“
Wasn't That A Party!”
Water into wine: Emptiness into fulfilment
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, February 22, 2004
Text: John 2:1-12
In the newspapers recently there has been a great deal of coverage of a problem that General Motors has been having with some of its products. Evidently, some owners have found that even though their gas gauges say there is three-quarters of a tank of gas in their cars, they are really empty. People have found themselves stranded on highways, roadways and driveways all over the continent.
After a thorough examination, the conclusion was that there was basically two problems. One was that certain types of gasoline contain additives that prevent the gauge sensors from picking up the information they need to ensure an accurate reading. Similarly, some of the gauges themselves have not worked properly because the sensors weren't picking up and receiving the information that they were getting. It seems to have been a combination of problems with the gasoline companies and the automakers.
Now, I say this because I think this is an illustration of what happens to human lives. Very often we find ourselves like cars full of bad gasoline: We fill our lives with things that are not fulfilling, things that are not sustaining, things that do not get us through life with meaning, power and purpose. We fill our lives with things that are incomplete and unfulfilling, and we find ourselves in deep need. Likewise, sometimes our lives are like faulty gauges: Our sensors are wrong. They are trying to find the wrong things to make life fulfilling. They are seeking things that are not going to enrich our lives and make them better. We have faulty gauges and sometimes we put in faulty fuel. Then we find that we run dry.
All of this is of a spiritual nature, not a literal one. It is about the way we live our lives and find our meaning and purpose, how our lives can make a difference in the world. That is why our text this morning speaks to a world that often finds itself running dry. A world that often finds itself seeking something richer, with a greater sense of meaning and purpose. Our passage from the Gospel of John is really about running empty and finding fulfilment. It is without doubt one of the greatest of all the passages in the New Testament and is most definitely the frontispiece of John's gospel.
John sets the tone for everything else that is to follow, for this is the first of the miracles of Jesus, at the wedding at Cana. It is not surprising, therefore, that those who saw this found in it something so powerful that their lives were changed. John goes to great lengths to show that the disciples were able to believe in Jesus Christ because of what they had seen at the wedding at Cana.
Now, there will always be those who get hung up on the actuality and the objectivity of the miracle that occurred.
I read a letter in The Globe and Mail this week questioning whether the water could have been turned to wine because of the chemical and atomic transition that would need to take place and the impossibility of that happening. I love what C.S. Lewis answered to someone lacking such imagination: [paraphrase]
Is it beyond our comprehension that the God who created water, the God who made soil, the God who created grapes and enabled them to grow, the God who created the process of fermentation could not at some time at His choosing simply turn water into wine?
It all really boils down to one's view of God, it boils down to faith, it boils down to whether you believe the Creator can enter into the natural order and change things. If you believe that the Creator cannot, then this seems like a flight of fancy. If you believe that the Creator can, then it should hold no problem for you. But, the story of the miracle at Cana is not so much about the how of Jesus turning water into wine, as it is about the why.
This is not a story that we are to marvel at. It is a story that we are to interpret. It is not a story that we look at, it is a story that we look through. The story of Jesus and the wedding at Cana is a message about the whole nature of His ministry that was to follow. It was the precursor. It was the first sign of everything that Jesus was going to say and do throughout His ministry. John was convinced that this powerful story of the changing of water into wine should be the first sign, the first symbol, the frontispiece of his gospel.
With that in mind I want to look at how this wonderful miracle not only impacted the people who witnessed it 2,000 years ago, but also its meaning and richness for our own lives right here and now. This, indeed, is one of my favourite of all the gospel passages.
What it starts out with is a profound understanding of the emptiness of life when God is not part of it. Now, the story of the wedding at Cana really takes on its greatest power when you understand just how terrible it was to run out of wine at a wedding reception in first-century Palestine.
Unlike our culture, where it is customarily believed that the bride's family should pay for the reception, in the time of Jesus (and this will please so many brides) it was the groom who was responsible for making sure that the wedding ran properly, the rabbi was there, the wine arranged and the meal prepared. You can imagine the terrible sense of disappointment and embarrassment that the groom must have felt when he was told there was no more wine. For the groom this was a sign of his family's status in society. This was a big show put on to impress the bride's family and the community and show them just what a good family she was entering into and what a prestigious family this was in the community. To run out of wine was a scandal. It showed a lack of preparation. It was a sign that they had not done their work properly.
