huh?

Six stoneware water pots were there, used by the Jews for ritual washings.  Each held twenty to thirty gallons.  Jesus ordered the servants, “Fill the pots with water.”  And they filled them to the brim.

John 2:6-7 (The Message)

I have heard this story a lot.  It is about the first miracle of Jesus’ ministry.  Jesus was at a wedding in a place called Cana.  His mother was there, which leads me to believe that most of His family was probably there also.  There was a big celebration happening.  Singing, dancing, laughing, feasting, drinking; it was quite the shindig.

I think it is important to talk a little bit about a traditional Jewish wedding, as one would likely have been at that time in history.  We have to remember that during those times, the Jewish people were subjects of the Roman empire.  This would likely mean that most of the common people would have been pretty close to poor (the Romans taxed their subject lands heavily).

During this time period, life would have pretty much been the same day after day.  The bulk of the economy was based on agriculture, which means that most people were in some capacity involved in the farming process at one point or another.  Everyday you would wake up, you would work, you would rejoice in your family, there were not nearly as many distractions available as there are today.  Relationships were probably of a much higher value in those days than we regard them today because, well, people had to depend on each other.  In a lot of ways we would probably think of this as a simpler time, a time when people could spend more time reflecting on life.

The people at this wedding were very intimately tied to the land (perhaps in a similar way we are tied to the super market).  These people worked together, helped each other, watched one another’s children grow up, and now here we are at a wedding.  Two of the local kids have grown up and are now man and wife.  The whole village would have been in an absolute frenzy of celebration.

It was common in those days to celebrate a wedding for days, even weeks at a time.  Think of it like this: if you’ve ever been to a wedding, especially a big wedding, you probably don’t know everyone there, in fact the bride and groom don’t always know everyone at the wedding.  I think that’s one of the reasons that when we go to weddings today we only have a reception for a couple of hours.  It is hard to sustain a party where not everyone knows each other.  This would not have been too likely at the wedding in Cana.  Even if the family was poor, the festivities would have lasted for a few days.  The entire town would be rejoicing in the formation of this new family.

And so here we are, Jesus is at a wedding and they run out of wine.  (I was at a graduation party for two of my distant cousins last night, and well, if your family is anything like mine, wine is an important part of the celebration; not to mention a lot of my family works in the wine business-from growing grapes to distribution, making wine even more important to us).  The way that the story is told leaves us under the impression that things are just getting under way, maybe we are in day two of the celebration, maybe even day one, and they are running out of wine.

Now, I am not a father, I’m not even anywhere near being married myself, but it seems to me that if I had a daughter and she was getting married that I would want to throw her the best party ever.  All of her loved ones, her new husband’s loved ones, and it is my responsibility to help bring them all together?  Yeah, that would have to be one great party.  The last thing that I would want to happen would be to run out of anything; food, space, wine, cake, you need an abundance of these things.

So here is this father, his daughter is getting married, he doesn’t have much because he is being over taxed by the Romans, he is depending on his family and friends to make this a great celebration, the only thing is, they don’t have much either.  And you can’t tell your daughter that it will be a small party, that would break her heart.  So what do you do?  You invite everyone you can, spend everything you can on the celebration, and hope for the best.  I get the feeling that this is the position that this father was in.

Then, they run out of wine.  The servants (think of them like caterers) are getting a little concerned, the host is getting concerned, and people are beginning to take notice.  This could become a very sad experience.  Just think, when the norm is at least three or four days of celebration and you can’t get through half of that, the only thing that you’re thinking about is “What about my little girl?  She deserves better than this…”

Word gets to Mary, the wife of Joseph, the carpenter.  Being as Joseph was a carpenter, a man with a specialized trade, chances are he had a better chance at providing for his family than most.  This would make Mary an important woman, not to mention all of the talk about angels and stars at the birth of her first child, these are things that stick to one’s reputation you know.

