No Wine Before Its Time...

 

“Wine Before Its Time”

 

John 2:1-11
2:1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

2:2 Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.

2:3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine."

2:4 And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come."

2:5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

2:6 Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.

2:7 Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim.

2:8 He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it.

2:9 When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom

2:10 and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now."

2:11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

 

The setting for Jesus’ first “miracle” is a wedding at Cana of Galilee. I never liked weddings. Never. Now, this is a strange confession for someone who performed close to 150 of them in 36 years of ministry! Here’s the story. What I didn’t like about weddings, before becoming a pastor, was how “artificial” they were. At least in the white culture, we have no real wedding customs. The average wedding is a jumble of customs “borrowed” from other cultures, most of which have something to do with fertility—a fact lost on most brides and mothers of the brides. From veils and lace dresses, to garters and bride’s bouquets, if one researches where these all came from, you will find that all lead to either fertility “rites” of other cultures, or are some mark of “ownership” the husband is claiming over the wife. Either way, we’ve lost the meaning of these elements, but God help the person who suggest you don’t INCLUDE them at a wedding! I was in a class in college where, in a group project, we researched the wedding customs of other cultures. Our group was aided by the fact that one of the members of it was a Nigerian woman, who joyously detailed her culture’s wedding customs. We were all so disappointed that “Americans” had no such customs, other than like the ones mentioned earlier that have horrible roots, at least for young, independent women. Beyond these “plastic” elements of pretty much every wedding I attended (or was a member of the wedding party for), most weddings were just pretty boring, and huge amounts of money were being spent for one day, when a couple had a lifetime ahead of them where they could USE those funds for something more productive. Someone may say, but YOU are married—didn’t you and Dara follow any of those “plastic” customs. The short answer is “NO,” but if you are ever interested, I’d be happy to tell you about our simple, but interesting wedding!

 

Oh yes, how did I deal with my “distaste” for American weddings when became a pastor and had to officiate at 150 of them? Honestly, this was something I had to wrestle with God about when I sensed God calling me into the ministry. That and funerals, but that is another matter for another narrative. The “answer” I got from God on the wedding matter was to “be creative” and encourage my couples to do so, too, and to focus my efforts on helping them get their marriage off on the right foot. So, that’s what I did, and with this focus, I found it a delightful experience to meet with, get to know, and counsel with my couples, and then help them make their marriage ceremony a loving and joyous experience, counteracting the stress and pressure of it for them as much as I could. I wish I could say that all of my weddings resulted in long-lasting marriages, but that would be inaccurate. However, I believe my “track record” in this regard was pretty good, given the continuing feedback I receive from many of those couples. As I was studying the text for this message, I got an email from a couple I married over 20 years ago, letting me know how happy they are, and how their family has grown and prospered. It truly made my day.

 

Now, back to Cana of Galilee. We don’t know much about why Jesus was at this wedding, but from the text, one might guess that his mother was the one invited, and she dragged Jesus along. The text says that MARY was there, and that Jesus and his disciples “had also been invited,” so that sounds to me like the real “guest” was Mary, but the family of the wedding party felt compelled to invite her son and his “homies.” Then there came the matter of the wine. 

 

Years ago, a famous “bottom shelf” wine company ran a series of TV commercials featuring Orson Welles, the famous actor/director. The aging movie “superstar,” who was doing the ads to raise money to finish a couple of films he was working on, would utter the name of the wine company and utter the catchphrase, “We will sell no wine before its time!” Of course it was a bit humorous as a premise, as anyone who knew anything about wine, knew that this cheap wine was pumped out like soda pop, not delicately aged by serious vintners. I think of this every time I read this story out of the Fourth Gospel.

 

In the story, the wine “gives out” and Mary takes the concern to Jesus. His response sounds a bit rude and indignant in English, but is not so in the original Greek. However, it does show an initial disinterest, on the part of Jesus, who also says his “time” has not yet come. (“We will sell no wine before its time!”) It certainly sounds like the setup of the story here is that Mary is kind of “pushing” Jesus to do his miracle thing and fix the wine shortage, somehow, as even for a wedding in the first century, this was a bummer for the party. Still, Mary persists, telling the servants, “Do whatever he tells you,” pretty much committing Jesus to do SOMETHING.

 

The Gospel of John doesn’t call Jesus supernatural actions such as healing or calming storms on the sea “miracles,” but “signs.” The Fourth Gospel is all about trying to help his readers understand the theology behind just who Jesus was, not just relate the events. So, when Jesus performs an intervention that goes against the “natural order” of things, it is a “sign” of Jesus’ identity as the Divine Logos of God. And John goes to great lengths to add symbolic elements to his account of the such stories, such as the stone water pots Jesus asks to be filled with water in this miracle. John tells us they were the same water jars “for the Jewish rite of purification.” Is this John’s way to telegraph that the one doing the “sign” is the “lamb of God who [will] take away the sins of the world,” “purifying” us all of our sinfulness? And the Fourth Gospel also gives us the contrast between the “inferior wine” and the “good” or “best” wine that Jesus brews up. Is the “inferior” wine the law that has become more of a prison for the Jews, thanks to the way their religious leaders lorded it over them? Is John then saying that Jesus, the Divine Logos of God, is the “best” wine? It is so good that even those who are drunk notice its quality, not just its quantity! And since all of humanity is “drunk” with sin, do we not crave the “best” wine?

 

John tells us the final result of this “sign” is that God is glorified, and that his disciples believed in him. These are the natural outcomes of God’s efforts to reconcile humanity through the Christ Event—we come to believe, and God is glorified. 

 

I’m guessing that all of you who may be reading this message know full well how God sent Jesus into the world to save the world, as hopefully all of us have said “yes” to God’s “YES” to the world. And I’m guessing we understand that we seek to glorify God through our worship. These outcomes of the “sign” at Cana of Galilee are obvious. But let’s not miss the unheralded souls in this story—the servants who “carry the water” to the wine steward. The text says that they knew who had “tampered” with the water, but they had done the heavy lifting. Might the wine steward’s NOT knowing, and the servants’ KNOWING be a metaphor for the disparity between the Jews and the Gentiles, with the Gentiles playing the role of the servants who “get it” regarding who Jesus really is, and the Jewish leaders who don’t’ “get it”? Just a thought.

 

Maybe our best takeaway from this “sign” story is that we, as modern Christian disciples, are called to “draw and carry the water,” providing the raw material and doing the heavy lifting for the wonderful things that Jesus wants to do through the Body of Christ today. Evangelism, ministries of mercy and justice, spiritual teaching and nurture, and working together to transform the world through the Love of Christ, these are the “good wine” we are privileged to draw, carry, and distribute. It’s TIME for THIS wine! Amen.