If you have your Bibles and you want to follow along, we are going to be looking at the second chapter of John starting at verse one. While you are looking that up, I will ask a quick question. How many of you tend to watch some of those shows like Dateline or 60 Minutes? Mostly the older people, the above 40 crowd with a few exceptions. I personally enjoy them. A few weeks ago, I don’t remember if it was Dateline or 60 Minutes, but there was a story about a man who was a wine expert. He was a very wealthy man who ended up investing a lot of money in expensive wine only to be ripped off big time. What happened was he purchased several hundred bottles of wines over a number of years from some wine broker. He found out by accident that the wine he purchased was fake. He thought he was getting a 1961 Chardonnay and he actually was buying one of those $4 Barefoot bottles of wine that you can get at Giant Eagle. What was happening was this broker kid had a pretty good business going. He would sit at home and work on his computer and design wine labels that would be identical to the vintage wine labels and he would print up the labels and stick them on an old bottle and substitute cheap wine and sell them for up to $10,000 a bottle. This man was quite upset obviously because he had lost $2.1 million dollars. It was funny because it turned out to be only 1% of his inventory, but he was so upset so he decided to pursue this kid. He ended up suing him for $12 million dollars and got the money and put the kid out of business. Don’t do this at home. Today, as we look into the book of John, we see in this particular story that Jesus seems caught up in some sort of a wine scam so to speak. Jesus was not trying to take bad wine and substitute it for good. He was trying to exchange good wine for bad to meet their expectations, which would become really a metaphor for his entire ministry. We are looking at John 2:1. We are going to read the first 11 verses. That is pretty much the whole story here. (Scripture read here.)
This is the first miracle of Jesus. You are probably familiar with the story. The plot is very easy to follow. It starts out by telling us that “On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee.” Quickly, this idea of “On the third day”, we don’t know what John is talking about here. We don’t know if he is referring to the third day of Jesus’ ministry. We don’t know if he was referring to the third day of the Jewish week which would be Tuesday. We really don’t know what he is referring to. He may be referring to the third day after calling the disciples. We do know that there was a wedding at this little town called Cana. A little background on Palestine weddings is they were very big deals. When you have a wedding today it is a pretty big deal. I know some of you are involved in planning weddings. You know they can be very big deals and very time consuming and very expensive. I just read recently that the average wedding price is $28,000. Does anybody think that is low? It is pretty high. What do you think is the most expensive part of a wedding? The wedding dress and the bridesmaids dresses. The photographer. The food. There is a lot of money put into the food and the beverage. Again, it is a big deal, but it should be a big deal because ideally it is a once-in-a-lifetime event. It is a big event.
Back in the first century, weddings were probably in some sense a bigger deal because they would go on for seven days. There would be an extravagant party because the couple didn’t really get the opportunity to do much more the rest of their marriage. They were hard workers. They didn’t have money to be able to take a vacation every year. The wedding was the big event. People in the town would come to the wedding and people from outlying areas. In this case, you would probably have 200-300 people come through that particular week just to shower love and gifts on this couple. We don’t know how many people were invited to this particular wedding. It is suspected that 200 at the most, probably 300 people. We don’t know how many people were there, but as the passage tells us, we know Jesus’ mother was there and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. Those of you who have planned a wedding or are in the process of planning the wedding, do you have what is known as an A-list and a B-list? I have been on some B-lists. A-list is the people you want to come to the wedding. They are your first choice. Then when the people from the A-list decline, the B-list people get invited. It is just the way it is. You can’t invite everybody. This passage seems to imply that Mary and maybe Jesus were on the A-list. The disciples were probably on the B-list. They hardly even knew them. It is believed that Mary was probably the one who had the connection to the family there and at that time Joseph would have been deceased so probably Jesus would have been invited. Then somehow the half a dozen or so disciples come along. We know that this group is there.
