January 16, 2022 – Second Sunday after Epiphany

Now THAT is a lot of wine! Between 120 and 180 gallons of wine. And you’ll notice that they were not earthenware containers typically used for holding wine, but rather stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification – the washing of hands and vessels.

Let’s take a step back and look at the story in today’s Gospel. John has butt in to the standard lectionary here, just like he does on every 2nd Sunday after Epiphany. Today’s Gospel reading comes in the middle of the narrative beginning with the Lucan story of Jesus’ birth and adolescence and John the Baptist’s baptism of Jesus, and the continuing Lucan story of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, which places Jesus as a historical person in the midst of conflicts in Israel. (You’ll hear more about this in the coming weeks.)

This well-known story of the wedding of Cana appears only in John’s Gospel. The Gospel of John differs significantly from the other Gospels. It has characters and events that the other three Gospels do not mention. The other three Gospels mention at least somewhat WHO Jesus was, and John gets right into it with “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Just different. Plain and simple.

Right from the start of today’s reading, there’s symbolism that abounds: “On the third day…” 

On day zero, Jesus was baptized. On day one, Jesus stole Peter and Andrew from John the Baptist. On day two, Jesus went to Galilee and recruited Philip and Nathanael to be disciples. And on day three, we have the wedding in Cana. It’s Jesus’ first “sign” and first act of ministry outside of the calling of the disciples.

They’re all partying, and the wine runs out. Mom tells Jesus that they have no wine. And Jesus responds in what seems like a really snotty response that sounds to us like, “Yeah? So what?” You don’t usually call your mom, “Woman.” But in Jesus’ time, this wasn’t necessarily a sign of disrespect.

Yet we all know the whole story of Jesus, and the fact that he calls her “Woman” should immediately make us think of the story in John 19:26-30:

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home. After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

This is a fascinating juxtaposition of the two kinds of wine: the good wine of the celebration of the wedding feast and the sour wine of the crucifixion. It’s a fascinating contrast of the third day of life and the third day (to come) of death and resurrection. So, the Gospel of John is encapsulated by the death and resurrection of Jesus. 

Jesus’ mother says that there is no wine, and Jesus replies, “My hour has not yet come.” It’s almost as if Jesus is saying, “No, no… now is not the time for me to die. We don’t need the wine right now. Now is the time for us to celebrate, for me to live.”

In a few weeks, we will begin our celebration of the season of Lent. But Jesus is telling us that his time will come. Now is the time for celebration, to live. Let’s not rush to the crucifixion. Let’s enjoy the good wine!

Bringing this back to today, SO WHAT? 

Yes, it’s about wine, but it’s really not. We hear the steward in the Gospel say that everyone serves the good wine first, and then switches to the nasty stuff – the $2-a-bottle Boone’s Farm wine – after everyone’s become drunk and can’t tell the difference. The hosts at those parties are practical – they use the best stuff first so that people won’t notice the cheap stuff later. It saves them money as there’s never enough money to go around.

But God provides 6 large jugs holding 20-30 gallons of good wine each. They’re each filled to the brim. And instead of using a normal wine jug, God provides in “holy purification” jars, proving that anything and everything can be used for God’s good works.

It’s clear that our God is a god of abundance, in contrast with the scarcity of this world. The Wedding of Cana pits the needs of our world in direct confrontation with the abundant generosity of our God. Because if God is so miraculously generous and filled with abundance:

• Why are so many people left without wine?
• Why are so many people left without food and clean water?
• Why are so many people denied healthcare and education?
• Why are so many people left without safety and equal rights?

If our God is so abundant to provide these things, then why doesn’t God? We think of our God as omniscient, as all knowing. But the truth is, Jesus needed his mother to come to him… to ask him that if he knew everything, why he didn’t know (or care) that the good wine was running out.

Does our dissatisfied God just sit back and let the evil happen? Or does God work through earthly servants? In verse 5, we read that the mother of Jesus said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” She has faith that God, through Jesus, will fix the lack of wine. God just doesn’t make the wine appear; God works through the servants. The servants are the first to know of the miracle that has happened, and then the others know. Are we to be God’s servants, THROUGH whom God works to bring about the healing of the world?

Or are we perhaps to be Mary, constantly voicing the concerns of the people to God with confidence that God will make it right? John reveals to us that God has abundance in mind. And the mother of Jesus pushes us to ask what God had in mind during the periods of time when we think God has abandoned the people – slavery, the genocide of the Native peoples, the Holocaust, the civil rights battles.

Or is it that we are to be both? 

The question for us today is, “How do we balance out the miraculous abundance of our God with the great, unaddressed needs of the world?” In a world where so many have no clean water, let alone fine wine, where is God? In a world where children play in sewage overflowing from pots the size of the wine barrels, where is God? In a world where parents must say to their children, “There is no food,” where is God? No matter how we rationalize, we want to tug at Jesus and say, “They have no wine.” 

Today’s text invites us to trust so much in God’s generosity and abundance that we, like Mary, nudge God with our observation that there is no wine. Today’s text invites us to enjoy the abundance that surrounds us so that we, like those servants at the feast, may share the abundant treasures of God with others. Years ago in Cana, Jesus revealed the abundance of God in which we have more and better than we ever could have imagined; he revealed God’s glory and his disciples believed in him. Through our acts of service and trust in God, may we help others to believe as well.