The Wedding at Cana of Galilee

Sermon preached on Sunday 25th January 2015 at St Georges, