GOT WINE?
THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF CHRIST
April 14, 2002
The Rev. Dr. W. Maynard Pittendreigh
Senior Pastor
John 2:1-11
1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there,
2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, "They have no more wine."
4 "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come."
5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim.
8 Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." They did so,
9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside
10 and said, "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."
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.
Ron Beard is a friend of mine. He is a Presbyterian minister in South Carolina. Years ago, he was doing a wedding service when the groom began to grow pale. Actually, the phrase, “white as a sheet” might be more accurate.
The groom began to sway from side to side ever so slightly.
Sweat began dripping – no pouring – off his forehead.
His eyes began to roll back.
And then, just at the right moment, the Reverend Ron Beard reached out his hand and grabbed the groom – with just an instant to spare before the groom fainted.
Without missing a beat, Ron Beard said in his best preacher-voice, “Let us pray. Every head bowed. Every eye closed.”
It wasn’t a good place for a prayer. I think it was somewhere in the middle of the vows, but everyone did what the minister told them to do. They bowed their heads and closed their eyes for what turned out to be a very, very long prayer.
Ron had his hands on this groom’s tuxedo, and he began to pray while trying to shake some life back into the poor young man.
“Oh Lord. Oh Lord. Bless this couple in the name of Jesus.”
With the tremble in his voice everyone thought, “My goodness, this is a deeply spiritual minister.”
Sometime, while the minister was praying for the missionaries in distant Africa, the groom finally woke up. And much to the relief of the congregation, the prayer came to an end and the wedding service continued.
Every wedding has at least one thing that seems to set it apart as different. Most of the time what sets it apart as different is something that goes WRONG in the service.
John’s Gospel!
The Associate Pastor and I will be preaching a series of sermons for the next several weeks on the Gospel of John. Last week, we took a look at chapter 1. Now, as we look at chapter 2, we find Jesus going to a wedding.
The ministry of Jesus hasn’t really started yet. He has been baptized and he has gathered a few disciples around him, but that’s about it.
Jesus is the kind of person who would have loved weddings. He seems to have loved any sort of party. Jesus was not an introvert, shy or reserved. He seems to be energized by being in a crowd of people. We almost always see him with people, and often at a festive gathering. Occasionally, he does isolate himself from others and enters a time of prayer with God, but most of the time, he’s in “the middle of it all.”
Jesus is the kind of person who would love a church picnic like we are having today.
Weddings were, and are, a big deal in the Jewish culture – or any culture. The wedding ceremony would take place late in the evening after a time of feasting. The father of the bride would take his daughter on his arm, and with the wedding party in tow, would parade through the streets of the village so that everyone could come out and congratulate the bride. Finally the wedding party would arrive at the home of the groom. The wedding actually took place in the front door of the groom’s house. It was no short ceremony….no the festivities lasted for days. It was a time of great celebration.
After the wedding ceremony the bride and groom walked through the streets accompanied by flaming torches. Their attendants walked with them keeping a canopy over their heads. The wedding party always took the longest route through the village so that as many people as possible could wish them well.
There was no such thing as a honeymoon! No, the couple kept open house for a week. They were treated like royalty. They dressed in fancy clothes and many times actually wore crowns on their heads. Whatever desire they spoke for…they received. Their word was law!
The groom’s family was expected to provide all the refreshments for this week of festivities.
That’s one thing that I’m glad has changed in my culture. I’ve got one son, and in my culture, it’s the BRIDE’S family that will have to pay for all of this big party.
But one thing that has not changed. No matter the culture or the time in history, weddings are a big, festive occasion.
And, of course, the wine would flow freely.
But in this particular wedding that Jesus goes to, they run out of wine. That’s a big deal. It would be today.
We’ve got a party planned today! Now I’m a man who lives on diets. I have weight problems, diabetes, high blood pressure, but when I go to picnics, I forget all that. And by George, I don’t want to hear anything in an hour or so about how we’ve run out of hot dogs!
You throw a party, you plan for hospitality. You have a wedding, you plan for lots of joy, and you buy lots of wine.
But in the Gospel of John, they run out of wine.
And Mary goes to tell Jesus about it. As if he is supposed to do something about it.
I’ve never understood women.
I will be driving down the road and the car in front of us will throw paper out the window and my wife will fuss at me about it as if (a) it’s my fault, or (b) I can do something about it.
What am I supposed to do about it? Chase the man down and get him to pull over and then tell him, “You go pick up your garbage.”
Mary does that to Jesus. The groom’s family runs out of wine. So Mary goes to tell Jesus as if he is supposed to do something about it.
