There are several interesting ideas in this text, one of which is how this is an example of Jesus’ family relationships. Jesus’ mother tried to tell her son what to do concerning his earthly ministry, and Jesus gave a response that seems to have been less than respectful. He says in verse 4, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?" I can’t imagine even at this stage of my life calling my mama ’woman.’ Not without getting a back hand up the side of my head! But that is not the real point of contention in the scenario, for he also called her ’woman’ when he hung on the cross and was referring her to John as her new adopted son. Jesus’ use of the term ’woman’ was altogether solemn and respectful. But that next part, where he tells her that his time is not yet come, that’s where Jesus shows us that his earthly ministry was not to be determined by anyone but Jesus, not even his mother. The Roman Catholic Church makes an entire doctrine of how Mary deserves special attention above and beyond other people. They teach that prayers rendered to Mary are a way of smoothing things over with the Lord. After all, she is his mother. But Jesus was having none of that. The strange thing is that he eventually does what she wants, but he still says what he says to her, "My hour has not yet come." As if to say, "you may be right in what you’re saying, but neither you nor anyone else gets to tell the king of kings and lord of lords what to do. Even if you are my mother." Prayers to Mary may be well-intended, but according to this text, Jesus is still the man. Going to Mary may be what some have taught you to do, but the scripture here suggests that what Mary wants really won’t have any bearing on what Jesus does. He is going to do what he was called to do, whether or not his mother told him to.
Another interesting thing in this text is the presence of wine, and the ramifications of this in an evangelical setting. I was raised to abstain from all alcoholic beverages, that drinking was a sin, and smoking was a sin, and everything really was a sin. Some of you when we first met, you wanted to know if I thought it was all right to have a drink every now and then. And I know there are young people here who are listening to me, there are some alcoholics here as well, and some casual drinkers, some who enjoy a fine bottle of chardonay from time to time. And we have some fun considering the thought that Jesus not only never condemned the consumption of wine, but he even turned into an award-winning wine maker here in our text. One old preacher who insisted that drinking was a sin used to say, "Well if Jesus makes the wine, I’ll drink it. But I’m not touching anything made by Ernest and Julio." On the old show, Sanford and Son, the saintly character Aunt Esther quoted !
Ephesians 5:18 which says, "Be not drunk with wine." To which Fred Sanford responded, "But it doesn’t say anything about ripple." I still don’t drink alcoholic beverages, and I intend to never have any in my home. Not only because I don’t like the taste, but because I hope to set an example for my children, that they will never see their father drunk because never even drank. Like the apostle Paul says, that’s me talking not the lord. Scripture affirms the drinking of wine, the enjoyment of such customs, but not the misuse or excess of such practices. We serve grape juice instead of wine for communion because we don’t want to be a stumbling block for the alcoholic, for whom one small taste could be disastrous. We don’t serve wine because there are often times minors partaking. We don’t serve wine because of our belief that what is being served is not as important as what it represents and symbolizes. Jesus said to do this in remembrance of him, to remember his sacrifice, to remember the means by which he died and purchased our salvation. Whether it’s wine or juice or water as was put in the pots in our text, it’s what you’re doing and not what you’re drinking that matters. Remember. Be not drunk with wine. It is never biblical to drink too much. Of course the same can be said about eating too much, but we won’t go there. Anything in excess can lead to trouble.
But Jesus was invited to a wedding, and the wine ran out. I wonder if we understand the ramifications of this circumstance in the ancient days. Weddings back then were not one day affairs, but could go on for weeks at a time. And everyone was invited. It could be safely assumed that the entire village of Cana was at the feast, and that for the wine to run out was something that could have signaled some serious trouble for the host. And I suppose the thought isn’t too lost on us here at the church. Several times in the past few years, we have had such great attendance on particular first Sundays that we were worried if we might run out of communion wine. The embarrassment of running out, not being able to serve folks who came to be served, and just not being prepared. They ran out of wine. Those of you who weren’t in church and didn’t have a valid excuse, imagine your New Year’s Eve party running out of wine. Imagine running out of champagne before the ball dropped in Times Square. This wedding was in trouble.
