Second Sunday after the Epiphany

January 16-17, 2010

“The Good Wine”

John 2:1-11

Grace, love, joy and peace be unto you from God our heavenly Father, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Some years ago, it must have been back in the ‘70s or ‘80s, Johnny Carson was interviewing a young boy from West Virginia on the “Tonight Show.” The boy had rescued a couple of his friends from an old coal mine that caved in. And in the course of the interview, it became evident that this young boy was a Christian; he mentioned something about going to church, or believing that God would help him save his friends. So Johnny Carson asked him what he had learned in Sunday School, and the boy said they had just learned the story of Jesus going to a wedding and turning water into wine. Johnny then asked him, “What do you think about that?” And the boy thought for a moment, then said, “I guess I think that if you’re going to have a wedding, you should invite Jesus to come.” Not a bad take on it, from a child’s perspective.

At any rate, our Gospel lesson today is St. John’s account of that very wedding in Cana; in fact, John is the only Evangelist to relate this story to us. And it gives us a picture of Jesus that is quite different from how we normally see Him in the gospels. Here, He is not preaching, or teaching, or calling disciples; this event is not centered around Him at all, at least on the surface of it. No, at this wedding and subsequent celebration, Jesus was just another name on the guest list, along with His mother and His disciples. We don’t even know the names of the bride and groom, but we can assume, I think, that Mary and Jesus were related to one of them, or at least friends of the family.

And I’ve never been sure why, but it seems to bother some Christians to envision Jesus at this event, maybe because it’s so different from how we usually find Him. It’s highly unlikely that He was sitting off in a corner, merely watching everything going on. This was a wedding feast; a celebration that lasted for days. There is no reason to think that Jesus wouldn’t have been joining in the festivities, talking, laughing, singing, dancing, enjoying some fine wine with everyone else. He was fully human, after all; it doesn’t diminish His divinity to imagine that He was having a good time on a joyful occasion. But then, that joyful occasion almost came to a crashing halt. The wine ran out, which was a significant breach in protocol; running out of wine at a wedding feast was something you just didn’t do. If it happened, it would bring shame on the newly married couple for failing to show appropriate hospitality. Most of the people in that time and place were quite poor; a wedding celebration like this could be one of the very few times they were able to year for many of them. To have it end early because the wine ran out was unthinkable.

St. John describes the scene very simply: “When the wine ran out, 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 knows that His time has not yet come, but His mother won’t take “no” for an answer. I like the way Walt Wangerin pictures this in his novel, “Jesus”:

“Women did not eat with the men at feasts like these. Therefore Mary contrived to seem to serve. She found an empty wine cup and filled it with vinegar. This she carried into the dining room, going directly to the place where Jesus was reclining. She knelt opposite Him and offered the cup. He had to take it in hand. Its bottom was not flat, but pointed, and He had no sconce in which to set it. Mary narrowed her eye and looked significantly at Jesus. ‘It’s full,’ she whispered. ‘I can see that,’ He said. ‘But you can’t drink it,’ she whispered. ‘Why not?’ ‘Smell it.’ He did and frowned. ‘It’s vinegar,’ He said. ‘That’s why you can’t drink it,’ she said, never moving her eyes from His. Jesus lifted His graceful eyebrows. ‘Then why did you bring it to me?’ ‘I didn’t want to draw attention. But you have to know, this is all that’s left of the wine. Sour stuff. Undrinkable. The wine, Yeshi, is gone.’ Mary peered steadily at Him. A moment elapsed. Finally, Jesus drew a breath and spoke, “Woman, what concern is this to you or to me? My time has not yet arrived.’ Mary lifted a forefinger and touched it to the side of her nose. She nodded once, then rose and returned to the other room. ‘Okay,’ she said to the servant, who was shifting from foot to foot. ‘Okay: whatever my son tells you to do, do it.’”

What faith on the part of Mary, to hear Jesus essentially say, “This is none of my business,” and yet to press on and fully believe that He will act in a way that will bring blessings for everyone there. And Jesus had to know that would be her reaction; He had to know that Mary would not take “no” for an answer. So He takes action. “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.’”

Now those stone jars ordinarily held water for ceremonial washings, or purification. There were a multitude of things that the Israelites could do to make themselves ceremonially unclean, and every time they did one of those things, they would have to do a ritual washing to become clean again. So in essence, these were big stone jars of guilt; guilt over sin, guilt that had to be washed off by the one who had become unclean, constant reminders of their spiritual separation from God, and the fact that no matter how many times they purified themselves in this way, that spiritual divide would not go away.

So how meaningful, then, that Jesus, as the One who ushers in the new covenant to replace the old, the One who makes all those ceremonial laws obsolete, uses those very stone jars of purification for the first public sign of His divine power as the Messiah. The jars are filled with water, but instead of being used for ceremonial washing, Jesus transforms them into vessels of mercy. If each of the six jars held 30 gallons, that adds up to 180 gallons of water that would normally have been used for ritual purification. But in the hands of the Christ, 180 gallons of guilt becomes 180 gallons of pure grace.

But then, Jesus is all about such transformations. In Christ, our unrighteousness is transformed into His righteousness; by His mercy, the stain of our sin is transformed and washed away by the cleansing flood of Holy Baptism; through the cross and the empty tomb, death is transformed into everlasting life. Jesus creates the good wine that brings blessings for all; the blessings He won by His own death and resurrection for the life of the world.

After this wedding feast in Cana, there would be another time when Jesus would serve His people with good wine; the best wine, in fact. At the Passover meal He would share with His disciples on a Thursday evening in Jerusalem a few years later, He gave them bread that He said was His body; and then He took the cup of ordinary wine, gave thanks, and gave it to them to drink, saying, “Take, drink, this cup is my blood of the new covenant, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Through the Sacrament of the Altar that He instituted that night, Jesus still today gives His people the good wine, the wine of forgiveness, life and salvation; the wine that brings the blessings of His grace, because it is His blood, shed for you.

St. John tells us in our Gospel lesson that the miracle of changing water into wine was “the first of His signs…and manifested His glory.” Today He comes to you through the signs of His Word, and His body and blood of the new covenant in the Holy Supper at His Table. Here, at the altar, Jesus manifests His glory for us, that we would receive His grace, and believe in Him. So come, for the good wine. Amen.