A Light Has Come: Wedding at Cana

The Wedding at Cana

This story only appears in John. Matthew, Mark & Luke don’t include it.

Why?

All four gospel writers are telling their readers the story of Jesus, and in so doing, are telling what God is like AND what this embodied God is up to.

But each one does so from a particular vantage point and speaking to a particular audience.

John, according to early Christian tradition, spent his latter years in Ephesus, the capital of the Roman province of Asia. And so, John is writing to other Greek-speaking (and thus Greek-thinking) Jewish believers. We will see in John’s gospel again and again, this combination of Jewish and Hellenistic, or Greek ways of thinking.

“In the beginning was the Logos...”

is perhaps the most obvious place. But if we keep the Greek pantheon of gods in mind as we read John, we can see them being addressed one by one as we make our way through the gospel.

John tells us his purpose in writing towards the end of the gospel...

John 20:30–31 CEB

30 Then Jesus did many other miraculous signs in his disciples’ presence, signs that aren’t recorded in this scroll. 31 But these things are written so that you will believe that Jesus is the Christ, God’s Son, and that believing, you will have life in his name.

So John has included the material he does in order that his readers might believe, might encounter Jesus in the reading, and come to believe, might meet Jesus in the text and continue to believe.

Commentator Karoline Lewis writes:

“John imagines, anticipates, and expects that by hearing this story of Jesus, the reader will be affected in some way.”

With that same sort of expectation, let’s hear the story of the Wedding at Cana. Dean, will you come and read for us?

John 2:1–12 CEB

1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and 2 Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. 3 When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They don’t have any wine.” 4 Jesus replied, “Woman, what does that have to do with me? My time hasn’t come yet.” 5 His mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Nearby were six stone water jars used for the Jewish cleansing ritual, each able to hold about twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water,” and they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he told them, “Now draw some from them and take it to the headwaiter,” and they did. 9 The headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine. He didn’t know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. The headwaiter called the groom 10 and said, “Everyone serves the good wine first. They bring out the second-rate wine only when the guests are drinking freely. You kept the good wine until now.” 11 This was the first miraculous sign that Jesus did in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. 12 After this, Jesus and his mother, his brothers, and his disciples went down to Capernaum and stayed there for a few days.

This is such a strange story to read right now. A story of ridiculous abundance. An event in which Jesus does something remarkable and the servants are the only ones who know about it.

In this time of extended lack… after a season (or several seasons?) of limits - some given to us for the protection of systems and vulnerable people, others self-imposed as we carefully consider our own willingness to take or to put others at risk.

In the midst of the 5th wave of COVID-19 in which we are learning our Greek alphabet.

Now, we read of the first miracle in the gospel of John?

A miracle of obscurity. A story of Jesus saving a bridegroom and his family from embarrassment. A situation in which the grown up Jesus comes into direct contact with the expectations of his mother.

But more than all of those, a miracle of abundance.

Grace upon grace, John 1:16 said. And here we have an embodied experience of what grace upon grace, abundant grace looks like. And, since it is wine we’re speaking of, what abundant grace TASTES like.

I wonder if we all couldn’t use a TASTE of abundance about now.

This story raises so many questions for me. Does it for you as well?

I want us to briefly consider three questions together:

The exchange between Jesus & his mother… Why does Jesus say “no” and then go ahead and solve the lack of wine problem?

What is going on here?

What does this “sign” mean?

So, first of all, when we read this story - TONE makes all kinds of difference.

John 2:3–4 CEB

3 When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They don’t have any wine.” 4 Jesus replied, “Woman, what does that have to do with me? My time hasn’t come yet.”

How do we read this?

Is Mary commenting on the social faux pas? “They don’t have any wine.” (I told them to hire that wedding planner. I knew this would happen.)

Is Mary being passive aggressive? Stating something without making an actual request, but hoping Jesus will pick up on it? “They don’t have any wine.” (Hm… Makes a face…)

Is Mary going to her son because of what she has seen Him do before? Have there been miraculous events in their home as Jesus has grown up? Has Jesus been honing His skills?

What if what’s really going on is that Mary is paying attention?

And what about Jesus’ tone. “Woman” is not how we would begin a sentence in English. (You know this, right? This will not go well for you, any of you… this is a feature of an ancient language and another culture.

If we give both Jesus and his mother as much benefit of the doubt as we can… we’re still left with Jesus being asked to do something, refusing and then doing it anyway. Talk about a head scratcher.

However, missiologist Lesslie Newbigin helpfully points out that this isn’t the only time Jesus does this:

He repels the temptation to turn stones into bread, but feeds the hungry in the desert. He repels the entreaty of the nobleman from Cana and of the Syro-phoenecian woman but proceeds to heal his son and her daughter.

So what do we make of this? I’m not sure. Honestly. But I love that the humanity is preserved here in the text. We can imagine the under-breath conversation.