Mary can’t do anything about the wine shortage, but she wants to help.  Perhaps she is thinking about the controversy that surrounded her wedding.  She was pregnant with her first child while she was engaged to Joseph, and only she and Joseph knew for sure that they hadn’t “consummated” the wedding prematurely (this sort of thing could have lead to a death sentence for Mary).  It is quite possible that, in order to protect his wife, Joseph married her quietly.  One thing is for sure, she probably did not have the wedding that she dreamed of as a little girl.  I tend to think that Mary saw this young couple in Cana and her heart went out to them, wanting better for them on their special day.  So what does she do?  She’s probably the only one there that knows how truly special her son is and so she goes to Him.

Jesus seems a bit surprised.  He is at the wedding, celebrating with everyone else, and seems to want to continue doing so.  Mary tells the servants to do whatever He tells them.  The servants must have been desperate, after all, Jesus was not a vintner (one who makes wine), what was He going to do about a shortage of wine?  He tells them to fill several water pots with water.  If I was one of the servants, I would be trying to make sense of this, I think I would conclude something to the affect of “Well, better to have water to drink than nothing to drink.”  So, they fill the water pots.

Then, Jesus turns water into wine.

A lot of wine.

Somewhere in the ballpark of 180 gallons.

Jesus, performs His first miracle, and what was the purpose of the miracle?

To keep the party going.

Nothing else.

So, we can learn a few things about Jesus from this.  He apparently thinks that this party is important, very important, 180 gallons of wine important.  He also seems to want to enjoy the party Himself.  He wants to celebrate.  And then, from the statement that is made to the host (the bride’s father) it would seem that Jesus made some good wine.  He saved the best for last.

This is how Jesus started His ministry.  I have thought a lot about how to start a ministry.  There are several ways to do it I guess, but I never thought of throwing a party.  Why?  I never thought of throwing a party because it seems to me that whatever you do at the very beginning of your ministry becomes the mainstay of your ministry.  Maybe that’s why Jesus did it.  He wanted the celebration of a sacred union to mark His ministry.

I think that it is interesting to note what kind of water pots were used.  Not the fact that they were stone, the fact that they were used for ritual cleansing.  These pots were a part of the daily religious practices of the Jews.  The Jews, more than anyone else at that time, believed that “cleanliness is next to Godliness” and Jesus, used the water pots for this practice to turn water into wine.

Have you ever been to a Catholic or Episcopalian or Methodist church (really any church that celebrates older traditions)?  When they serve communion, they use a really fancy gold cup.  What if you went into the priest’s office and he was using this cup as a drinking cup?  Maybe he put his coffee in it, or some Pepsi.  What if he put Tang in the communion cup and was sipping on it as he ate his breakfast?  Or maybe rich, chocolaty Ovaltine.

Mmmm, Ovaltine.

I wonder if Jesus using these pots that were used for ritual cleansing isn’t something like our priest friend drinking from the communion cup.  I’m no expert in the matter, and it is an assumption really, but it seems to me that these pots are pretty important, maybe even spiritual.  They have to be kept clean above all of the other implements because they are used to clean everything else.  They may even be some sort of pseudo-sacred pots.

What does that say about Jesus?  After all, this is His first miracle.  What does this say about the things that He is going to do in His ministry?

I think that it speaks very clearly about His ministry.  I think that this says, in a way, that the celebration of life was more important to Jesus than the ancient rules of the Jews.  I think that it says that Jesus would rather see people rejoice in the union of a man, a woman, and God than that they have clean hands.  I think that it is Jesus’ way of showing what He is going to do, how He is going to unify God and man and help us to live lives that are free of old laws.  I think that Jesus is saying that life should be a celebration and not a ritual.

I think that Jesus was painting a picture of the ultimate wedding.  The one that He paid for with His blood.  That maybe He is saying that the “wine” (Communion Wine) at this wedding celebration will never run out.  That maybe there is enough of this “wine” for everyone to join in the celebration.

So, I encourage you, join the feast.  Drink of the wine.  Rejoice, because God has pledged Himself to mankind.  Rejoice because Jesus loves you.  Rejoice, because you are free to do so.  Rejoice, because it just plain fells better.

Rejoice.