"Keep Your Wineglass"            2010

John 2:1-23

 

John 2:1-23 The Wedding at Cana

2On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ 4And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.’ 5His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ 6Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. 8He said to them, ‘Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.’ So they took it. 9When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom 10and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ 11Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. 12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they remained there for a few days.

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. 15Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’ 17His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ 18The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’ 19Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ 20The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ 21But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. 23 When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing.

 

My father was one of those guys who could fix or repair anything.

            He served as an airplane mechanic during WW II,  

                                    and growing up, I don't recall that a repairman 

                                                was ever called or needed at our house.

  

 However, my father's son   is totally inept at anything mechanical

       despite Dad's best efforts to teach me how to fix & make repairs.

 

When I bought my first car,

            I remember that my dad got me a Chilton auto repair manual, 

                        a timing light and other tools I that needed

                                    so that I would learn to do my own tune-ups.

 

            Whenever something needed repair or stopped working

                        he would take it apart, explain how it worked,

                                    and then teach by showing me how to fix it.

 

But despite all that good instruction and his careful guidance,

            I am still   at the mechanic's mercy when something goes awry,

               for mechanically speaking, I am hopeless   and a lost cause.

 

According to the Old Testament,

            when the oppressed Hebrew slaves in Egypt cried out,

                        God heard them, rescued them with a mighty hand,

                                    gave them the law, the 10 Commandments

                                                as instructions about how humans should live,

                                                            and then placed them in the Promised Land…

 

     … where they never quite managed to obey the commandments that

               God had given because of his steadfast love and care for them.

 

So Jesus was sent by God into this world    because humankind,

            on our own, all of us, are a  hopelessly   lost cause.

                             God sent Jesus because the Lord loves us far too much

                                    to abandon us to our own faulty & ineffective repairs.

 

Earlier we read two stories from the gospel of John,

            about Jesus turning water into a lot of fine wine at Cana,

                        and the time he drove animals, the animal sellers,  

                                    and moneychangers out from the Temple in Jerusalem.

 

            Both of these stories are carefully crafted as signs

                        that will point ahead toward

                                    who Jesus is, and what Jesus was sent to accomplish.

 

First, let's look at the wedding in Cana story itself.

            In that time and place,  a wedding

                        was far more than just two individuals getting married.

 

It was really both families coming together into a new relationship

            which would have considerable impact on the social status

                        of each family   within their village or community.

 

Weddings were huge and joyful occasions for celebration

            that went on for about a week, during which the two families                                                            would mingle, interact and build new relationships;

     à    and  to make a favorable impression was very important.

 

To run out of wine partway through such a celebration

            would greatly dishonor and bring shame to the host family,

                        signaling that they could not provide adequate supplies;

 

à        or worse, that they did not have enough influence,

                        that they did not have friends  who respected them enough

                              to provide whatever help and support they needed.

 

It was no small concern, and a lot was at stake for the host family

            when  Mary seeks to involve Jesus in that situation.

 

Jesus spoke Aramaic which the author of John translated into Greek,

            so there are lots of ways that his words can be interpreted.

Also we are probably too far away   culturally    for us to fully grasp

      the subtleties of this interaction between Jesus and his mother.

 

But my take is that Jesus sees his mission

            as somewhat more than just this one local issue,

                        and he is concerned that it's not yet the right time

                                    for his ministry and power to be publically revealed.

 

Nevertheless,

            clearly Jesus does respond and he resolves their need,

                        but does it in a way that does not

                           attract   or draw excessive attention toward himself.

 

In the story that immediately follows in John chapter 2,

            Jesus comes onto the Temple grounds in Jerusalem,

                        observes the things going on, and making a whip from cords

                                    he drives the animals, sellers and moneychangers

                                                out from the Temple area, saying, vs. 16

                                                             ‘Take these things out of here!

                                                                        Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!

 

At one level,             Jesus is objecting to the priests

            doing business and turning a profit on sacred temple grounds.

On a deeper level,

            this is also a prophetic or symbolic act, intended as a sign.

 

By the time of Jesus the whole system of ritual animal sacrifice

             had been degraded and corrupted

                        into something that resembled a business transaction.

 

Rather than the animal blood

            serving as a reminder of God's love, grace and mercy,

                        it came to be perceived as making a deal with the Lord,

                                    as if the rituals were buying God's pardon and favor.

 

Crudely put, they were treating God's house like a vending machine;

            in which you inserted religious ritual like a coin,

                        in order to purchase God’s favor and blessings.

            Jesus was protesting

                        that offensive perspective as an insult against God.

 

Also Jesus was making a prophetic or symbolic statement,

            that the corruption of animal sacrifice was about to end.

 

Jesus didn’t come   merely to clean the temple,

               he came to replace it –

                        ending the ritual of animal sacrifice in the temple…

            … because the killing of animals would be no longer needed

                        since Jesus himself became the sacrifice for our sin.

 

On one level

            Jesus simply attacked the commerce being done at the Temple.

