The Right Questions

I learned some new things this week getting ready for this message. That’s not to say I don’t normally learn new things when I’m preparing to preach, but this week there were a lot of things that I came across and thought “hmm, didn’t know that.” And this all started because I was reading through the different possible texts for this weekend and settled on this one before concluding, I don’t actually know what we’re supposed to take away from The Wedding at Cana.

Commentary or Bust!

So I dived into what people who know a lot more than me have written about this miracle. And there are a lot of really cool connections that you can potentially draw out from this account.

The context for this miracle is a wedding and there are several other places in the Bible where the relationship between God and the Church is described as a marriage. So there’s an interpretation where Jesus is there enabling the celebration of a wedding to point to the marriage feast of the Lamb and His Kingdom that He enables our participation in. That seems to track, but I don’t know if I can tell you with any certainty that Jesus turned water into wine to point to the celebration of the marriage relationship between God and the Church.

There’s another interpretation based on the material that Jesus starts with - water. And it seems to me that this kind of interpretation gets thrown around pretty much any time that water gets mentioned in the Bible, especially in the New Testament. That is, to make some sort of connection to Baptism. The water kept in stone jars for the rites of purification is changed into something different, something better by Jesus. For the wedding guests it was into wine, in the gift of baptism water is turned into a promise of the Holy Spirit. I think you can make an argument for this interpretation, but I don’t know if I can tell you that Jesus turned water into wine to give an idea of what He would do through Baptism.

Closely following after the baptismal interpretation is people who see wine and immediately go to Communion. That is, Jesus turned water into wine and later He makes wine into His blood. The idea is that Jesus is giving an idea of what He can do, and I don’t know if I can tell you that this is definitely why Jesus turned water into wine.

The final rabbit hole that I went down was the idea that The Wedding of Cana was calling attention to Jesus as the person who would complete the purification that the Jews had been ritualistically doing for hundreds of years. The idea is that the jars, which are specifically for purification, were full to the brim and Jesus used them to make the wine. The symbolism there is that the purification was fully complete in Jesus and the jars wouldn’t be needed anymore because of what Jesus would accomplish. This interpretation might be my favorite of the bunch, but I can’t tell you with any certainty that this is why Jesus did what He did.

But here’s the thing, while all these interpretations could be helpful - they’re probably not realistic if you’re thinking about reading this passage devotionally. I know I don’t typically crack open a commentary when I’m doing my own devotion, I don’t know many people who do, and I’m probably not coming up with these on my own. And while these really complex or far-reaching interpretations can be good and helpful, I think they can sometimes make interacting with Scripture more intimidating right?

Wine and Women

So everybody take a deep breath, if your head is still trying to wrap around one of those interpretations I want to bring you back to us. I want to reassure you, you aren’t somehow a worse Christian if you don’t see this kinda stuff when you read the Bible. Don’t feel bad, and definitely don’t let other people make you feel bad, if that kinda stuff isn’t what you see.

If we’re looking for a more down-to-earth way to look at The Wedding at Cana, we could just look at this passage with a little bit of background - as opposed to an extensive body of theological wisdom. I have two little facts for you that might help us to look at this text together. First, I want to remind you that the way we as Americans deal with alcohol is different from the rest of the world, and way different from what it would have been historically. Wine was symbolic for physical and spiritual joy, future hope, and abundance - so when we see Jesus provide wine for the wedding we might see that He is providing joy and hope abundantly. And another note - Jesus’ calling His mother “woman” is so much less offensive than it would be considered today. If I walk up to any of you ladies and introduce whatever I’m going to say by saying “woman,” I think it’s fair to say most of y’all wouldn’t be thrilled with me. That wouldn’t have been the case in Jesus’ time, in fact it might’ve even been a respectful vocative - like saying “ma’am” today.

With those two facts in mind, we can look at The Wedding at Cana with new eyes and we can see it as Jesus bringing joy and hope to the world even at the beginning of His earthly ministry. We can be reminded that we have peace, joy, and hope because of how Jesus ended His ministry. We can look at Him turning water into wine and be reminded of His greater miracle - the one where He turned sinners into saints. The one where He died on the cross and restored you and me to a perfect relationship with God that will carry us into eternity. Now, this interpretation might be reasonable for you in your own devotional readings. Sure, there’s a little bit of background you would need, but ultimately it’s only two little facts that a study Bible would probably have in the notes for you. But even though this level of interpretation can be good and helpful, I think that even this can sometimes make interacting with Scripture more intimidating.

Keep It Simple

But for devotional reading to be a place where you can be encouraged and grow, sometimes we don’t need all of that. We don’t need the academic theological interpretations that make our head spin, we don’t need the background information and the study notes - those things are good and they can be helpful, but sometimes we just want to be able to read the world in a relaxed, enjoyable way.

So I have a simple question for you. If you are throwing a party, or you’re at a party, and the host is running out of wine, or beer, or bourbon, or Coke, and then someone comes into the party and refills all the coolers with high class wine, your favorite beer, Blantons, or Vanilla Coke (the best soft drink) - what do you think of that person. That right there is a hero, everybody likes that guy. What a nice, thoughtful, generous person. So maybe, we read about what happened at The Wedding at Cana and we learn that Jesus is a pretty great person. Maybe, just maybe, that’s okay. That’s not to say that some of the deeper interpretations aren’t great, but there’s a lot of value in just looking at God’s Word and just asking two questions.

What does this show me about who God is and what He’s done?

What does this tell me about who God wants me to be?

And with that in mind, I actually have these bookmarks for you - I know, bookmarks don’t go in a phone. But I hope that sometimes you can look in a physical Bible, I’m not saying they’re better, but I am saying that you don’t accidently end up scrolling through email or Facebook on your physical Bible. But these bookmarks have those two questions on them, hopefully to encourage you to approach your Bible readings as something you get to do, not something you have to do, to keep it simple, and to always be on the lookout for who God is, what He’s done for you, and who He wants you to be. Amen.