Sermon Notes

• Timing took a backseat (“my time has not yet come”; yet he did it anyway)

• God favors human need over right timing

• Sets an example for us to act even if its not yet time

• Wedding marked a time of love, hope, new beginnings

• Like using baptismal font to serve spiked punch out of!

• Need to take time to be joyous and not get caught up on all the rules of holiness

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Sermon outline

1. Sermon Illustration – getting ready for wedding, expensive!

2. Problem with text – getting drunk off of Jesus

a. Show imagery of how much wine this was

3. Further problem with text – timing was not right at all

4. Solution to text – timing takes a backseat to happiness, love

a. Save best for last

5. Illustration – Haitit

6. Giving up your schedule to make others happy

a. For no other reason than to make them happy

Extended Sermon Notes

• wine looks forward to death/resurrection

• was on the 3rd day

• miracle was at a private party not public

• jars were for purity washing before meals

• lavish - wine at end was small qty, this was not

• miracle at end was bigger, serving wine was then status quo. but here serving is the big miracle

• mary at beg and end. addressed as mother both

• 6 jars shows impurity (short of perfect 7)

• old ways of holiness were thus impure. serving was the new way. and serving in abundance. serving still existed b4. much like today, as secondary. jesus calls for abundance in serving.

• servants were diaconos. they served anonymously.

• need to find miracle from friday news.

• timing was not right, but human need couldnt wait.

• Bruce Malina & Richard Rohrbaugh (Social-Science Commentary on the Gospel of John) write the following about John's opening time line: The story opens "on the third day." Note the enumeration of days: the first day covers 1:1-28; "the next day," 1:29-34; "the next day," 1:35-39; and a presumed next day: 1:40-42; with a final "the next day" in 1:43-51. With these five days over, "the third day" here 2:1-11) would be the eighth day. And this eighth day marks the first day after the close of the first (creation) week since the beginning 1:1). That first week is John's creation week. After this eighth day, there is no more counting of days (so in v. 12 we read "a few days"). "On the third day" also reflects the day of Jesus' being raised, the eighth day of the week (see vss. 19-20: "after three days"). [p. 66]

• In the first century, a typical wedding feast lasted at least seven days. This wedding may have been its third day -- so there are a number of days left for the celebrating.

• this explains why so much wine was needed maybe. doubtful though. such extravagance was too costly for the poor.

• Wine was very important. It was the normal beverage at meals -- and especially at festivals. Wine was a symbol of joy. One ancient rabbi stated, "Without wine there is no joy." At the same time, drunkenness was a great disgrace throughout scriptures.

• sermon note. the wine jesus provides is fine wone. the guests are already drunk though! they cannot appreciate his gift to its fullest. we are already drunk too perhaps. but on what? if wine represents fullness and joy and happiness, perhaps we have filled ourselves with earthly pleasures such we cannot experience god's gifts. we do not see or appreciate where the gifts we have come from. all great gifts come from God, even when presented by someone else.

• In the OT, an abundance of good wine is an eschatological symbol, a sign of the joyous arrival of God's new age: • On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, (Is 25:6a) • The mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it (Amos 9:13cd) • In that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, the hills shall flow with milk (Joel 3:18a)

• friends provide wine so jesus was obligated to provide wine? or maybe this wedding ran out of wine bc it reached out to so many people outside of the inner group. the wedding sets an example for the reign of God where the Church is the bride. more symbolism!

• maybe this is a subtle point: a woman is the 1st to engage jesus and tells him whatt o do. even though he doesnt like it he does it anyway!

• maybe this is a subtle point: a woman is the 1st to engage jesus and tells him whatt o do. even though he doesnt like it he does it anyway! mary isnt the first to talk to jesus in John. but she is the first to address jesus before he addresses her. all others waited to be called and are not given very active roles. maybe john is saying: dont wait to be callled or told what to do - just do it!

• I find it interesting that the only other occurrence of this word for "fill" (gemizo) in John is when the disciples fill up 12 baskets of left-over bread after the miraculous feeding (6:13). Is there an intended connection between bread and wine?

• In contrast to Mark 2:21-22 -- new wine needs new wineskins -- here the image seems to be that the new wine can be held by the old containers.

• again, the 1st shall be last and the last shall be first.