Colin
The Wedding at Cana John
2: 1-11 18th January 2004
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Yesterday
was a great day for me because, I experienced a miracle. The sun rose.
The sky was bright blue for most of the day. The weather was
cool but sharp. All of creation looked magnificent under the steely blue
sky. People felt better because the sun was shining. The world
looked better in the brightness. The natural processes that God created
went on as they always do, enabling the Earth, and the animals and insects
and plants of the Earth, and the people of the Earth, to go on living. Children
were born. Essential balances that enable the Earth to go on working
were re-created by the power of that bright sun. The miracle of nature
that God created continued yesterday, and has continued into today, and
miraculously, our life has been sustained for another 24 hours.. It
was a great day because I experienced a miracle!
Another amazing miracle happened to me in the past week. I turned water into wine. I brought some of it along this morning so that you could see this miracle. You can taste it if you would like at the end of the service, although it’s not very good wine! I started of with lots of plain ordinary water. I added some fruit and some other bits and pieces. I stirred in some yeast. Within 24 hours the mixture started to ferment. It bubbled away and smelt as only fermenting wine can do. It eventually stopped fermenting and settled. Some miracles happen quite slowly! It’s not quite cleared yet, but miraculously, the water has turned from water into wine.
Funnily enough, at the same these miracles have been happening, it’s been quite an average week too, because, amazing miracles, just like these ones, happened all of this past week. In fact these miracles have been going on for a very long time. The miracle of life, and how it is sustained, goes on 24 hours every day and 365 days each year across the whole of our world.
VISUAL ILLUSTRATION
We all see life in different ways, and to some extent, what we see depends on whether we really want to see, or not. We all hear the sounds of life in different ways, and to some extent what we hear depends on whether we want to hear, or not. I’m pouring some of my home-made wine into this glass, and we all see something slightly different. If asked what we see, some of us would say we just see a glass. Some will say a glass with coloured liquid in it; some a glass that is half empty; some a glass that is half full. Some will see the glass in the context of its surroundings. Mostly we just see what we see, and rarely do we ponder the real meaning of the things that we see. Most days, when the sun is shining, all we see is the sun. We don’t ponder, as I did earlier, on the miracle of life that the sun sustains.
How we see things has a significant impact on how our life works and how we respond to people and to the events we experience. Our willingness to consider what the events and experiences of life MEAN is very significant in how we respond. We know that some people become pessimists – their view of life is coloured by an expectation that the worst will happen. Some become optimists whose view of life is coloured by anticipating that the best will happen.
THE GOSPEL READING
Our God, throughout history, has always turned water into wine. The Gospel story today is about Gods’ intervention in the world and this very first miracle shows God’s intervention in a minor human problem, in order to give a clear sign that the world was about to change. In this Gospel story the miracle of turning water into wine just happens a bit faster than the average in nature!
On the face of it, this first miracle recorded in John’s Gospel, reveals how Jesus saved his host from serious social embarrassment, although it must be said that the arrival of Jesus with a large party of people was possibly partly responsible for the crisis. We probably all know what it’s like for guests to arrive and we’ve forgotten to get something we need, or there is not quite enough food, or something goes wrong with the cooking and the food is not as good as you want it to be. The social crisis about wine in this Gospel story reveals what the various characters took from this event.
THE CHARACTERS AT THE WEDDING
The majority of people present at the wedding were probably ignorant about how more wine appeared. I guess all they were interested in was whether their glass was filled, or not! If we had been partying non-stop for two days then we would not be too worried about the detail of where the wine was coming from.
Jesus: Jesus plays an unusual role in this first miracle. He does not seem to want a big fuss. He stays in the background. He is just one of the guests at the wedding. His response to his mother indicates he does not really want to be involved in this minor social crisis, since he knows he is just about to embark on a momentous ministry. But his mother, as mothers sometimes do, puts him in a situation where her son has to respond. Jesus uses his response, in this very first miracle recorded in John’s Gospel, to portray messages about the current state of Judaism and about what was to come through his ministry.
The first character is the mother of Jesus: Mary's remark to Jesus that there was no more wine could have been an innocent observation. It might have been a hint (to her son) that he might do something since his arrival had perhaps caused this social crisis of there not being enough wine. Or, it might have been a mother’s subtle instruction to act so that Jesus’ mother did not feel embarrassed at the situation. Mary’s response seems to indicate that she saw the situation as just a social occasion. Jesus response to Mary on the other hand indicates he sees this scene quite differently. His response implies a measure of rebuke. His enigmatic reply was to the effect that it was not their problem that wine had run out and that the time was not right for him to do anything anyway.
