God. But it was largely symbolic. The rituals had a meaning, but the meaning was often about what would happen at a future time. The whole Old Testament looks forward to the kingdom of God. Forgiveness lay in the future. God’s return was future. Liberation would come in the future. Even death would be abolished in the future. But now, according to the Baptizer, the one who takes away the sin of the world has come. “I baptize with water, but one stands in the midst of you, whom you do not know, who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ first miracle says something about Judaism and the new kingdom: the symbols are about to become reality! In another place Jesus said, “No one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does the skins burst and the wine is lost. New wine is for new wineskins.” (Mark 2.22) The life of the kingdom cannot be contained in the forms and rituals of the old religion. Water is about to become wine.
We need to understand that a shadow rested over Israel; this is what she believed herself. She was not the people she was meant to be. She was meant to be God’s bride, his special people set in the midst of the world to shine a light and demonstrate his presence to the nations. But she became unfaithful, and as the law says about an adulterous wife, God was obliged to divorce her. All this was explained to the prophet Hosea, and acted out in his life. Yet God made it clear that one day he would return:
“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her… And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal’… And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord. (Hosea 2.14–20)
So there is going to be a remarriage—another wedding—and the rescue of this spoiled marriage feast in Cana might just be the sign—the signal—that it was all about to happen.
But what happened? Sadly, the bride turned her back once more. The king came, but despite his willingness to forgive, despite his many healings, despite his feeding her in the wilderness, Israel would have none of it. And how could there be a kingdom without a bride—without Israel?
These are questions for another day. What I want to say now is that not all Israel turned its back. Remember John’s words: “He came to his own, and his own did not received him, but to those who received him, who believed in his name he gave authority to become the children of God.” (John 1) Also, the promises made to Israel are now made to the world—to you and to me. We must not turn our back.
And I want to draw your attention to a very important promise which God made to the world seven hundred years before Jesus came:
On this mountain—that’s Mt Zion, Jerusalem—the Lord of Hosts will make a feast for all peoples. A feast of rich food and superb wines, delicious, rich food and superb, elegant wines. On this mountain he will destroy the veil which covers the face of all peoples, the veil enshrouding all the nations. He will swallow up death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face, and he will remove from all the earth the disgrace his people suffer. The Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 25)
This promise could hardly have been far from John’s mind, nor Jesus’ mind, nor God’s who made it—when God chose a wedding with no wine, when Jesus willingly obeyed, when the master of ceremonies made the judgement: “But you have kept the good wine until last.” The wine of the new age is much more than religion, it is life itself. Jesus is saying to us: “You have a problem? You do! Death casts its shadow everywhere. The hysteria that grips the world—this pandemic, which is just a peanut in the greater scheme of things … You are all dying. You will all die. Death is the veil that covers the face of all people. But I can deal with it. I will remove it, starting on the mountain Jerusalem. You don’t believe? Well, walk with me for a while and see for yourself! Come with me and you will enjoy wine that you never imagined could taste so good in a new world where there is no death.
Next week we will see how Jesus brought everything to a standstill in the temple and threw out an extraordinary challenge.