And, what I don’t want us to miss, is that John has the mother of Jesus - Mary, as we know her - only show up twice in his gospel. Once now at the “beginning” and then we won’t see her again until chapter 19 when she stands with three other women at the foot of the cross. We could explore WHY she only shows up in these two places. And perhaps we should. But for now, let’s see that she is with him in this unlikely “beginning” and she will still be there when He is dying.

In both places, Mary is attentive to what is going on around her - and what is going on with Jesus. Is this something we can hold onto?

Okay. My 2nd question is still “what is going on here?”

This might be the world’s most squandered publicity stunt. If Jesus wanted to demonstrate something, surely He could have done so in such a way that everyone at the event could see and taste what was happening? But no, here is this miracle of abundance, and most of the people attending this wedding know nothing of either the crisis or its solution.

Weddings were not so much a few hours in this time and culture, but a multiple day affair. And the wedding feast was an accepted sign of God’s kingdom. What will life be like when God’s reign is here in full? It will be like a wedding - not like a religious ceremony, but like the feast which was the heart of the 1st century celebration.

Remember when we read Isaiah 55 a couple of weeks before Christmas? The image of such a feast was in there…

Isaiah 55:1–6 CEB

1 All of you who are thirsty, come to the water! Whoever has no money, come, buy food and eat! Without money, at no cost, buy wine and milk! 2 Why spend money for what isn’t food, and your earnings for what doesn’t satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good; enjoy the richest of feasts. 3 Listen and come to me; listen, and you will live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful loyalty to David. 4 Look, I made him a witness to the peoples, a prince and commander of peoples. 5 Look, you will call a nation you don’t know, a nation you don’t know will run to you because of the Lord your God, the holy one of Israel, who has glorified you. 6 Seek the Lord when he can still be found; call him while he is yet near.

And who gets invited in Isaiah 55? People with nothing. No money? No problem. And not in the modern day buy now, pay later scam that has people buying things they cannot afford and then tanking their credit scores on furniture and electronics so that any hope of financing a car or home becomes impossible. No. This is an actual invitation to come and eat, come to the party. Without cost.

And who gets invited to the wedding in John 2? Well, Jesus’ mother for one. And Jesus. And his newly called disciples. Those same ones who last week asked if they could see where Jesus was staying - and instead of redirecting them to something more useful, He responded with a “Come and see.” And now they’re at a wedding.

Not in order for Jesus to pontificate about what it means that The Light Has Come. (Though I do really like that title for our series.)

Not to teach about the way the Kingdom is like a wedding feast. (Well, ok, maybe to teach about that. But not by talking or giving a brilliant lecture, but by joining in the festivities. Which includes the guests having such a good time that the host has now run out of wine)

After the exchange between mother & son, Jesus indeed does “do something”

Jesus’ action screams “I’m the fulfillments of messianic expectation!” but in such a way that almost no one can hear it.

And who gets to witness the world’s best and worst publicity stunt ?

Who knows what has happened? The servants, and possibly Jesus’ disciples.

Who tastes the wine? The headwaiter, or steward. And the wedding guests. They’re drinking the wine but most of them don’t know the story. And who would believe it anyway? (Did you know this wine - this really good wine - started out as water? … Something tells me that even if people started talking at the wedding, no one would have believed them.)

Which leaves me with more questions…

What does this sign mean?

Does this mean that Jesus has come to save us from any social embarrassment? (Clearly, that’s not true. I’m sure we could share plenty of moments when we have embarrassed ourselves or our families and Jesus didn’t swoop in to save us from the consequences of ourselves.

Does Jesus improvise with when “his hour” is coming?

Why does John think this is the best way to signify the beginning of Jesus’ ministry?

Why is this “SIGN” the first one John tells us about?

How does this SIGN help us to come to believe? How does this sign help us to continue to believe?

The usual pattern in John’s gospel will be for there to be a SIGN followed by dialogue and discourse. A miracle followed by conversation in which the people surrounding the miracle try to make sense of it - and then the discourse, in which Jesus himself will offer an interpretation of what He has just done.

But with the 1st and the 7th sign (the raising for Lazarus) the pattern will be disturbed.

We find the “dialogue and discourse” wrapped up in the prologue… and in particular, in the four occurrences of the word “grace.”

John 1:14–17 (CEB)

14 The Word became flesh

and made his home among us.

We have seen his glory,

glory like that of a father’s only son,

full of grace and truth.

15 John testified about him, crying out, “This is the one of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is greater than me because he existed before me.’ ”

16 From his fullness we have all received

grace upon grace;

17 as the Law was given through Moses,

so grace and truth came into being

through Jesus Christ.

The word grace only appears in John these four times. But as Karoline Lewis points out:

“the rest of the gospel tells us what grace looks like, tastes like, smells like, sounds like, feels like.”

Karoline Lewis

So, let’s put away our theological definitions of grace. And, let’s get out taste buds ready. Our senses. Our imaginations.

For, the turning of water into wine is, after all, a miracle of ridiculous abundance. This is what grace looks and tastes like. Excess. And excess of the good stuff. What is God like? And what is God up to?

May the Kingdom come. And may we see and taste and smell and hear and feel it!