Epic Party

John 2:1-12

Dinosaur Park

Dylan coming in, adding to the dinosaur park.

What is heaven?

We have this idea of “heaven” and it fills the imagination.

Heaven is not however we “imagine” it… it is how it is. It is how God creates it to be, shapes it to be. And the best description we have of it is not flowing clouds but a new heaven and a new earth, that heaven, the living presence of God With Us, descending upon the earth, heaven and earth present together.

And we get these foretastes of what that looks like. The forestastes of heaven, of being in the presence of God, usually have this word associated with them: glory. Glory is high renown, or great beauty, and in the context of God, it is a majesty and grandeur so beyond it physically manifests at times.

What is heaven? What is glory?

Water Into Glory

John 2:1-10

1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.

Weddings in 1st century Palestine.

Jesus’ mother (never by name).

Jesus shows up… with 5-12 disciples in tow.

3 When the wine ran out,

It is the responsibility of the Bridegroom to give provisions. In a shame-based culture, this would be a major loss of face, a huge social faux pas.

the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”

Mary assuming Jesus can help? Had Mary, knowing that her child was special, been asking Jesus all the time for miracles?

Given the nature of weddings, it would not be shocking for Mary to have some level of responsibility for the preparations… maybe she was in charge of the wine?

And (this is speculation) but we never hear about Mary’s husband, Joseph, after Jesus is 11 years old. So we speculate that he had passed away sometime in the intervening 20 years. As the oldest of the family, a builder, a general contractor likely providing for his family in his father’s absence, it is only natural that Mary would come to depend on Jesus as her eldest son. And so she approaches Jesus, not expecting a miracle, likely, but simply reaching out to her resourceful eldest son. “Help me fix this impending social disaster.”

Jesus responds…

4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5

He distances himself from her. Woman. That sounds a little harsh, it might be more like Ma’am… it is not dismissive, it just isn’t normally how a son would address his mother.

His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Maybe she felt insulted… but she places her problem, her concern, in his hands. A bit passive aggressive, forcing his hand a bit, now all the servants turn to Jesus (who kind of just said he wouldn’t do anything) they all look expectantly.

6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.

(Think trash can made of stone).

7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.

They must be thinking how ridiculous this is. Why are we doing this?

8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

Is it wine?

A theology of drinking?

The overall message of the Bible on alcohol is this: it is a pleasure created by God to be enjoyed.

Like any pleasure, it can be abused, which is a sin, which leads to destruction both practically and morally.

John 2:11-12

11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

They said “that was an AWESOME party.”

12 After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.

Update Your View of Heaven

Life with God is an epic party.

Jesus’ first miracle was to keep the party going. This is not a trivial statement about how God encourages drinking. This is a profound theological statement about the glory of God and our ultimate destination.

Jesus stepped in, where the earthly bridegroom was found wanting, giving us a foretaste of what the wedding party looks like when he is the bridegroom. And his church is the Pride.

And the party goes on. And the wine only keeps getting better. And the food, and the feasting, and the joy, and the dancing, and putting together all the best of what we experience hear on earth and imagining it fulfilled and perfected and creative and eternal.

Update your view of glory. Of heaven. Of eternity. It’s an Epic Party.

It is the Dinosaur Park writ large. Heaven isn’t however you imagine it. Your imagination is rather limited, and inspired mostly by small variations of what you have already experienced hear on a speck of a planet in the Universe.

Heaven, new heaven on new earth, is limited by God’s unbounded imagination, infinite creativity. And when God does reveal his glory, instead of harps on floating clouds.

Imagine the most joyful party you have ever been to. Good friends and good family. Great food. Great conversation. Great drinks… Great music. And the night stretches late simply because everyone is having too much fun to see it end.

And the host says “good news, you are all immortal now. We will never run out of wine, never run out of food, never run out of joy”

That is where we are headed in Christ Jesus. We are united with him in death, we are united with him in Resurrection, we are united with him in glory.