The second group of characters are the servants: They had been instructed to fill the stone jars with water then take some out and give it to the Steward. They take it to the Steward and listen to him castigating the bridegroom about why he had kept the best wine till last. The servants knew they filled the stone jars with water and know that it has turned into wine. They know that a miracle has taken place but do not see or understood its meaning, and do not respond.
The third character is the Steward responsible for the wedding feast: He must have known that the wine had almost run out. He knew that more wine has appeared from somewhere. Yet, when more amazingly appears, he doesn’t enquire where it came from – he just complains to the bridegroom about why he was keeping the good wine to the last. Despite the fact that his servants knew about this, and must have been talking about water turned into wine, the Steward does not even enquire how the wine appeared and he is unable to see that a miracle has happened
The Disciples are the 4th set of characters: They observe what is happening when the water is miraculously turned into wine, and the story records that they “believed in him”. The disciples observed the same event as Mary, the servants and the steward, but what THEIR eyes saw was a miracle. They saw more than just the event itself. They understood the significance of the miracle. The Sign in this miracle helped them to come to faith in Jesus. The disciples are really the only participants in this wedding who truly profit from this Sign.
THE SITUATION
We’ve considered the characters in the Gospel story. What are we to understand from the story itself? It’s an important aspect of the style of John's Gospel that happenings in time and space are used to reveal a deeper religious significance. The word for miracle which John uses throughout the Gospel means a ‘sign’ - an outward visible act which we can see or hear, and which is intended to reveal the purpose of God behind the act itself.
In putting the story of this miracle or ‘sign’ right
at the beginning of the Gospel, John makes it clear that this is setting
the scene for the message of Jesus. It is, John declares, the “first
of his (Jesus) ‘signs’. John does not present Jesus simply as a miracle
worker, for that would have been nothing exceptional, since at that time
miracle workers were not uncommon and miracles were part of the general
world view. The account of the wedding at Cana is much more than a
sign that Jesus had miraculous powers. The deeper truth portrayed in picture
form here comes from understanding some of the symbolism in the picture
of the wedding:
o The
stone jars which were used to hold water for purification were empty - the
message here probably being that Judaism has become deficient with its stress
on ceremonial washings to the neglect of real spiritual matters.
o In asking the servants to fill the stone jars with water that he then turns into wine, Jesus is communicating that the old flat water of Judaism is to be turned into the sparkling new wine of the Gospel. A much better wine than that served initially.
o In the comparison by the Steward of the old wine, which was served first at the wedding and initially thought to be the best wine, Jesus shows the new wine of the Gospel, coming at this later stage, to be infinitely superior to the old wine of Judaism.
Jesus indicates in this miracle that a new world order is about to take the place of the old order found in Judaism. The ritual observances of the Jews are to give way to the spiritual sacraments that Jesus is to communicate through his life and death and resurrection. The community of faith and hope of the Jews had many good aspects as well as flaws. Jesus tells us in this story that the best for the faith community is yet to come. What Jesus' actions suggest is that we can never say, 'this is as good as it gets.' In God’s kingdom, there is always the promise of something more.
Verse 11, the final verse in this Gospel story, gives the purpose of the miracle. Its purpose is to show a ‘sign’ which reveals Christ's glory and which enables those who use their eyes and ears for understanding to respond in faith. Hearing what Jesus tells us, and doing it, even when it goes against the common view of how people perceive the world to work, has surprising results, because people see something in our life that has deeper meaning that the shallowness of most modern life styles with its emphasis on possessions and financial security.
You know, as we go through life, we often fail to have the eye of faith! We let events go by without considering what they mean. We often miss what people and events are really saying to us because we see and listen without considering whether there is a deeper meaning. And very often I think, in our very busy and loud world with its frantic pace, we fail to really listen to what God wants to say to us about what our life means, and what our purpose in living on this earth is.
If you are anything like me, how often we have gone through life without seeing the miracles that happen day by day. We see, but like some of the characters in this Gospel story, we do not think about the meaning. We are stuck in the mundane routines of life and full to see or live its meaning.
As we face this week let’s pray that God gives us, like the disciples, the eyes of faith to see what he has in store for us. And, let’s pray that day-by-day God enables us to live our life as the spiritual sacrament that Jesus showed to us, so that we might live our lives as the servants of God, communicating to his world the deeper and true meaning of life. Let’s pray that God will give each of us eyes that see and ears that hear what God has planned for us.
And, let’s live in the anticipation that in God’s abundant Kingdom, there is always the promise of better to come.