Well let’s put this in the grand scheme of things.
It’s just wine. It’s a wedding, and something is supposed to go wrong. It always does. It’s not as if this was a man born blind. It’s not as if this was a leper needing healing. It’s not as if this is Lazarus who needs to be raised from the dead.
And yet, Jesus turns the water into wine.
That is troubling to some readers of the Bible because this is such a minor problem.
As we move through the Gospel of John, you will see that there are seven miracles that Jesus performs. Other Gospels record a lot more, but John only writes about seven. Raising Lazarus from the dead. Healing a man born blind. Those are big deals. Those are worth divine intervention.
But turning water into wine at a party because the family didn’t plan ahead? What’s that about?
Now folks, later today, if we run out of hot dogs – and knowing some of you guys as I do, we probably will run out of hot dogs – no miracle will be performed. I will simply ask someone, “Quick, drive over to Publix and pick up some hot dogs.”
It almost seems like a waste of divine power to turn this water into wine. There are four Gospel books in the New Testament. Matthew, Mark and Luke do not tell about this miracle, and I wonder if it is because they were confused by it. But John records it, even though he only records 7 miracles in all – perhaps because he saw something deeply spiritual in it.
As John tells the story, he says, “Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.”
A 20-gallon jar – that is a big jar.
Let me see. Six of those, times 20 – Jesus is about to make over 120 gallons of wine.
That party is going to last for a few more days.
John continues…
7 Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim.
8 Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." They did so,
9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside
10 and said, "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."
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.
(NIV)
Did you pick up on that in the last verse? The purpose of the miracle? It wasn’t – This was the first miraculous sign which Jesus performed in Cana in Galilee. He thus saved the groom’s family from embarrassment.” Nor is it, “He thus made it possible for everyone to have a good time.”
No.
What John says is – “He thus revealed his glory.”
That is the purpose of the miracle, to dramatize the glory of Christ, and how the glory of Christ has the power to transform.
Jesus changed the water into wine.
In our lives, there are many times when – figuratively speaking – the wine runs out.
Joy dries up.
We get excited about the rising stock market. We invest with great joy and enthusiasm. Then the Dow drops. And joy dries up.
Families that were once joyful and loving, end relationships in the pain of divorce. Their joy dries up.
A cancer spreads. It is hard to keep the faith. It is discouraging. Joy has dried up.
There are individuals who live from day to day, discouraged and full of sorrow, who can imagine taking a gun – who can feel the barrel being placed against the forehead. They imagine that and think, maybe today. Perhaps tomorrow. Joy has dried up.
You see, for St. John, this was not just a cute wedding story about how some things go wrong during the service and how Jesus fixed it.
This miracle captures the essence of every miracle that was to follow.
This miracle proclaimed the glory of Christ, and how his whole ministry was to come to this earth in order to transform.
To change.
And not just to change, but to bring back the joy. To bring wine into the party of life.
Every miracle, every one of the seven signs in John’s Gospel, has to do with demonstrating what the glory of Christ is all about – and how Christ has the power to transform.
A Samaritan woman unable to find anyone who cares for her – she is passed on from one man to another. Almost useless property. Then she finds Jesus at a well and not only does she meet Christ, she meets herself as well. Faced with the truth of her impoverished life, and faced with the insightful grace of Christ, she is transformed.
A government official with a sick son hears of Jesus. He does not ask for a miracle. Only that Jesus comes to be with him and to wait for the child’s death. But what he receives, according to John’s Gospel, is a miracle. The son is healed and he lives. As a result, the entire family believes, and is transformed.
A sick man beside a pool at Bethsaida has become content with the illness within him. For over the years, it has freed him from responsibilities. And allowed him to make demands that others feed him, cloth him, and care for him. When he meets Christ, in the Gospel of John, the man is transformed so that for the first time he really does WANT to be well, and he is healed by the transforming power of Christ.
Moved by the death of a friend, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. A man is thus transformed from death to life.
This is what the Gospel of John is all about.
The power of Christ to change lives.
The power of Christ to transform.
The one whose life is overwhelmed with sin can be transformed and renewed.
The one whose life is at a stagnating standstill can be transformed and empowered.
The joy that has been dried up, can be transformed and restored.
The story of Jesus changing the water to wine is not just a cute little story in John’s Gospel about how Jesus can do whatever he wants to do.
It is the essence of the Gospel.
It is a reflection of everything that Jesus is all about.
Jesus has come, to change things.
Jesus has come, to transform lives.
Copyright 2002. All rights reserved by the author.
