Sermon Tone Analysis

2 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.

Introduction:

Wedding Fails

I’ve lost track of how many weddings I’ve done in my career.

But one of the funniest things to me about a wedding is how for the couple it’s the biggest day of their lives, and yet I frequently spend the morning before a wedding mowing the lawn or doing my laundry or something like that.

Still, it is a big day for the couple, so I try to limit my mistakes.

But there have been a few doozies...

Bridesmaid Forgot the Boquet

This was actually at the last wedding I did.

The maid of honor forgot the Bride’s bouquet.

They sent the best man to go get it, which ultimately resulted in us starting the ceremony about 20 minutes late.

No one really seemed to mind!

I like to move it move it-Unity Candle

In the wedding ceremony that the Presbyerian Church recommends, the declaration of marriage, including the classic “you may kiss the bride” happens right before the lighting of the unity candle.

In the movies it’s almost always the last thing that happens in the wedding.

So at one particular wedding, our DJ got a bit confused and as the couple was solemly lighting their unity candles, we were all serenaded by this:

<Play Video>

The perplexing case of the missing vows

By far my best blunder though came when I was performing the wedding of a former youth group kid.

Minutes before the wedding, the bride asked if I could hold on to her vows as her dress didn’t come with pockets.

(Side note: Ladies, I am now officially of the opinon that every article of clothing should come with pockets, and I hear I’m not alone in that.)

I WARNED HER that my robe’s pockets are kind of goofy with the cincure rope here, but sure I’ll hold on to them.

When the time came to read the vows that the couple had put together, I reached in to my pocket and felt…nothing!

Here’s a picture of the exact moment:

Now, what followed was amazing.

She made up her vows on the spot, and absolutely blew everybody away.

Later, I found that the vows had slipped through the microphone pass through of my robe, and were resting comfortably on the rope right here.

Good times!

Weddings are joyous spaces!

Even when things go horribly wrong, weddings are times of incredible joy!

How interesting then that Jesus would choose this setting for his very first miracle!

Bible Breakdown

Third Day- Foreshadowing

This is a text that is DRIPPING with meaning behind meanings.

For starters, John tells us that this story happens on the third day.

There is no context in the stories that proceed this for that phrase to show up.

This is an eye wink to something that’s going to come later in his gospel, something else that happens on the third day.

Of course I mean Jesus’ resurrection.

So John wants us to connect those two stories in our mind, which is interesting.

Jesus’ Mom- What does it mean to ask God for something?

Mary (who is actually never mentioned by name in John’s gospel) asks Jesus to intervene.

Maybe it’s just a wedding, but there’s a lot that we can understand about this situation:

There is a need.

Jesus (who Mary understands to be God in flesh) could do something to meet the need.

And so essentially Mary prays.

She goes to Jesus and says “why don’t you step in and do something about this?”

And Jesus…hesitates.

He’s got a reason that we may or may not understand at all.

It’s not time yet.

But still, this feels like an odd response from Jesus doesn’t it?

And in fact, it feels like an odd response that we get from God from time to time.

Why does God hesitate to intervene in our loved ones cancer diagnosis?

Why has God continued to put us through this endless and insufferable pandemic?

Why won’t God provide justice where we feel like it’s lacking?

The reality is that we may never get an answer to why these seemingly odd responses come back from God.

But maybe even more odd is Mary’s response:

“Do whatever he says.”

Essentially, in spite of an unanswered prayer, Mary steps back and says

I know my son.

I trust my son.

It might not look like I thought it would, but something amazing is coming.

Empty Ritual Jars

So Jesus tells the servants to fill up these ritual cleansing jars, each able to hold about twenty or thirty gallons of water.

I had a friend post for those of us who are all preaching on this gospel lesson this week: this is what that looks like:

But that begs another set of questions?

Why are there ritual washing jars here at a wedding?

This would be about as odd as walking in to a reception hall for a wedding and seeing a baptizmal font.

Was the wedding at a temple?

Were the bride and groom particularly religious?

If so, why were they empty?

Were these leftover from another event?

Were people even paying attention to this any more?

Or are these just empty remnants of an empty religion to these folks?

Either way, Jesus takes these empty religious symbols, and fills them with more meaning.

These jars, which are meant for cleansing, are now filled with wine.

We would do well to remember other ways that Jesus is going to use wine in this story later on down the line.

He’s going to use it as a stand in for his own blood, which has the ability to wash us all clean.

Good Wine While Everyone’s Drunk!

And apparently this is some pretty good wine!

The master of ceremonies pulls the groom aside and makes a comment about the economy of hospitality.

Usually the good wine comes first, and then when everyone’s too drunk to know the difference they switch over to the cheap boxed stuff.

Two things this brings to mind in this story, and we’re going to tie it all together soon:

Everyone’s pretty drunk at this point in the story.

And it shows that this wasn’t some cheap parlor trick.

Jesus really did it, and did this first sign in a way that everyone took notice of and showed his mastery over creation.

The First Sign