READING: John Ch 2 v 1 – 11
On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 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.” “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour 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.” What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
SERMON
A little girl was attending a wedding for the first time. She whispered to her mother, “Why is the bride dressed in white?” Her mother replied: “Because white is the colour of happiness, and today is the happiest day of her life,”
The child thought about this for a moment, then said, “So why’s the groom wearing black?”
Why is it that marriage so often have a bad press? People make comments like “When are you going to get married and be miserable like the rest of us?”
And the mother-in-law jokes are endless and stag and hen parties are painted as the last night of fun before you get tied down.
Yet here in today’s Gospel reading is one of the biggest justifications of marriage – Jesus attendance at it and his making of it a wonderful time.
Did you notice in the story that Jesus takes something sombre and so very religious – purification jars – and turns them into something for rejoicing – wine.
Surely that is what Christianity is all about yet if you ever look on the Christian TV stations on Sky most of the time you will see sombre preaching about the word of God. Now I accept that there are times that the Lord’s word can be sombre but I wonder if they know the “joy of the Lord is my strength”
John Gospel starts the story with these words: “On the third day………
Yet if you read the context from the beginning of John 1, it seems more like day 5!
The phrase, on the third day reminds me of Christ rising from the dead on the third day, thereby offering us abundant life.
And turning water into wine reminds me too of the wine of our Holy Communion service.
You see Jesus was not above turning something overtly religious into something that challenges, what some consider, outside the sphere of the religious – joy.
Jesus created something that emanated joy and happiness in life.
Question: So why did Jesus turn water into wine? I think there are three reasons.
- The first reason is that Jesus is compassionate. He got the couple out of a social disaster.
- The second reason was that wine signifies God’s new age that Jesus was ushering in.
- The third reason is that Jesus wanted to develop faith.
So let’s look at these three reasons in a little more detail.
- The first reason was that Jesus had compassion. Jesus felt compassion for this young couple that were just about to make the “faux pas” of their married lives.
In those days, running out of wine at a wedding was not a minor social inconvenience. There was no popping down to Safeway’s or Tesco’s to get a few bottles more.
In the first century, running out of wine at a wedding was a social disgrace. The couple should have planned better. It was a major breach of the demands of hospitality; and it would be devastating for the couple.
And notice that when God does something he does it well. When Jesus changed water into wine, he didn’t make some cheap plonk he made the best. I mean have you any idea how many glasses of wine the six stone jars represented: 24 glasses, 240 glasses, 2,400 glasses or 24,000 glasses.
Answer = 2,400 glasses – 150 gallons of wine. So, you could hardly call Jesus a killjoy could you?
Look what the master of the banquet said to the bridegroom: “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” God has high standards – even at parties.
- The second reason was that of God’s new age. Those at the wedding feast who knew their Old Testament scriptures knew that an abundance of wine symbolised the arrival of God’s new age. We miss this significance when we read it if we don’t know our Old Testament – as the Jews of Jesus day knew them. Let me read a couple of these texts:
Amos 9:13, l4: “The time is surely coming says the Lord when the mountains shall drip with sweet wine and the hills shall flow with it; when my people shall plant vineyards and drink their wine.” Here is another …
Isaiah 25: 6-10: “On this mountain the Lord will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of well-aged wines strained clear… This is the Lord for whom we have waited. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
Jesus provided an abundance of wine at the wedding feast to announce the arrival of the Kingdom of God.
- Jesus is looking to develop faith the result of this miracle was to develop faith.
John 2:11 says: This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was Jesus’ first display of his glory. AND HIS DISCIPLES BELIEVED IN HIM.
Was faith just a chance result of the miracle or had Jesus thought it through.
I am sure it was thought through. Why? Because throughout the Gospels Jesus is looking to develop the faith of those around him.
Jesus’ disciples were probably a bit mixed up. They had heard John the Baptist identifying Jesus as the Lamb of God – the Messiah. And yet many “messiahs” had come and gone.
Israel at this time was a hotbed of unrest, with terrorist groups like the Zealots springing up everywhere. They were right to be wary about following “any old Messiah”.
But this miracle clinched it for them and on this point, I’d like to point out the faith of the servants. They took Jesus at his word even though it was utterly unreasonable.
To give the master of the banquet – water – when he would be expecting wine would be asking for trouble.
God acts when we have the faith to take him at his word.
So in conclusion I would like to leave you with this, that our God is the God of second chances.
The bride and groom were given a second chance by the miracle Jesus acted out of compassion for the bride and groom and the wedding was saved.
Isn’t that what the Gospel is all about? Our God is the God of the second chances.
God wants us to have faith in Him. The choice, like that of the servants, is ours. Amen
PRAYERS
God of love, Father of all who call upon you, you have entered into the heart of human life through Christ Jesus our Lord. At a marriage in Cana of Galilee he made glad the hearts of all and so declared us to be your delight. Give us that same Spirit of love that was there on that day that we who are many may become one body.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
Lord Jesus, ever-welcome guest, when the hosts at the wedding feast found they had no wine, and the crowds who followed You neglected to bring the bread, not knowing that Your presence transforms tragedy into triumph, You revealed Your glory and provided wine of such noble vintage, and bread in such absolute abundance, that five thousand were fed. Fill our emptiness this day with your transforming power and lead us to an ever deeper faith in you.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
God of truth and beauty – we pray for the Church today – established around the world through the life and death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. May our love and care for one another and for those whom you love be a sign to the world – a sign that will lead all people to sit down at the wedding feast you have prepared in your everlasting kingdom. Especially bless, we pray, our church and the community we serve.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
Caring God we pray for those whom you have placed upon our hearts this day. We pray most especially for those whom the party seems over, those whose wine has run out, whose reserves are spent, through loss of health, wealth, or relationship. Lord, hear the prayers now upon our hearts and our lips (we take a time to offer to God those we are thinking about at this time).
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
Lord God, you showed your glory and led many to faith by the works of your Son. As he brought gladness and healing to his people, grant us, and all for whom we have prayed, the same. Let your name be glorified and praise be sung to you in every home and town, city and nation – we ask it in his name. Amen
Merciful Father accept these prayers in the name of your son our saviour Jesus Christ.
And so we bind our prayers together in the words that Jesus taught his disciples.
Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever. Amen
Rev’d Kevin
Associate Priest at St.Wilfrid’s and St.Thomas’s
