A friend like that, John 2:1-11, Series: the Jesus stories
Eric A. Snyder, Minister, Farwell Church of Christ
January 26, 2002
I recently did a wedding. During the wedding rehearsal, the groom pulled me aside and made me an offer
He said "Look, I’ll give you $100 if you’ll change the wedding vows. When you get to me and the part where I’m to promise to ’love, honor and obey’ and,’ I’d appreciate it if you’d just leave that part out." He gave me a $100 bill and walked away.
The day of the wedding the bride and groom were in front of me and we were to that part of the ceremony where the vows are exchanged. When it came time for the groom’s vows, I looked the young man and said
"Will you promise to bow down before her, obey her every command and wish, serve her breakfast in bed every morning of your life and swear eternally before God and your lovely wife that you will not ever even look at another woman, as long as you both shall
live?"
The groom gulped and looked around, and said in a tiny voice, "Yes." Then He leaned in and asked “what happened I thought we had a deal."
So I gave him his $100 dollars back and told him that she had made a better offer
Weddings are fun, they are times of celebration. They are times when we celebrate and rejoice. We enjoy to company of those we love and we rejoice at the new bond of unity and commitment between two people.
But anybody that has planned a wedding knows about all the work involved. Everything has to be done and as it is a memorable day we want everything to go just right. The bride spends the whole day getting ready the groom spends just 10 minutes. which is actually longer than it takes him to get ready for anything else. The meal is set the minister is in place. The rehearsal has helped everyone know exactly where to stand. The cake is in the right place. and through all of the practices. Through all of the preparation. Through all of the planning, most weddings will have one glitch, one or two things that were not perfect.
We work so hard to make our wedding day a very special time. Yet life rarely works as smoothly or goes as well as we want it to and that is especially true on your wedding day!
Over the years of my ministry I’ve seen a lot of mistakes at weddings.
I’ve seen bride’s giggle uncontrollably. The groom show up late, the groom shows up with alcohol on his breath. I have seen the minister fall down stairs, Fortunately the bride broke my fall.
When Tammie and I got married we went to light the unity candle and it just would not light. Now that does not mean that we are not married it just means that there is no flame in our lives.
When these kind of disasters happen we are a little embarrassed but we usually just laugh a bit and move on - because the really important part of a wedding - the love and the promise that make the covenant - is in the hearts of the bride and groom. Still we want this day to be so special...
Jesus first miracle happened because Jesus’ mother Mary was concerned about a large potential embarrassment at a wedding. The wine had run out. There was about to be a lot of embarrassment because of it. You can find that story in John 2:1-11
What Jesus did in response signifies some very important things to us about Jesus and his compassion for people. He cares about even about our embarrassing shortcomings and he wants to help us find the joy in our life.
John 2:1 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.
There are some things you don’t want to have happen at a wedding! The Wedding at Cana was a social disaster in the making. Weddings in that part of the world are different than here.
Indian Weddings involve 9 meals over three days with several sets of clothing for the bride and groom - all the responsibility of the bride’s family.
Jewish weddings were, and are, a big deal in the Jewish 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 grooms house. It was no short ceremony but 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!, 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. The grooms family was expected to provide all the refreshments for this week of festivities.
In the midst of this great celebration they ran out of wine!!! Not just the good wine. But all of the wine!!!! It was a little Burger King running out of hamburgers. Which has happened to me before.
Jesus rescued the Wedding from social disaster. He knew that the family would be really embarrassed if the wine were to run out on this celebration. This is an interesting text and for so long we have missed the meaning because we have been asking the wrong question. The question we usually ask is: was this alcoholic wine? And if it was, as verse 10 indicates, why would Jesus make such a substance.
Well that has caused us to miss the right answer to that question. And the answer is this. To save his friends from huge embarrassment. Now here’s the question we should be asking in relationship to this text. Who wouldn’t want a friend like that? Wouldn’t you like to have a friend like that? Wouldn’t your friends like to have a friend like that.
Jesus cares so much about you that he wants to help you out of situations that could cause embarrassment in your life. When I was in college I went out to eat with a friend of mine and we ordered but the food was taking a long time. Finally I was so impatient I looked at my friend and said what did you order that could be taking this long? Just then I heard the voice behind me say to me here’s your well done hamburger and she gave my friend his order of fish. I was busted, I couldn’t eat there again for a long time.
But there is another side to this text and that’s this: The wine can run out. Mary realizes the seriousness of the issue. You can hear it in her words… “They have no wine.”
To the Jewish people wine symbolized joy. The Jewish rabbis had a saying, ‘Without wine there is no joy.” At the wedding in Cana their joy had run out! In some ways it is a reminder of the emptiness of our life without Christ.
