John 2:1–11 Three days later, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there. 2Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
3When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine.”
4Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with you and me? My time has not come yet.”
5His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6Six stone water jars, which the Jews used for ceremonial cleansing, were standing there, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. 8Then he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” And they did.
9When the master of the banquet tasted the water that had now become wine, he did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew). The master of the banquet called the bridegroom 10and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when the guests have had plenty to drink, then the cheaper wine. You saved the good wine until now!”
11This, the beginning of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
I pray that you would be able to comprehend, along with all the saints, how wide and long and high and deep God’s love for you is in Christ Jesus. Amen.
When Shelley and I got married, my mother did our wedding cake. It was no ordinary wedding cake. It was huge. It had to be. It needed to feed 400 guests. That’s a lot of people at a wedding!
The cake had all kinds of tiers connected by bridges with little figurines of the wedding party on them. There was a fountain with running water under the main tier. The wedding cake was long enough that it rested on two 6-foot tables.
It was high, too. Although, there’s some dispute in my family whether my two sisters’ wedding cakes were higher than the eldest son’s cake. My mother is adamant that when she was on the stepladder putting on the top tier, she made sure the wedding cake of her favorite son would be the biggest.
We didn’t run out of cake. But how embarrassing would it be at your party to run out cake or the main course or alcohol.
Jesus is in the north in Galilee calling brothers Peter and Andrew to follow him. The next day he calls friends Philip and Nathanael to follow him. Three days later, Jesus is attending a wedding with his new disciples. Notice, great things happen on the third day when Jesus is around.
Jesus is attending the wedding of a regular couple. It doesn’t seem they were noteworthy enough for St. John to even record their names. The wedding takes place in Cana in Galilee. Not in Jerusalem. Not in the temple. Not in Rome. In lowly Cana, in the backwoods of Galilee in the north.
But there was a problem. Mary notices, finds Jesus and reports, “They have no wine.” The wedding couple have nothing to gladden the hearts of their guests. They only have six water pots filled with water.
This is intriguing because up to this point, Jesus has done no miracles (see John 2:11), so Mary probably isn’t expecting one. Did Jesus have a reputation for fixing difficult problems? She clearly has a lot of faith in her eldest son.
Jesus reacts to his mother’s hint with bemusement, “Woman, what does that have to do with you and me? My time has not come yet.” Jesus is respectful, yet he makes it clear that though Mary is his mother, she cannot direct his ministry. That’s not her right. That right belongs only to his heavenly Father.
Jesus’ answer is a little cryptic, but it certainly carries a sense of “No.” I’m sure Mary heard it, too. Nevertheless, she knows her Son well. So instead of arguing or giving up, she merely turns to the servants and says, “Do whatever he tells you.” And off she goes, leaving the problem in Jesus’ hands.
That was a wise choice! Because just as Mary foresaw, Jesus gets to work on the problem. Not in a way that she could ever imagine it, though.
Jesus doesn’t magically have the wineskins refill themselves. No, he has a better idea. He involves others in the solution.
He makes the servants part of his miracle. “Fill the jars with water.” They don't know why, of course. At this point at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus is unknown. He hasn’t said or done anything of note. Yet, he must still speak with divine authority. Jesus said to do it, and that’s good enough for them. So they filled them to the brim. Then Jesus said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” And they did.
That must have been a bit scarier. What is the master of the banquet going to do with a wineglass full of ceremonial washing water?
But they do it, and everything turns out fine … in fact … better than fine. The water was the best wine. The servants breathe a sigh of relief, Mary no doubt smiled, and the wedding feast was saved.
Jesus uses this ordinary setting for his extraordinary first miracle. And what does Jesus choose to do for his very first miracle to announce his divine presence among humanity? Does he move mountains? Does he cause the sun to stand still in the sky? Nothing outwardly extravagant for everyone to see and get excited over. There is a lack of wine at a small-town wedding for a humble couple and Jesus quietly creates an abundance of delicious wine.
Jesus chooses this very ordinary setting to reveal his glory (John 2:11). Moses could not look upon the glory of Lord and live (Exodus 33:20). Sinners cannot face the glory of the Holy Lord. Yet here the holy Lord reveals his glory in a way people can witness him without being destroyed. The holy Lord covers his glory with human flesh so sinful people can walk shoulder to shoulder with their God. St. John writes of Jesus: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Jesus does not first reveal his glory in stilling the storm, healing the sick, casting out demons or raising the dead. Our incarnate God – the Lord covered with flesh – reveals his glory at a wedding by turning water into wine. We see the uncovering of the extraordinary Savior at an ordinary wedding.
