“THE PARTY AT CANA”
January 1, 2012 ~ The Rev. David Moore
Scripture: John 2:1-11 | PDF print version

We tend to think, or at least, I tend to think, that God is involved in all the big stuff. I grew up in California (not Wisconsin), where there wasn’t much rain. We were always in a drought. One of my memories of eating with my family is my father always, always praying for rain because “we need the rain so badly.” In fact, we did need rain, but that prayer left the impression for many years that God was concerned with big things, not little things. God is concerned about the planet, the tides and the winds and the rains, and less interested in the stuff of my life, how I did on a test, whether or not I had friends, whether I had a date for the prom or not. This is not that we didn’t pray for people before our meal, we did, and many other things, but we consistently prayed for rain.

So I grew up with this idea of a really big God, the God who spun the universe into existence, the God who created the stars that are millions of miles away and how they move, that God is in charge of all the really big stuff. Volcanoes, and wildfires and earthquakes and it was always less about my personal stuff. It took a while to connect that God really did care about little me, unimportant me, even as He controlled the universe. I have learned over time that God does care about little me, and little you and all of us. He is God and can be with all of us at the same time because He is not like us. But He does care about the little stuff too, the pain we are in, the broken relationship that breaks us, the stress we carry, the worries that keep us up at night when the rest of the family sleeps gently through the night.

So we’re going to take a look at a very small miracle, for some anonymous people, that made a difference. John 2:1ff

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 of water.

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with”; 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.

Let’s pray.

John is the fourth Gospel, and the last to be written. It is written in a much different way than are the other gospels. The other gospels have many stories in common, so much so that Matthew, Luke and Mark and called the Synoptic Gospels, which might be interesting to you, might not be. John, though, is different. Matthew and Luke start with Jesus birth, Mark starts with John the Baptist baptizing and then Jesus walks up as a mature man, while John shows us the bigger picture, and starts with Jesus at the beginning of time. John strives to show us the big picture, the meaning behind the actions. In John we see Jesus saying ‘I am’ a lot…I am the bread of life, I am the vine, you are the branches, I am the way and the truth and the life, I am the good shepherd and so forth. So John is a much different Gospel than the other three. Still tells the same story, with the same result, with the same purpose, to proclaim Christ, but very different. The other gospels tell the story of Jesus breaking bread with the disciples before He was captured by the forces of the Pharisees, but John tells the story of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet.

So John was written later, with slightly different point of view, slightly different events of Jesus life are emphasized. Not bad, just different. In John, our passage today is the first miracle. In Mark it was driving out an evil spirit. In Matthew it was the healing of some sick folks. In Luke it was also driving out an evil spirit. So there must be some reason that John chooses this event, a relatively minor event, that really effected no one except a groom and bride and the invitees to their wedding feast. This is not spectacular, like conquering and evil spirit, or dramatic, like healing a sick person. This is a subtle miracle, something small and nice done for an anonymous family in a little town in the far reaches of Israel. Does God care about my little life? Well, He cared enough to change this wedding feast from a time of embarrassment into a time of joy.

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.”

I love this interaction between Jesus and Mary. Mary knows who He is, and expects Him to do something about this problem. Jesus tells her no, essentially, and she ignores Him and tells the servants to do what He says. Funny right? She doesn’t tell Jesus to honor His mother; she doesn’t seem to need to. We assume that because Joseph is not mentioned that by this time, he has passed. So it is just Mary and Jesus’ siblings, but Jesus has been out collecting disciples and then they all show up at the party. They all were invited; you wouldn’t just show up at a feast like this uninvited. That would have been very poor manners.

I would like to say something about wine. One of my professors at my seminary remarked one time that to the Jews, wine is a symbol for joy. I never found anything in Scripture about that, but I did recently at the wedding I did for Mike and Lynn Moore. They had me take a few Jewish wedding elements to incorporate them into their ceremony. Now Mike doesn’t like wine, but he was a good sport and had a couple of sips the two times he was supposed to drink a little wine. So you won’t find proof wine being associated with joy in Scripture, but rather in Jewish culture. It makes sense, though. We have a wedding here, a joyous time, and the ceremony and feasting is helped along by lots of good wine. One quote I found from Jewish rabbis is this, “Without wine there is no joy.” So Jesus making wine could be interpreted to mean that He is here to bring joy, which would be accurate, but is an unclear assumption based on the text. So I offer that thought with some reservation. But it is nice to think that Jesus’ first miracle was about joy, and bringing it to some folks at a wedding. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, we are to shout with joy according to Psalm 32, the presence of God is the fullness of joy according to Psalm 16 and later on in John 15 Jesus says, “These things have I spoken to you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” Jesus brought joy, I think, to this anonymous couple, these little people as His first miracle in John.

To run out of wine would have been embarrassing; it would have meant that people weren’t having a good time at the wedding, which was supposed to have been a joyous time if there ever was one. On a grand scale, this is no an earth shattering problem. It isn’t a drought, but no wine would have shamed this couple. Does God care about the little things, the little people like us? I think He does. God cares that this young couple not be embarrassed publicly in their first event together, and God cares about the little things in our lives as well. Even as I say this I am aware that God sees all and knows all and I wonder why children are abused, why people are hungry, why folks struggle to find houses and jobs. Why this particular couple? Why them, when other couples probably had run out of wine before them and after them? I don’t know the answer to that. I don’t know why God does what God does, and what He allows to happen. I do know God is good, and that God cares, cares enough to send Christ to us. I don’t like that the sins of the parents are visited on the children.  

Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons of water.

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with”; so they filled them to the brim.

These were big jars, holding anywhere from 20-30 gallons of liquid, and were used for purification rituals for the Jews. Even on the small side, 20 gallons, times 6 is 120 gallons of wine. That’s a lot of joy. The other thing I’ve always been impressed with is that this is a subtle miracle. We don’t see Jesus waving His hands over the jars. This isn’t a ‘look at me’ miracle, because I think that would have taken the focus off the married couple. As far as I can tell, Jesus sought to honor people, and not shame them. If the guests saw Jesus doing something unusual, it would have brought attention to the fact that the married couple and their families had run out of wine. So Jesus does this very subtle miracle. I like that.

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.”

So you know what has happened as the reader of the story. Jesus has changed the water into wine. And it wasn’t just so-so wine, but the good stuff. Generally people saved the worst wine for last, because at the end people were less able to recognize what was the good wine and what was the bad wine. At that point in the party, wine is wine and bring it on! Toga toga… There probably weren’t many times when ancient Israelites, living a subsistence level existence, could really let their hair down, so to speak, and feast and celebrate. A wedding was one of those times. In this little town, to these little people, God brings wine. He brings joy. Not rain, not a herd of cattle, not a pot that no matter how much money you take out of it, there is magically always more money…but instead a bit of wine and a lot of joy.

There is something to Jesus making the best wine. He does not go for half measures, but wants to see people joyous. I never see Jesus attempting to get people to nod their heads and say, “hey that was cool.” I see Jesus wanting people to be joyous, to live joyfully, not just satisfactorily. Jesus could have made wine that was just ok, but He made wine that made the professional master of ceremonies stand up and exclaim, “you’ve saved the best for last! Who does that?” I don’t see that Jesus is impressed a bit of commitment from us, a bit of attention, a bit of our lives. Jesus wants our whole lives, and I am convinced He wants the best for us. Despite the circumstances of our lives, Jesus always strives to give us His best. I don’t think that when we have Jesus as our Lord and Savior that means the joy has gone out of life, and we are joyless robots doing the bidding of our stern cosmic taskmaster. I don’t get that impression from Scripture at all. I get the impression that God wants to give us deep joy, deep satisfaction, the best love we can imagine, that this is what He has for us. Don’t buy into the idea that God is about rules, about dreary living, that people find better happiness and joy outside of faith rather than in it. Here is just one example, for a little party on the edge of Israel.

For us, I don’t know if you still remember Advent, but a lot about Advent is joy. The joy of the angels singing in the night sky, the joy of the magi that they had found the promised child, the joy of Simeon, the old man in the Temple who had lived long enough to see the Messiah. And we are approaching Easter, and there is a wild joy in the rising of our Lord from the tomb. The is joy and amazement that Jesus is not in the tomb, joy when the women rush to tell the disciples that they have seen an angel telling them Jesus is fine and dandy, and then joy at seeing Jesus in the flesh again. You’ll remember that Peter is so excited to see Jesus that he jumps in the water and swims to land before the others can get the boat turned around to row back in. That’s joy.

I believe we are to have this same joy. We can get so bogged down in life, so caught up in the things that don’t really matter, settling scores and evening accounts with others who have slighted us. We serve the God who came to us, loved us enough to do that, loved us enough to die for us, and then on top of all that, rose from the grave and invites us into an eternity with Him. If that doesn’t make you joyous, at least on some level, then you are already dead. Jesus did all that enormous stuff, created the world, lived in it, died, rose again, changed humanity’s relationship with God Almighty, but He did that for each of us, all of us little people, struggling with sin, struggling to love God back, struggling to honor our neighbor. God does spin the earth, but He also knows you deeply, down to the number of hairs on your head, and loves to see you want to know Him more. He derives great joy when we seek to honor Him with how we live, with how we make the choice to serve others, when we make the choice to follow His ways instead of our own, when we turn our back on evil and do things His ways.

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.

The disciples, recent converts that they were, saw that something new was happening. Did they follow Jesus because He could make wine? I don’t think so. They saw that God was doing something new, something good in Christ, something that wasn’t about spinning stars or bringing rain, but was about bringing joy to people who were in need. Jesus, in this event that we get to read about, and think about, is revealing His glory to you as well. He is showing that He is God, He is the kind of God that does control the universe, but also the kind of God that cares deeply for you.

I hope that makes you want to put your faith in Him. When we understand that God knows us, and wants us to come to Him, despite our flaws, despite the ways we’ve lived, despite everything just to come to Him, and accept His love and sacrifice, that changes lives. I appreciate that God sends rain to places like LA, which always needs rain, but I love the God who knows me and loves me. I’ll die for that kind of God, the God who longs for me and you to find joy, abundant joy, in Him. In serving Him, in living for Him, in loving Him because He first loved us. God is the creator of the stars, of the galaxies, of the protons and electrons, the God who created trees and water and habitats, that same God loves us more deeply than we can ever possibly imagine. That kind of love and joy changes lives, it can change yours.

Can you, will you, trust the God that makes a party for an unknown couple in a little town at the edge of a little country? I hope so. It will make all the difference in the world.