I know people often think that grooms are probably the least interested in weddings and wedding receptions, that everything really is in the hands of the bride, who is the most important person at such a moment. I once heard a story of a little girl who came up to her father and said: “Daddy, why is it that all the brides wear white at their weddings?”
Her father thought about it and said: “Because white is a sign of joy. It is a sign of happiness. That's why brides wear white.”
Then she paused and asked him: “Well, why is it that all the men wear black?”
It was not so in first-century Israel. The groom was intimately involved and it was an embarrassment to the family if it didn't go well. That is why it is important to understand what happened at the wedding. It wasn't just a matter of running out of wine, it was a matter of losing face, of dryness in the truest sense of the word.
There's an old rabbinic saying that goes as follows: “Where there is wine, there is joy.” That does not mean wine in terms of drinking it in excess and carrying on and losing one's faculties. It means that wherever there is wine there is a celebration, a coming together of people, there is a feast. Wine is a symbol in Israel of the people gathering and coming together. So, where there is wine, there is joy. Likewise, therefore, where there is no wine, there is no joy. Where there is a lack of wine, there is emptiness.
Now, John very cleverly molds this text and shows us that this has great meaning whether it is a Jew or a Greek who is reading it. If you are a Jew reading this passage, there is a very important symbol, namely that there were only six water jugs at the wedding. Six, in biblical terms, is an incomplete number, it is a sign of lack of fulfilment, of emptiness, of spiritual poverty. The complete number in the Old Testament is seven. So, at this wedding they were one water jug shy of fulfilment. The six water jugs are a sign that something was desperately missing. Six, also carries with it a connotation of spirituality as well, just as seven does. The six is a symbol of a spiritual emptiness, seven of spiritual fulfilment. So, a Jew reading this passage would see that something was very wrong, something was sadly missing, there was a profound emptiness.
For the Greek reading this it is just as powerful for the Greeks had a god named Dionysus, the god of wine. In Euripides' Bacchae he was considered to be one of the greatest and most powerful of all the Greek gods, if not the supreme god. In one myth, the priests of Dionysus would go at night to a water jug and place on it their seal and in the morning they would return and find the jug full of wine. It wasn't wine to be drunk by the people but rather, it was to be consumed by the god, Dionysus. He did everything for his own benefit.
So, if you are reading this passage and you are a Greek you can see a reference to Greek mythology. And, if you are a Jew you see a reference to Jewish symbolism. It's a powerful combination and John has brought them together in this story for anyone to read. But the symbolism goes even deeper. It goes to the heart of human existence, for the symbol of the water being there and not being wine, having run out of wine, is a symbol of the barrenness and dryness of life when God is not part of it.
I think there are many things in our life, society and community that are wonderful. Just recently here in this great city, I've been to an opera, I've been to a concert, I've been to gardens and I've been to an art exhibition. They are all there before us - the beauty and majesty of the world is before our eyes. For those who are able to see these things they are a great gift and a wonderful pleasure, and there is much to celebrate.
At 9:30 you should have heard the band and the people singing gospel music. It was wonderful. Hearing the choir now singing glorious music, it is beautiful. We are blessed by so much in creation that is powerful, good and wonderful and we're in a city where we can enjoy it to the maximum.
Unfortunately, these things in and of themselves do not fulfill completely - they do not make our lives complete - for when we cannot see them, cannot enjoy them, cannot have them around, what do we have? When we find the life that we live often vacillates between good and bad things happening, are we only to enjoy life when the good things are there, or is there something deeper and more powerful? When the economy is continually in a state of flux and there are people in poverty and living on the street, does it mean then that we have fulfilment?
I read a lovely story about the coach of a Utah basketball team who, when he heard everyone was going on and on about the economy said: “Oh, I know about the economy. It's up and down, but so is my life. After all, when I look in a mirror I see my hairline in recession, my stomach in inflation and I become down with depression. I know things vacillate; I just need to look in the mirror.”
My friends, there are many things in this life that are continually ebbing and flowing. There is nothing that is certain and even when we can find moments of beauty and fulfilment and happiness and love, there needs to be something more, don't you think? Well, in our passage today, Jesus is addressing that very issue and the gospel goes right to the heart of it. Our lives are often like lives that have run out of wine and they have become stale, unexciting water. But in the gospel message we find fulfilment when Jesus turns the water into wine.
