Signs For Life

Throughout our life we rely a lot on signs

Signs play an essential role in our life

They always point to something

They point to something far more important than themselves

For instance as we drive down the freeway we will see a sign pointing to Launceston

The sign is not Launceston….but it tells us which way to Launceston

When we feel our head hurts or our tummy rumbles this is often a sign something is wrong

When our belt buckle moves to the next spot,

this maybe a sign we need to do something about our weight

When a family member or friend won’t talk to us, this is a sign that reveals something is wrong

We need to explore what is wrong

When the fire alarm makes that piercing noise,

it could mean we need to get out of the house or that dad has burnt the toast again

In all aspects of our lives

We rely on signs to reveal something to us

Often we need to check out what the signs mean

Sometimes we notice the signs and sometimes we don’t

And in the gospel reading from John today we hear

11What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples put their faith in him.

The turning of water into wine was not a magic trick to entertain audiences at the wedding or church members for years to come

But this event was a sign revealling the glory of God

And within this reading there are also a number of signs that reveal more about Jesus and about us

Something we will not pick up unless we delve deeper into scripture is the timing of the event

In verse the first verse we are told that on the third day…

Jesus was at a wedding with his disciples and his mother

When we dive deeper into scripture we discover that the third day is mentioned no less than 40 times in the old and new testament

On many occasions the third day

highlights that God’s presence becomes clearer,

in other words God’s presence becomes clearer not straight away but after a passage of time

From

Hosea 6:2 we hear “After two days he will revive us and on the third day he will restore us that we may live in his presence.”

Esther chapters 4 through to 8 we are told that Esther fasted for three days…then went to the king seeking to rescue the Jewish people

In the book of Jonah, Jonah is in the belly of the fish for three days before he is spat out

And in the New Testament we constantly here that the resurrection of Jesus took place after 3 days…

Listen to 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3 and 4

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance a: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

Every Easter we highlight the importance of the third day….when we attend both the Good Friday and Easter Sunday service

Also in our lives we can not always see God at work in our lives until a passage of time has passed

Often God is at work, however it takes time for us to see Him at work

Three days indicates God’s presence is about to be seen by some one or some people

Another sign we will miss unless we delve deeper into scripture is the importance of wine in the lives of people of Jesus time and culture

Like today, scripture indicates good and bad uses of wine

Using wine at celebrations is one of the good uses

An abundant supply of wine indicated a blessing from God

From Genesis 27, verse 28

28 May God give you of heaven’s dew

and of earth’s richness—

an abundance of grain and new wine.

And when used with God’s favour wine also points to joy,

From Ecclesiastes 9, verse 7

7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favours what you do.

With these to things in mind…

So running out of wine is a problem for the wedding family.

In fact, it is an embarrassment for the family hosting the wedding.

Now we are not told why the wine ran out

And it is not important

It could have been the fault of the family organising the wine through bad planning or being misers..

thinking that each person should drink half a glass of wine only

The fault of the guests in being wine gluttons

Maybe there were unexpected guests, gatecrashers