1 On
the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there,
2 and Jesus and his disciples
had also been invited to the wedding. 3
When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more
wine." 4 "Woman, why
do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My hour has not yet come." 5 His mother said to the servants,
"Do whatever he tells you." 6
Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial
washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with
water"; so they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the
master of the banquet." They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been
turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the
servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, "Everyone brings out
the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too
much to drink; but you have saved the best till now." 11 What Jesus did here in Cana of
Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his
disciples put their faith in him.
As
"miracle stories" go, this account in John 2 really doesn't seem that
special. Compared to curing someone of an illness, or raising someone from the
dead etc., this seems like a mundane sort of miracle. People don't leave the
scene "praising God" as they do after some of the other miracles.
Nobody is heard saying "truly there is a prophet in our midst" as
they sometimes do after other miracles. In fact, some of the key players in
this story have NO IDEA that a miracle has even happened--the master of the
banquet and the bridegroom, for instance, seem clueless or naive. The
assumption seems to be that the other guests are totally oblivious to what has
happened. The only ones in on it seem to be the servants who filled the stone
jars with water, the disciples, and Mary (plus of course the readers). And what
was the 'purpose' of the miracle? Was it to show that God's healing presence has broken in to our
sin-sick world? Was it to fulfill ancient prophecies about the blind seeing and
the lame walking? Evidently not; evidently the only purpose was simply to prevent
a party from prematurely ending... and I suppose... a little home-town embarrassment
for the family responsible.
And yet, if
we take as a basic rule of thumb that EVERYTHING Jesus did was done for a
purpose; everything he did was for the redemption of all humanity, then even
this little 'minor miracle' has to have some major stuff behind it (not to
mention some major stuff going on in the thinking of John for including it in
his Gospel).
Perhaps an
interesting place to begin is with the concept of NOT ENOUGH vs MORE THAN
ENOUGH. There's a beautiful passage in Isaiah 25 that describes eternity as a
never ending banquet. Isaiah says:
6 On
this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all
peoples, a banquet of aged wine-- the best of meats and the finest of wines. 7 On this mountain he will destroy the
shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; 8 he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his
people's disgrace from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. 9 In that day they will say,
"Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the
LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."
Of course
Isaiah could just be using metaphor/symbol to describe the joy of forgiveness
in the eternal presence of God--as opposed to literal feasting. But why not
keep it literal? After all we are physical beings and will be again after the
resurrection. At least one point seems to be that in the eternal presence of
God, ALL that we could ever hope or long for is MORE than fulfilled. That after
a life of have-not, or not-enough; after a life of scrimping; after a life of trying
to make ends meet, etc. etc., there is never-ending joy to be had in God's
super-abundance.
I can't
help but think that this might be part of what impressed John about that day in
Cana. That when the glory of God broke in that day at Cana and solved an
embarrassing issue at a small-town banquet, this was an in-breaking or a foretaste of
that eternal banquet that Isaiah was talking about. For those with eyes of
faith, it was like peaking under the wrapping paper & getting a glimpse of
something WONDERFUL... something ETERNAL. What makes this an "Epiphany
Moment" isn't that a holy man did a miracle. Holy men had done miracles in
the Bible before this.... with the result being that those who witness the
miracle usually put their faith in God. What makes this an "Epiphany
Moment" is that they put their faith in JESUS (v11). In other words, the
"Sovereign Lord Almighty" from Isaiah 25 who (on this mountain) will prepare a feast of rich food for all
peoples, a banquet of aged wine-- the best of meats and the finest of wines...
was standing right there in front of them in human flesh!
cheers,
TM
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