What triggers this? What causes all of this to begin? The faith of a woman, the faith of Mary, His mother. It is Mary that sees the embarrassment of the young man's family. It is she that must have felt the pangs of pain for all the guests who were there, so she turns to her Son and says, “Is there nothing you can do?”
Jesus seems a little curt with His mother but it is not as bad as it sounds for it is a certain reluctance on the part of Jesus to do anything at that moment, that's all. His reluctance is expressed by saying, “My time has not yet come.” In other words, I'm not ready yet to reveal my power and who I am. I'm not sure that this is the moment for the world to know and see the power that I have. Jesus was reluctant to reveal His power but, realizing the embarrassment of the moment, realizing the need on His mother's part to remedy the situation, Jesus agrees to help.
Now, we do not see how Jesus changed things, we do not see Jesus touch anything, we get no inkling of how He turned water into wine. All we know is that when the stewards went back and started to ladle out the water they found it to be wine, and good wine. Not only did Jesus bring the wedding reception back to where it had been, we read that it was actually better wine and some of the people are now furious with the groom: “Everyone brings out the good wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
You can imagine the embarrassment of the groom. Not only do they run out but suddenly they find this extra special wine hiding somewhere and they bring it out. But this is a good embarrassment, this is what the groom wanted despite the situation and he was relieved. Jesus turned this water into good wine, better wine than there had ever been, better life than they'd ever known, a greater party than they had ever experienced. It was wonderful wine and in the Bible wine is a sign of God's grace. Not only is it a sign of people coming together, it is also a sign of God's favour.
This reminds me of a minister who was staying at home feeling a little sorry for himself. One of his parishioners decided to bring him a gift. The gift was something he actually secretly liked: cherry brandy. It was delivered surreptitiously to the door. The minister opened the door and found this great gift and thought: “Oh, my, this is going to be therapeutic.” Not knowing how to thank the individual, he put an announcement in the order of service the next Sunday. It said: “The Reverend would like to thank whoever gave the fruit and the spirit with which it was given.”
The joy of the wine, the joy of the gift, this is what it's about. Not drinking in excess. It's the celebration of what God is doing. If you look back at the Old Testament and read the prophets like Jeremiah in chapter 31, verse 12 or Hosea in chapter 14, verse seven there's a sense that when the Messiah comes, when God decides to come in person to redeem Israel, there will be the flowing of new wine. There will be a party like no other. There will be a celebration that will never end.
Jesus came to the wedding at Cana and transformed it with His presence. But there's one other thing. A number of years ago I went shopping at “Filene's Basement” in Boston, a famous department store where you can get really good deals (or we used to, when the Canadian dollar was very, very good). I remember going there some 15 years ago. I had been told by my brother-in-law that there was a half-price sale, a very rare occurrence which was in fact, blessing upon blessing, so I decided to go downtown. I took the bus and a subway and made my way down to Filene's Basement, only to find that there was a line-up that must have been about three blocks long. It seemed that everyone in Boston, Massachusetts, New England and Nova Scotia had decided to go to this sale.
I waited in line, for I had my eye on one particular item that was a good enough deal to wait an hour or so. All of a sudden this man started to walk past everyone and head towards the door. There was a terrible kerfuffle and I could see in the distance that he was being jostled around and forced back again. He would go forward and the crowds would force him back again. He did it a third time and I thought, “This man is really asking for trouble.” They forced him back physically once again. Finally the man stood on a milk crate and screamed at everyone: “If you don't let me in, I can't unlock the door!”
My friends, I think that Jesus is like this in today's passage, for in fact, the wedding at Cana is a foretaste of something that's going to happen later. It's a foretaste of the cross. It's a foretaste of the fact that Jesus is going before us wanting to open the door to the kingdom, wanting to open the door to the reign of God's justice and righteousness, of His rule of love and peace.
Jesus is wanting to go and pave the way, but so often we are looking in our lives for fulfilment in all kinds of different places, to fill our lives with all manner of things that do not bring the fulfilment that Christ Himself is willing to give. After all, the last time that Jesus sat down and drank wine was with His disciples on the night before He died. The last time He had a party with His disciples was the night in which He was betrayed. Jesus said then, as he did at the changing of water into wine, that it is through this wine and what He was about to do that symbolizes the great change that can take place in a person's life if only we will step back and allow that door to be opened. If only we are prepared to bring our dryness and come to the party, we will share in what Christ has done for us and have the best wine and the best party, the party of the kingdom of God. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.