The Wedding at Cana Revisited

2SundayEpiphanyC, The Wedding at Cana, Sullivan Park Care Center, January 20, 2013 by Annette Fricke

                Oh, love, how deep, how broad, how high, Beyond all thought and fantasy, That God, the Son of God, should take Our mortal form for mortal’s sake! For those who might benefit from the Latin itself: O amor quam extaticus,
Quam effluens, quam nimius, Qui Deum Dei Filiam Unum fecit mortalium! The love of God is quite beyond our comprehension, especially when we contemplate our own failure to reach that type of love in our own lives.  How is it possible that God could love us that much?  I look at this gospel text and that is what I see: I see the love of God in Christ Jesus.  Last Sunday, we see Jesus standing in line with sinners for baptism and this Sunday, he comes not as the bridegroom of a wedding, not as the center of attention, but as a guest. God comes among us as one of us, a guest among many guests to a celebration of a wedding. He is a guest among many guests just as he was one person among many who came for baptism. Jesus came as one of us.

            It seems that by this time, Mary knew that Jesus was more than just one of us.  Why else would she give the order to “Do whatever he tells you?”  I don’t know what her expectations were when she apparently directed her son to do what he did, but I am positive that there was a great reaction to such a changing of water into wine.  The steward was quick to point out that there is a lot of good wine available for the celebration. Even though we don’t have many details, we can guess how this made the occasion a very joyful one.  In fact, we don’t have the details of this story at all—the name of the mother of Jesus is not named and neither are the disciples of Jesus.  In the gospel of John, only five disciples are ever named in the entire book. The mother of Jesus is never called Mary in this gospel.  Perhaps the point of this is that we should not be looking at the other characters in the story, but Jesus alone.  The important figure to note is Jesus, not anyone else.  Never mind his mother or his disciples because they are only minor characters to this story.  It is not what they do that matters, it is what Jesus does.

            The early Church, however, saw something else: 1) Christ shows himself to be one with the Creator.  This is the conclusion of Origen, Athanasius, Chrysostom, and Irenaeus.  2) The marriage feast is a symbol of joy.  This is the main emphasis of Origen who states that bread is a source of strength and wine is the source of joy. 3) Christ transforms the water of Judaism into the new wine of Christianity, especially for Origen, Clement, Cyril, Cyprian, as well as Chrysostom.

            Augustine, however, has a different view, “The miracle indeed of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby he made the water into wine, is not marvelous to those who know that it was God’s doing.”  But, I would argue, it is marvelous and it is God’s doing. And I would argue that this miracle is about the abundance of God’s love, that it is plenteous and overflowing, it is over kill and beyond what is needed.  It is in excess. It is about the excessive lavishing of love that God has given to us in Jesus.  If you add up the figures, it is an overwhelming amount of wine.  There is far more wine there than that which is required or needed to satisfy the joyous celebration of a wedding in anyone’s book.  That is what I get out of this story. The quantity of wine is not only generous but the quality superb as well. 

            Martin Luther calls this text a lesson of love, visible in the difficult but finally happy relation of Christ with his mother, but then even more he sees the lessons of divine grace and discipled faith: “Thus Christ lures all hearts to himself, to rely on him as ever ready to help, even in temporal things, and never willing to forsake any;… Christ waits to the very last moment when the want is felt by all present, and there is no counsel or help left. It is like I was taught about one of the principles of counseling:  frequently, the best time to be ready to change one’s habits is when you are most in crisis, when you have hit bottom, so to speak.  It is a concept that is used widely in Alcoholics Anonymous.  Change is not going to happen until you yourself can see it with your own eyes. If I perceive that all is going well, there is no need for me to change.  Even if all in the room can see what I need, unless I see it myself, my motivation for change will be lacking.  Change will come sooner when we are willing to entertain someone else’s observation.

            Jesus’ mother has made an observation of what is going on.  The celebration, to be a true celebration needs wine.  The wine had run out. No commentary I have read has suggested this, but perhaps this also could be a reference to Judaism.  The joy of being in relationship with God has run out due to the Pharisees’ insistence on the observance of every letter of the law.  The law weighed people down and it became not a joy to worship God, but drudgery.  Those that thought they were living by it were actually hardened by it. They were proud of their standing before God and felt entitled. They believed that they were first in the Kingdom of God and deserved to be honored by God. Luther says, “Whoever still deems himself wise, strong, and pious, and finds something good in himself, and is not yet a poor, miserable, sick sinner and fool, the same cannot come to Christ the Lord, nor receive his grace.”  Luther is referring to the other purpose of the law which is to drive us to Christ. The other people encountered by Jesus in his ministry were those who had been broken by the Law, and were humbled by it. They knew they were condemned under it and found Him to be a source of redemption and a savior which they longed for. Luther makes a distinction between those who are filled with pride and do not have any room for grace.  If you see no need for God, you will fill yourself with other things, including what you think are your accomplishments when in fact everything you have is from God and owed to God.  Sometimes we need reminding about this.  Sometimes we are content to think that it has all come from us and we want to pat ourselves on the back.  We forget to give God the credit.  Instead of filling our vessels with the wine of God’s grace, we have filled them with our own pride.

            But now, let’s return to the text.  In John, the whole life and purpose of Jesus culminates where God is glorified.  God is glorified ultimately in Jesus’ death on the cross.  Crucifixion is glorification for John, no more and no less.  Throughout the gospel of John, we read, just as in this gospel text, that Jesus’ hour had not yet come.  However, just as every Sunday is a mini Easter, every story about Jesus is a glimpse of what the glory of God is all about.  The glory of God is the defeat of sin and death which is accomplished only by the death of Jesus on the cross.  According to John, that is the defining moment.  As Schnackenburg has noted, “This first Johannine miracle story points---as do all the Johannine miracle stories---beyond the narrated incident itself to Jesus’ work as a whole and to the fundamental saving event of the ‘Hour of Jesus.’  In the transformation of water of ‘Jewish purification’ into Jesus’ gift of wine, which was a sign of the Time of Salvation, the scene is set for the end-time Turn of Times. The Cross.”

In Christ, that promised day, that promised hour of Jesus has arrived and all the abundance of God’s blessings are poured out onto the people.  Their depleted resources are filled to the brim with God’s grace. The water for purification is transformed into the wine, which is God’s gracious offering of himself in Christ.  As the people during Jesus’ life on earth apparently demanded, “Give us a sign,” realize this: This is a sign along with others, but the most profound sign that Jesus is who he says he is, is his complete sacrifice for us in which he poured out love and grace unbounded for all.  Give us faith every day, gracious Lord to believe it and live into it. In the words of the second half of verse 4: “By words and signs and actions thus Still seeking not himself, but us.” Amen.