But blessed be the name of the lord that Jesus had been invited to the wedding. And that’s what I want you to consider this morning, how Jesus made a difference when he was invited to the wedding. See lots of weddings occur without Jesus ever being invited to them. Many more folks invite Jesus to the wedding but forget to invite him to the marriage. They get married in the church because they want Jesus to be in the wedding. But then they never show up to church, never read their bible, never pray together, never teach their children the principles of faith, and just simply don’t invite Jesus into their marriage. And any marriage can run for a period of time on the fumes of romance. We do things together, we have fun, we go places, we take vacations, and we go out to dinner and enjoy fine wines. And that can last for a while. But sooner or later as happened in this wedding at Cana, the wine is going to run out. The romance is going to become stagnant. The passion is!
going to grow stale. Times are going to get hard. And I tell you, that’s when it will pay to have invited Jesus not just to your wedding but into your marriage.
I know I’ve got some divorced folks here today, and some single folks, and some re-married folks as well. Good thing about Second Baptist is that we are indeed a church for all people. Everyone comes here. Black couples, white couples, inter-racial couples, single folks, rich folks, poor folks, divorced folks, and folks who are still looking for Mr. Or Mrs. Right. Everybody is here. If you’re a married couple today, I want you to know how important it is to have Jesus as an invited guest of honor in your marriage. If you’re a single person, and your wine has run out, your joy is gone, your job is no longer fulfilling, your dating life or your family life is not what you wish it would be, if your wine is running out, I want you to know how important it is to have Jesus as an invited guest in your life. For whether you are a Christian or not, being married is tough business in any case. Only thing I can think of that is tougher is being single. But whatever your circumstances, saved or not, there will come those times when your wine is going to run out. There will come those times when you don’t feel like getting up in the morning. Times when you wonder what’s the point of it all. Times when you wonder why you ever married this person in the first place. Times when you won’t want to go to work anymore. Times when you wonder why God hasn’t brought you that special someone just yet. And when your wedding, your life, your marriage your church has run out of wine, when you’ve exhausted your humanly contrived resources, when all you’ve been able to do has been done already, and still you’re running out of wine, running out of joy, running out of love, running out of hope, the one thing that can make a difference in your life, in your marriage, in your career, in your schooling, is did you invite Jesus to come with you? Did you ask him to walk with you and talk with you, and sit down to dinner with you, and watch television with you and be part of your conversations. Did you invite Jesus to be part of your life and marriage or not? Is he important to you or isn’t he? Or was he just a name on a wedding invitation and you never took his presence seriously in your home? Was he just there for a token blessing or was he part and parcel of everything you do? Oh, I know too many folks who gave Jesus lip service on Sundays but who couldn’t be farther from him on Mondays. Too many folks haven’t invited Jesus to have a place of prominence in their lives. Too many folks haven’t let him shape their values and mold their characters and forge their faith. Too many of us go to the church to get a blessing but then don’t invite Jesus into our homes and lives and personal, private times. And too many of us when the wine runs out, when the good times stop rolling, when tragedy strikes, when sickness and disease claim a loved one, when there doesn’t seem to be anything else for you to do, we don’t have anyone to turn to. Oh, I’ve said it before, I’d rather have him and not need him, than to need him and not have him.
Jesus was invited to the wedding when the wine ran out. And the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. And after their little family squabble, Mary tells the stewards there, "Do whatever he tells you." I don’t know if there was a touch of attitude, like, do whatever he tells you cause he’s in one of those moods again. He’s got messiah complex again. But she tells them, "do whatever he tells you." And in this we have our first point of what to do when the wine runs out in your marriage or in your life. Number one, do whatever Jesus tells you to do. There are a whole lot of folks who call themselves Christians but don’t ever want to do what Jesus tells them to do. "Love your enemies." Not me. "Turn the other cheek." No way. And it gets worse than that, because many of us who consider ourselves progressive thinkers, free minded type of souls are the worst when it comes to simply letting the man we call Lord be Lord. I’m a 90’s kind of husband, a 21st century man. No one tells me what to do. I’m a liberated woman, a self-sufficient, working woman who doesn’t need no man to tell her what to do, much less a single working class dude whose got no intentions of getting married. I don’t let no one tell me what to do. I tell you, it makes no sense to call the doctor if you’re not going to take his medical advice. And a whole lot of folks are looking for a solid foundation to build their lives, and they think they’ve found it in the church, but they don’t want to do what the man tells us to do.
