Sign#1: Water into Wine
When John wrote his gospel, he was selective about the material he included and acknowledged that there were many things that Jesus said and did that he could not include in his portrayal of Jesus' life and ministry.
There are seven miracles of provision and healing in John's Gospel. They reveal His nature and purpose. For the next couple of days we'll be looking at them...
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This weekend I was best man at a wedding. Along with the sense of "love is in the air" you could also sense something else... As individuals the couple were much loved and friends and family had watched the romance develop. The sense that pervaded ceremony and reception was one of great delight.
I think it is significant that Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding. (They probably contributed to the wine running out!) It is also significant that Jesus attended the wedding feast. He had an important ministry to fulfill and we would not have criticised Him if He'd sent an apology... But in His mission to be God-with-us, Jesus attended the wedding - I believe it affirmed the couple, their friends and family as well as the institution of marriage, but also I believe that there was a similar sense of delight in Jesus' heart...
I think He looked at the couple and felt joy and delight for them, but I believe He was also thinking about another wedding, the wedding of the Church to the Lamb. The earthly wedding pointed to a cosmic one and I'm sure Jesus watched and participated in the festivities with a deep and profound delight.
However, when the wine ran out and Mary points out the couple's predicament, Jesus is strangely hesitant: He was reminded that the cost for wine at the cosmic wedding feast would be the blood of the Groom - the blood of the Lamb. But then He turns His focus to the current wedding and He turns the jars of water for ceremonial washing into high quality wine. The water represents our shortcomings - we are unworthy and unclean - in need of washing. It gets turned into wine - a symbol of blessing, abundance and life. (Just think of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof singing "Le Chaim" ("To Life") with a glass of red wine in his hand.)
Jesus' first miracle speaks to our most important human relationship (that of marriage) and promises God's help to turn the water of human effort into the wine of God's abundant blessing. But I believe it does more: It is the bittersweet reminder that the Groom delights at the prospect of marrying us as His bride, but that this marriage will cost Him...
| On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine." "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now." This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him. (John2:1-11) |
