John 2: 1 – 11 / Oh Mom!
Intro: A minister was driving late at night on a deserted highway when he noticed the flashing blue lights in the rearview mirror. He pulled over, rolled down his window and waited. When the officer arrived he spotted an empty bottle on the floor. “Sir, do you know how fast you were driving?” Smelling the faint odor of wine as the minister answered, “No,” the officer asked, “Sir, have you been drinking?” The minister answered, “Just water.” The trooper responded, “Then, why do I smell wine?” Without skipping a beat the minister answered, “My goodness, Jesus has done it again!”
I. This passage from John is about just that, turning water into wine which is something God does every day.
A. Rain falls on the ground, is drawn up to the branches and is transformed into the juice of grapes. So, why does our sophisticated mind have so much trouble with this story?
B. Some people stumble and falter because what is told goes beyond the realm of the natural. Besides, why would any party need 120 to 180 gallons of wine? (6 jars times 20 / 30 gal.)
C. Actually, the quantity of wine isn’t important to the story. John was not recording history; he was writing theology that was meant to reveal to us some truth about God.
II. For John & us, this is not just a cute wedding story about how Jesus fixed a problem. It is the essence of the miracle stories involving Jesus and in this case, his mother.
A. When I was first ordained, my mother would write or call to tell me about someone she knew who was having a problem or who was ill. She would say, “Just write them a little note and put in a nice prayer for them.” It used to irritate me to death so I can imagine how Jesus felt.
B. Mary finds out the wine is gone, goes to Jesus and asks him to do something. I can just hear him, “OH, MOM! What are you doing? I don’t want to do this. It’s not time.
C. Let’s put this in the grand scheme of things. It’s just wine. It’s a wedding. Something is SUPPOSED to go wrong. IT ALWAYS DOES. What’s the big deal? And yet, Jesus does it.
III. But, turning water into wine isn’t the point of the story. That comes in verse 11, “This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.”
A. That is the purpose of the miracle, to dramatize the glory of Christ, and how the glory of Christ Jesus has the power to transform.
B. There are many times in our lives when “the wine runs out,” so to speak. Times when we lose the $ we invested in the stock market, times when a joyful, loving relationship ends in divorce, times when cancer spreads, times when we lose our job.
C. This is not just a cute wedding story. It is about how some things go wrong and Jesus fixed it. The miracle proclaimed the glory of Christ, and how his whole ministry was to come to this earth in order to transform, to change, to bring back the joy.
Conclu: If Christ Jesus can change water into wine and mere men into believers, then He can change us also. He can change despair into hope, bitterness into peace, hatred into love, sorrow into joy, sin into grace and death into life. Christ Jesus has the power to change lives even today. Mary trusted her son. She knew that he would not fail. She was so confident that she told the servants to do whatever Jesus said. Are you that confident in the power of Christ Jesus to transform your life? Will you do whatever Jesus says?