Follow me over to Matthew chapter 7. This is a different text, with a different metaphor, but communicates the same principles I’m talking about today. Matthew 7:24-27. "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was its fall!" If you hear him that’s one thing. But if you do what he tells you, that’s building your house correctly. And if you’re going to invite Jesus into your house, if you’re going to invite him into your marriage, your relationship, your family, your work place, your career, then you better be prepared to "do whatever he tells you to do." Doing what he says, not just hearing, not just listening to the sermon on Sunday. Not just token religious observance. Doing what he says. That’s what to do when your wine runs out.
Second thing, back in John 2, is that when the wine runs out, we need to trust God at his word. And that can be a difficult thing sometimes. Because sometimes, God’s word doesn’t sound like God knows what he’s talking about. Like that love your enemy stuff. They ran out of wine, and Jesus told them to fill the jars with water. Sometimes it sounds like he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Let me give you a good example of this. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5:21-25. This is a common text that is often used to describe ancient marriages and quite a few modern ones as well. Verse 21 starts by saying, "Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord." Move on down to verse 25. "Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." Now we read that and most of us liberated thinkers say to ourselves, no way Jose. Wives submit to husbands? Not in my lifetime. This is the 21st century. And it never fails that everytime I perform pre-marital counseling that I read this to the couples, and I ask them, "who is to submit to whom according to this scripture?" And inevitably they both answer, male and female, that it is the wife that is to submit to the husband. It seems that verse 21, where Paul tells them to submit to one another, that just gets lost in the whole thing. "Well Rev. Flores, are you saying that a wife should submit to her husband?" I am saying that if the both of use don’t submit to each other out of reverence for Christ, CHRIST who is the head of the family, than you aren’t going to have much to do with each other once the wine runs out. Anybody here, male or female, who has been part of any lasting relationship knows that it takes some sacrifice on both parts. Unless the husband is submissive to his wife, and to her needs, and offers her proper respect and proper love, then once the wine runs out, so too will your mar!
riage. But the same goes for the wives. Husbands and wives, be subject to one another. Serve one another. Take care of one another. Love one another. I know this text sounds strange and out-dated, like God doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but when the wine runs out, if we can have a little trust in God, we’ll see that he knows what he’s talking about.
Back to John 2, they needed wine, and Jesus told them to fill it with water. Let’s see what they did. John 2:7 "Jesus said to them, ’Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim." When the wine runs out, do whatever Jesus tells you to do. Have faith in his word. And thirdly, is to obey him with sincerity. The text says they not only poured water in those pots, but they filled them to the brim. They weren’t just going through the motions. They were sincere in their hearts and it showed in their actions. They didn’t just do the deeds haphazardly. They did it and they did it right. They filled those pots with water. They had run out of wine, and they only had water left. So Jesus told them to fill the pots with water. As if to say, I can work with that. If that’s all you got, give me what you got. But give me the best you have. Fill the water pots, and let Jesus take care of the rest. Love your spouse to the best of your ability, and trust God for the rest. Do your best for your marriage and your family and your significant other, and let Jesus take care of the rest. I remember telling God, but I can’t preach like Martin Luther King. And God said to me, that’s okay, just preach like Ernie Flores, and I’ll take care of the rest. But I’m not a great husband and father. That’s okay, just fill the water pots, and I’ll take care of the rest. If you can’t sing like Aretha Franklin, just fill the water pots. If you can’t make money like Donald Trump, just fill the water pots. If you aren’t as funny as Bill Cosby, just fill the water pots. If you can’t act like Lawrence Olivier, just fill the water pots. If you can’t teach like Mary MacLeod Bethune, if you can’t write poetry like Maya Angelou, if you can’t help farm workers like Cesar Chavez, if you can’t write music like Mozart, if you can’t produce films like Spike Lee, just fill the water pots. When you’ve run out of wine, when you’ve done all you can do, when you’re tired and need a savior, just fill the water pots to the brim, and let Jesus take care of the rest.