We don’t know more about that, but we know that in this particular wedding there was a huge crisis. The crisis had to do with the fact that they ran out of wine. The passage goes on to say “When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’” When you ask somebody how the wedding was you say tell me about the color of the dresses? Did they match the flowers? You also want to know if the DJ was any good. Some people ask about the food. Those would be some good questions to ask. But the first bit of detail that John brings out is the fact that they ran out of wine. Some of you I know would say it is no big deal because I don’t even think it is appropriate to have wine at the wedding. It doesn’t matter what we think. There was wine there. The person who was responsible to pay for the wine was often the bridegroom’s family. The person who had to make sure they didn’t run out was the catering manager or the master of the banquet. At some point, the wine bottles start to go empty and Mary feels the need to tell Jesus about the situation. We really don’t know what tone of voice Mary would have used when she brought this to Jesus’ attention. It could have been a matter of surprise. It could have been sarcastic disgust, like can you believe they ran out of wine already. Who is doing the planning here? We just don’t know. We do know Mary’s character and Mary was probably more just expressing a gentle concern. A concern that her good friend would be embarrassed. This would be a major faux pas to run out of wine. Her tone also expressed the notion that she knew Jesus could and would do something. She knows him. She knows he is going to do something. She knows he can do something about it. So she asks him.
You get the sense that Jesus’ reply kind of comes off harsh. Even a little bit mean. He says “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” I don’t know about you, but if I referred to my mom was woman, it doesn’t matter if I am 5 or 50, I would have gotten a spanking on the bottom. It almost sounds disrespectful. Back then it was a sign of distant respect. Kind of how we would use the term ma’am today. The scholars would suggest that this is an indication that Jesus is already beginning to distance himself from his biological family and attach himself more to his spiritual family, specifically to his father in heaven. The father who was going to be pretty much behind his mission and behind the timing of the mission. That is why Jesus goes on to say “My time has not yet come.” Last week we talked about the different words the Greeks used for time; kronos and kairos time. This is another word being used. It is called hora. It means hour. It is where we get the idea of hour. What Jesus is saying is this is not the most favorable hour for me to begin to do something about this. In other words, if I begin to kick of my miracles right now, it is just going to begin to reveal my glory and the next stop is the cross. For some reason, this wasn’t the time he was supposed to do it. It was just not the right time. When you think about it, it was probably not the right place, the right occasion. It was a little awkward. We don’t expect miracles at a wedding. We certainly don’t expect this type of miracle. This is Jesus’ very first miracle.
What does the miracle involve? If you were to take just a surface read of this passage, you would think Jesus’ first miracle involves keeping a group of people that already have a pretty good buzz going on, making sure that buzz continues. His first miracle is so the people can keep a buzz on at the wedding. Some would say it wasn’t really wine. It was something like grape juice or something on par with sparkling cider. It was wine. It was fermented grapes. Granted it was a very small amount of alcohol. It probably wasn’t to the alcohol content that we would find in wine today, but it was fermented. That was very common. Wine was more prevalent than water. Some people would say something like this as a miracle you find it almost offensive. Mary just knows Jesus is going to do something about it. So she says to the servant “Do whatever he tells you.” Jesus is going to do his thing. Everybody knows it, but he is going to do it on his terms. He is going to use it as an opportunity to inject a little bit of symbolism into the whole situation. We know that simply by the next line where it says “Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ So they filled them to the brim.” If you are reading your passage, don’t just read fast through. Ask the passage questions. The question would be where are all the empty wine bottles. They have to be lying all over the place. Jesus doesn’t use the empty wine bottles. He decides he is going to use six stone water jars that were dedicated to ceremonial washing. As I said several times during this series, the Jews were all about ritual cleanliness. Before the priest could go into the temple, they would wash their entire bodies. Before a Gentile could become a Jew he had to be baptized because it signified being unclean. Before they would go in to eat and especially at a very sacred ceremony such as a wedding, they would have to wash up. It wasn’t so much of a hygiene issue. It was really a spiritual cleanliness. The people knew that God is holy and they are not. By doing this washing it was really a purification ritual that they went through the motions and did. We know that Jesus was a Jew. He wasn’t a Christian. He was a Jew. He grew up as a Jew and practiced all these things. He knew the Jewish laws inside and out. He particularly knew that when something is dedicated for a certain purpose in the ritual system, such as water jars, you don’t mess with that. If he was to put something else into the water jar besides water that means that jar becomes tainted. Jesus is doing something that he knows is a violation of the Jewish laws. The law that was handed down by his Father to Moses and to the people. He knows he is going to violate it. It is crazy to look at that. He must have had something up his sleeve. Some reason for doing it.