This statement by the mother of Jesus goes beyond liquid refreshment at a wedding. It is symbolic of our lives. It is a scary thing when the “wine runs out.”
Earnest Hemmingway was a great storyteller. Many of his books are considered to be classics. The Old Man and The Sea, a story he wrote while living in Cuba reveal his genius. He was a Nobel Prize recipient. From the very early years of his life he was a person who went for it all. He was a newspaper reporter and an ambulance driver during WWI. He was involved in the Spanish Civil War. He had friendships that ranged from bullfighters to authors. Whatever he did, he went for it all, he was drinking long at the natural wine of life.
But there came a day when those wines ran out and he took his life.” There are times when the wine runs out. The joy is dry! The exuberance of the moment always gives way eventually.
I saw our new governor take her oath of office and was she excited. She almost shouted the words at the end of it. Well, that excitement will not last. The days of trying to balance the budget and getting a political agenda accomplished will come and the wine will run out.
That is simply the way life works. There are times we run out of joy.
But this miracle teaches us that when the wine runs out, Jesus can turn the water into wine.
How is your Joy? Some of you are so full of Joy that you are, like the psalm says, letting your cup overflow. Your Joy is plentiful and you have more than enough to share. But others have this dry, empty feeling. And you need to reconnect with Jesus so that he can turn fill you up.
Sometimes I forget, sometimes we forget that Joy comes from the Lord. That we go empty without him. But the Bible reminds us that the Joy of the Lord is our strength. Do you believe that? Because if you do that means that Joy doesn’t come from anywhere else. I may be married to a great person but my Joy comes from God. Your team may be going to the superbowl but your Joy comes from God. My kids may be geniuses but my Joy comes from God.
And when things are not well. We can still say. I just got laid off but God is going to fill my cup. My kids are sick but God is pouring out his blessings. My marriage is rough but God is full of blessings and I will find a way to rejoice in Him.
Jesus took the water pots that were filled with water for hand washing. When the guest arrived someone would pour some water over their hands in a symbolic purification. This would have been a daily event. And your daily rituals and events may have left you joyless and empty and Jesus wants to put something new in those pots.
Jesus took the water for purification and used it for his first miracle. The water in those pots was intended for an external cleansing. Jesus ministry over the next three years would teach people about an inner cleansing.
If we look at the first miracle of Jesus we see this truth…Jesus is not just the giver of joy…he is the giver of “abundant” joy. He not only met their immediate need, but he gave an abundance.
Jesus did not just make some ordinary wine. Look at verse 10 "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."
The wine that he produced was better than that which they had started the celebration with. Jesus didn’t just doctor the water so that it tasted like wine. The water in those pots was transformed into the finest wine the people had ever tasted.
But we need to focus not on the stone pots or even the wine… We need to focus on the transformation. Jesus is about transformation.
He turned… water into wine. And he turns grim faces into relieved smiles; whimpers of fear into songs of hope; deserts into gardens, sorrow into joy. He gives beauty for ashes, strength for fear, gladness for morning and peace for despair. He turns sin into grace and death into life.
Jesus is all about transforming . Changing people—that’s what its all about. This Story teaches us that…Jesus offers an abundance of new wine
Sometimes it’s hard for us to understand God not only meeting our need but providing for us an abundance. But that’s the story of grace. There is no measure to grace. There will always be enough of it to meet our needs. That’s the story of God’s love.
There is nothing that you can do that will cause God to diminish his love for you and he wants to pour out his new wine on you in abundance.
Not “just enough” but an abundance. Our God is a God of abundance! Look at creation! Have you ever been to the Rockies? There is an overabundance. God didn’t give us “just enough” beauty, it is all around us. Have you ever been to the seashore and looked out over the ocean.
There is far more beauty that our eyes can absorb. Have you ever seen a field of wildflowers? Not just enough to fill a vase in your living room, but more than enough. This is the picture of grace…God always gives more than you will ever need!
So the wine is poured out and all the people who are present rejoice at the richness of this “new wine”. This was completely against custom. The best wine was always offered first. Isn’t that just like our Lord? The best always comes at the end. The grace we once tasted cautiously—we now drink freely. Jesus has poured out in us the richness of his love and forgiveness.
What do you do when the wine runs out? Mary showed us by example. She told the servants that if they would just do what Jesus commanded they would see a miracle.
A miracle that not only met their immediate need...but a miracle of abundance. Has your joy run out today? Jesus wants to transform you! Bring your need to him!
Jesus is waiting to see if you know what to do when the wine runs out?
So blessed I can’t contain it
So much I’ve got to give it away
Your love has taught me to live now
You are more than enough for me
