Sun Jan 17th, thoughts going in

1 The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. 3 The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no more wine.”

4 “Dear woman, that’s not our problem,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”

5 But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

6 Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial washing. Each could hold twenty to thirty gallons. 7 Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.”When the jars had been filled, 8 he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So the servants followed his instructions.

9 When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over. 10“A host always serves the best wine first,” he said. “Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now!”

11 This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him (NLT).

Wow, there's SO MUCH going on with this text.

First, we need to acknowledge its place in the liturgical cycle of the Church. This is the 3rd of the three main themes of Epiphany: (1) The star & the magi; (2) The Baptism of Jesus; and (3) The revealing of Jesus' glory in the first miracle/sign.

Then there are a few narrative details to deal with. Commentators aren't too sure where Cana was (there are a couple of options), but it seems obvious that it was near Jesus' hometown of Nazareth. Modern day Kafr Kanna is about 5 miles NE of Nazareth and is considered the 'traditional' location of the story. The land at Kafr Kanna was sold by the lord of Sidon to the Knights Hospitallers in 1254. The Franciscans became established here in 1641 and began building the present "wedding church" over an older church in 1879. It was consecrated in 1883. Pictures of the sanctuary show 6 medium sized stone jars behind the altar, in remembrance of Christ's first miracle/sign.

There are details about the story that cannot be known for sure, but are nonetheless interesting to consider. For one, it is interesting that Jesus AND his mother are there. Vs 12 which continues the narrative away from Cana also mentions his brothers. It is easy to surmise that the entire family of Jesus was at this celebration. Given the customs of the day it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for the whole surrounding area to turn up at a wedding. However, the plot thickens when we discover 2 things about Mary in the text: (1) she has inside information; they've run out of wine. She knows this fact already, even though it appears not to be general knowledge. How is this so? And then there's (2) the fact that she *instructs* the servants at the gathering. These two details have led some to posit that Jesus and his family aren't here at this wedding as simply "neighbors," but rather that this is a family affair. Barclay states that one of the Coptic texts identifies the mother of the groom as Mary's sister, though in typical Barclay fashion he doesn't cite his source and I didn't take the time to crawl through Google to try to find it myself. Regardless, it seems safe to say that for a long time *some* people have thought that there was a family connection thing going on here at Cana in Galilee that day.

Next, the interplay between Mary and Jesus is interesting. MANY of the modern texts, such as the NLT quoted above, soft-peddle the exchange. They don't want Mary to seem like a nag, nor do they want Jesus to appear "gruff" in his exchange with his blessed mother. That's a bit unfortunate. I have always preferred to let the Scriptures stand with all of their rough edges--whether we fully get it or not. The honest commentators will tell us that Jesus address of his mother as "woman" (gunai in the Greek) is not exactly the equivalent of "mom." I'm not sure we have an English equivalent. Maybe "ma'am"....but that doesn't quite get it either. It's not *disrespectful*, as this is also how Jesus addresses his mother as he's dying on the cross and is handing her over to the care of the 'beloved disciple.' Then there's the phrase translated by the NLT as "that's not our problem." It's a decent rendering--from a thought-for-thought perspective. Literally, Jesus is saying: what does that have to do with me and you?

Then there's the biggest mystery of the text: Jesus says in vs 4 "my time has not yet come"......and by vs 7 evidently enough of Jesus' "time" has come that he's issuing instructions that will lead to the miracle.

If his time hadn't come yet, then why did he cave in? If by "his time" he meant something more conclusive like his suffering & death on the cross, why even mention THAT at this point? In other words, the flow of the narrative appears to go as follows: Mary is aware of a problem; she "takes it to the Lord in prayer": Jesus rebuffs her & says the whole thing doesn't concern him (nor should it her). That SHOULD be the end of it. Even the post script that has Mary telling the servants to follow Jesus' instructions could've just trailed off to nothingness if Jesus hadn't said anything to them.

And yet, I'm not sure the story could've unfolded any differently. SOMEHOW information needed to be communicated to Jesus that the wedding was in danger of ending in disaster (the faux pas of running out of wine would never have been lived down by this family). From the flow of the story the reader JUST KNOWS Jesus is going to do something about it. Yet, it's important to show Mary as an exemplar of FAITH.....not someone who just *automatically* has an inside track to Jesus & his "magic wand." Hence, we have the exchange between the two of them that has her walking away with NO PROMISES in hand.

Having said all of that, I just don't get the impression that these details are all of that important to John. HIS MAIN POINT is the way the story ends: "And his disciples believed in him." What about everyone else at the banquet? Didn't they believe in him too? Didn't they KNOW that this had been a miracle? At the very least it seems like the guys who filled the jars with water would've known. But again, John doesn't seem too concerned with the rest of them. He really wants us to see that Jesus used that opportunity as an occasion to help/strengthen the faith of his disciples........aka.....THE PEOPLE WHO WERE ALREADY FOLLOWING HIM.

There are a few different ways to go with this homiletically speaking. It's pretty hard to get passed the point of all of the imagery happening here: wedding-banquet; best wine; presence of Jesus; Disciples; belief etc. It sounds like a foretaste of the feast to come--just as we sing in "this is the feast of victory." That's nice. And I've gone in that direction in the past. One could also concentrate on Mary as the exemplar of faith. Here she is the mother of the Lord.....you'd think that if anyone could order up a miracle, she'd be able to. And yet the text portrays her as no different than any rank-and-file believer. She takes her request to the Lord and then simply has to live by faith that somehow things will work out, or there'll be grace enough to deal with the fallout.

But this time around I feel like doing something different. I think it's cuz I saw that picture of the Franciscan Wedding Church at Cana and those stone jars behind the altar. I'm intrigued by them. I think you could say that the day that Jesus turned their water into wine was probably the biggest thing that ever happened to them. If they could talk, I'm pretty sure they'd never STOP TALKING about that day. So, goofy as it may sound......and I may change my mind at the last minute & go in a different direction, but I think I'm going to do something along the lines of "a day in the life of a stone jar."



cheers,

TM