There are a lot of layers of symbolism here. The first one being why did he choose six stone water jars? In the Old Testament, seven is the number of perfection. Six is the number of imperfection and the Jews knew that. Could he be alluding to the fact that your religious system has become corrupt? At one time it was perfect and now it is imperfect. He is beginning to introduce his ministry. It says that “Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ So they filled them to the brim.” The above line says each of the jars could hold 20-30 gallons. You had six stone water jars at 30 gallons each. How many gallons? 180 gallons. It is going to get a little harder. How many fluid ounces to a gallon? 128 ounces. What if you were to do the math and try to figure out how many ounces of wine that would make? You have 128 fluid ounces x 180 gallons is 23,040 ounces. If there are 4 ounces in a glass of wine, Jesus just produced close to 6,000 glasses of wine, which is a big number even in Pittsburgh. Why? It seems almost wasteful. Does that reveal something about Jesus’ ministry? That it is a ministry possibly of extravagance. When you look at the message that he may be sending to the Jewish people in particular is you have had this religious system going on for a couple thousand years and you have abused it, corrupted it, and made it a heavy burden on the people. It is like a weight. Like they are in slavery to this rigid religion. Jesus is saying I am trying to let you know that something new is coming. Something good. In the Old Testament, the word wine appears about 196 times. It is often associated with joy and prosperity. When the Jews saw this miracle, they are thinking of the Old Testament.
They are particularly thinking about the prophet Isaiah. Remember the prophet Isaiah when we talked about the Babylonian captivity. Isaiah was the one who called the people out, but he also predicted a better future. A future that a new king would come in. There would be a new reign and a new excitement and the people would regain their proper place on the hill in Jerusalem in the temple mount. Isaiah writes “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.” So he is sending a message to the Jewish people. I am messing with your stuff. I am messing with your religion. I am not totally replacing it. What I am saying is there is something good coming. If you come into my kingdom and step in there and follow me, your life will be better. It will be a life that is characterized by abundance. That is one message he may be sending to the Jews. But there are other people in the wedding. There is a big population of Greek speaking people. Most of them were probably not Jewish. Many would be pagan worshippers or worshippers of foreign gods. I think some of you in high school may have studied about the Greek pantheon. Pan is many and theon is gods. The Greeks had many gods. A popular god was Zeus. There were all these other gods and goddesses that all would serve some various functions and also liked to be worshipped in a certain style and a certain manner. One of the most popular gods out there was a god named Dionysus. This is a statue of Dionysus. He is carrying grapes on his shoulder. He was the god of wine. Basically, he was the party god. Everybody wanted to be on this god’s side because if you are in with Dionysus you are going to have a lot of fun and joy and happiness. The way he liked to worship was a little strange. The priest would go into the temple of Dionysus at night and they would fill water jars with water. The idea was the next morning the priest would come in along with the people and if the water had been turned to wine then that meant that the power and present of Dionysus was there and the party would start. It was an illicit party. It was a party filled with drunkenness, obscenity, and sexual immorality. Basically, it was this huge, massive orgy going on there. Jesus goes and performs a similar miracle. What somebody suggested is that maybe Jesus was trying to make a statement. Saying that thing you do Greeks with Dionysus to seek out happiness and goodness, I can do that too. I just did it. But there is a difference. Where Dionysus was worshipped in the context of sin and sexual immorality, God would be worshipped in the context of the sacred union of two people, marriage. He is saying where your worship is characterized by things like lust and abuse, non-commitment, fear, disease, and all that kind of stuff, I am offering that same abundance with no strings attached. Simply the things that would characterize a beautiful wedding and beautiful wedding vows. Things like love, commitment, trust, anticipated hope for better. All that kind of stuff. He is saying that is the worship that, if you follow me, you are going to participate in. He is using one image, wine, to speak to two very distinct groups of people. That is an amazing thing.