There are a few lessons for us in Jesus’ miracle of turning water into wine at Cana.
There is a nice paradigm for what we ought to do when we run into problems in our own lives. Too often, we attempt to be self-sufficient. We try to do things on our own. We figure we can do the little things by ourselves. We save God for the big things.
Like Mary, we take our needs to Jesus — even the odd ones, even the little ones, even the ones that don’t appear to have any spiritual dimension to them at all. We may have no idea how to fix the problem. We may not even know what to pray for. It doesn’t matter. We can leave it in Jesus’ hands, knowing that he will do whatever is best. He always has before!
Even in the little, odd or mundane things, we have the almighty, divine God at work who can do more than we ask or imagine. “Now to him, who is able, according to the power that is at work within us, to do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever!” (Ephesians 3:20-21)
When it seems like Jesus is telling us, “No,” how do we react? We ask for a new job. We’re still stuck in the old one. We want to feel better. We’re stuck feeling crummy. We want a more enjoyable marriage. We’re stuck in a loveless one. We want life to be easier. We’re stuck learning patience and perseverance through suffering.
When it seems like Jesus is telling us, “No,” we react negatively. We get grumpy. We get moody. We get worried and sad and depressed. We don’t like the answer, so we become upset with God. We think we know better than he does. We want God to take our advice on how to solve our issues.
We can learn from Mary to take God’s apparent “No,” and trust that like St. Paul assures, “as many promises as God has made, they have always been “Yes” in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). God doesn’t want to harm you or even frustrate you. Rejoice in the fact that your God rejoices over you. We heard that from Isaiah this morning: “For just as a young man marries a virgin, your sons will marry you, and just as a bridegroom rejoices over a bride, your God will rejoice over you” (Isaiah 62:5).
There’s still more to learn. Very often Jesus involves us in the solution to our messes, just as he involved the servants at Cana. “Do such-and-such,” he says to us, and we go off to do it — whether that means taking care of our parents in their old age, listening for hours to a troubled person, helping out a neighbor who’s struggling, reaching out to a friend who is grieving, or any other loving action. We obey Jesus. We trust him to work things out. After all, the One who died and rose again to save us will certainly care about the smaller problems in our lives!
Remember, we have a God who changes water into wine. God takes an impending disaster and turns the wedding into an even greater cause for celebration.
As far as miracles go, changing water into wine at a wedding party doesn’t seem to be all that important. Yet there is comfort for us in how Jesus chooses to reveal his extraordinary power for the first time in a very ordinary situation. There comes a time for each of us when the wine runs out. Yet we have a Savior who cares enough to help us in both the ordinary and extraordinary issues of life.
Doesn’t it seem like our lives are often dominated by common, ordinary things? Homework, memory work, bus rides and basketball practices? Trudging off to work, dealing with traffic, struggling to pay the bills, and taking our medication? Do you find it difficult to believe that the God who laid the earth’s foundation, who enters the storehouses of snow, who brings forth the constellations in their seasons, who raises his voice to the clouds and sends lightning bolts on their way (Job 38), is the same God who is interested in the petty grind of your daily life?
So much of our lives are made up of unexciting, uninspiring moments. Routine. Tedious. Commonplace. Like a hamster running on its wheel in its cage.
But Jesus is there amid our humdrum, everyday lives. God’s merciful concern extends to the mundane needs of our day-to-day lives. He doesn’t promise to give us anything extravagant. He literally promises us only “daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). Part of God’s glory is that amid the mundane, he still “graciously gives us all things” (Romans 8:32). This is also a part of God’s glory. No detail of our lives is too unimportant to escape the notice of our Savior. While God may not often (or ever) do something so obviously miraculous as turn water into wine, he is at work in the little details of our life reveals his glory perhaps in something as simple as making sure we have enough food, desserts or refreshments at a party. He takes care of the little things like our “daily bread.”
Whether God does great or mundane things for us; whether he miraculously heals from cancer or once again routinely gets us home safely from work; God is at work. Through the significant or insignificant, through the marvelous or mundane, through the “Yeses” or “No’s”, Jesus is showing who he is and what he has come to do. They all point to the cross. They point out that Jesus is with you in the mundane, the menacing or the marvelous. He is there to help you. We have uncovered the extraordinary within the ordinary. Amen.
Now to him, who is able, according to the power that is at work within us, to do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.