                        But on a deeper and more symbolic level,

                              Jesus also was describing his mission and purpose,

                                     what his life and ministry were going to accomplish.

 

   Just as the Temple cleansing was a sign

            which conveyed a prophetic or symbolic message;

 

                        so too, when Jesus changed the water into wine at Cana

                                    it was also a sign with a prophetic-symbolic message;

            à that also   was intended to reveal His purpose and mission,

                        and to explain why God sent Jesus into this world.

 

 

The stone jars which Jesus ordered the servants to fill with water,

            are specifically described as being for ritual purification.

 

The point is that the good and abundant wine that Jesus produces

            replaces  the water of the purification and ritual washing.

 

This miracle  is a prophetic symbol.  It is a sign that points

            to how Jesus overturns the OT rituals of purification;

    and going further, symbolically Jesus himself is "the good wine"

       which,   as the steward observes, "has been kept until now".

 

   Changing of water of the ritual purification into wine

            was also a very recognizable image used in the Old Testament

                        which foretold that an abundance of good wine would mark

                                    the joy of the coming of the promised Messiah.

 

For example, the prophet Amos wrote:  The time is surely coming, God says, when…the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.  

 

Isaiah prophesied: "On this mountain God will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines…  This is the God for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in God’s salvation.

 

And the prophet Joel wrote: 

            So you shall know that I, your God, dwell in Zion…in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, the hills shall flow with milk.

 

At Cana Jesus produced between 120 – 180 gallons of very fine wine,

            way more than necessary for a village wedding celebration.

   But providing such an abundance of fine wine was really a sign

            that was announcing the arrival of the Kingdom of God.

 

Just about every word and detail of this story as retold in John

            has some symbolic reference that can be interpreted as a sign

                        that points toward Christ's mission,

            which is bringing the good news of God's gracious love

                        that brings joy to us    otherwise,  hopeless   lost causes.

 

This wedding story is all about God's endless grace and goodness.

            There is no judgment or condemnation for drinking too much,

                        and nobody earns or buys a thing – it's all gift,

                                    its all about God's love and grace freely given.

 

Our problem is, that we don't necessarily handle grace very well --

            God's gracious love is scary, it can seem risky and radical,

                        even among folks who like to hang out with God in churches.

 

Surely, we assume,

            God must demand more than   just that we accept His love,

                        and surely requires more than that we   just walk with Him…

 

    … and so we busy ourselves coming up with stringent standards,

                        in effect,   dumping out the abundant fine wines of grace,

                                    so we can refill the jars with stagnant water again.

 

A young pastor was serving a very sedate & dignified congregation,

            and decided to celebrate the Holy Spirit on Pentecost;

                        by giving everyone a red helium balloon when they arrived,

                              which sometime during worship, as moved by the Spirit,

                                                as an expression of praise, joy and gratitude

                                                   just let go, release their balloon to fly free.

 

After worship the pastor was somewhat saddened and disappointed

            to see that   as they walked out from the worship service,

                        many of them were still clutching their balloon,

                             still gripping tightly, they just couldn't let go.

 

 

    When Jesus drove out the animals and sellers it was a message

            that our relationship with God isn’t a transaction or a deal.

God's gracious love isn't something that we can buy or earn;

            it's more like getting grits with breakfast in the South.

                        You don't order them,   they just show up on your plate.

 

The wedding wine story

            is about the excessive extravagance of God's grace

                        and that its way more  and far better  than anything

                                    that we can possibly anticipate or imagine.

 

Both of these stories are told as signs that reveal why Jesus came,

            which was to demonstrate and accomplish God's gracious love,

                           and that the coming of Christ  was the fulfillment

                                    of all the Old Testament hopes and promises from God.

 

A woman met with her pastor to discuss her final wishes,

            for she only had a very short time yet to live.

 

After they discussed the plans for the funeral,

   she remembered one final request that was very important to her.         

       She said, "I want to be buried holding a spoon in my right hand."

 

The pastor gazed at the woman, at a loss for words.

            "That surprises you, doesn't it?" the woman asked.

 

"You see, Pastor, in all my years of attending potluck dinners,

            I remember that when the dishes were being cleared,

                        someone would lean over to me and say, 'Keep your spoon.'

 

I knew then that something better was coming,

            like velvety chocolate cake or deep dish apple pie...

                        something wonderful to end the meal!"

 

The woman continued, "So, I just want people to see me in the casket

            with a spoon in my hand and I want them to wonder,

                        'What's with the spoon?'"

                                                Then I want you to tell them:

                                                            "Keep your spoon--the best is yet to come."

 

Or in the case of the wedding in Cana and God's gracious love,

            "keep your wineglass, because there's a lot more coming.

                        Our God

                                    has way more grace than you ever thought possible."

 

As Jesus promises, in John 10:10

            I came that you may have life, and have it abundantly.

                                    Our God is never stingy, not with wine,

                                                definitely not with love, and never with grace!