The story goes on and ends where apparently the servants draw out some of the water turned to wine and take it to the master of the banquet. The master of the banquet is like the catering manager. He is clueless. He doesn’t know what happened. He was probably stressing out thinking I am going to lose my job. I don’t know what is going to happen. What happens is he takes a drink and realizes that this turned into wine. Not just any wine but the very good wine. He goes on to say “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.” What he is saying is everybody brings out the expensive stuff and then they wait until they get drunk and bring out the $4 bottle of Barefoot wine or whatever you buy over there at Giant Eagle. Some people normally would put the good stuff first so by the time they get the buzz on they don’t really care what they get. He says you have done just the opposite. You have saved the best stuff for last. That is very uncommon. That is really the story here.
Of course there are always applications for us. I came up with two. One is the idea that, like the Jews who engage in this ceremonial, ritualistic stuff, over time it can become very stale and very rigid and very joyless. It becomes a burden to the people that are trying to practice it. It becomes a burden to Christianity. I think a church, especially if a church is losing people and people aren’t growing and people aren’t being transformed, you have to begin to look at it. Have you made church a little bit too rigid? Somebody told me a story about buildings in San Francisco. They build them so they can sway when an earthquake comes. The church has to be built with some sway in it. The church has to be able to bend a little bit because if it doesn’t bend it breaks. That is one thing to consider. Another thing is what applies to a church applies to people. We can become very legalistic in even our quiet times. I have to read my Bible every morning and check off my list and I can feel good about myself. I have to say my prayers and I will feel pretty good. Over time, it doesn’t produce anything but legalism. There is no joy in that. What Jesus is saying is you are drinking the cheap wine. You are making this thing become a burden that was supposed to be a joy. You are making these practices that I gave you for life that I practice myself, you are making them legalistic rituals when so much better is out there for you. As I talked about the last few weeks, if you are like that you need to repent. Repent is not just simply sorrow that you had before you converted. Repentance can be a daily thing because it is the idea of rethinking what you are doing. Rethinking the reality that you are living or the way that you are viewing even religion and beginning to do something different. If you are stuck in a ritualistic mode and not getting any joy, you need to begin to seek out and you need to take ownership of the scripture and realize there is something better out there, but it is only for those who pursue it. It is only for those who are hungry. Only the ones that are thirsty that want it bad enough. It is there. You really can get better.
Finally, there are people that are what I refer to as carnal Christians. People who have one foot in the church and one foot in the world or people that just never even stepped in the church whatsoever. They are chasing after the world for some sort of joy and happiness thinking they are going to find it. All the while, they come up feeling empty and dry or enslaved to different addictions and different behaviors with no real joy and they wonder what is going on there. Jesus, in the meantime, is standing there saying repent. Rethink the way you are living and realize that I offer you something better. I offer you a better context to live your life. I offer you a wedding. A wedding that is this phenomenal great time with fellowship and what makes it most wonderful is it is a union with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is referred to as the bridegroom. When I even think about this particular passage, Jesus is a genius. I challenge anybody to find somebody smarter than Jesus out there. Out of the mouth of the master caterer, he is basically giving a metaphor for his entire ministry or the thing he is trying to unfold. Out of the mouth of the catering manager. It is an amazing thing. As we close today, I invite you to consider some of these things. But also just remember for both people, for the people that are struggling with religion or the people that are outside of religion and the kingdom, the promise for that abundant life is right now. The promise, once again, when Jesus says “Repent for the kingdom is near”, he is saying it has arrived. By my coming, the kingdom of God is right now and will continue on until we all sit at that great banquet somewhere in the sky. Like the prophet Isaiah says “On the 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.” Let us pray.
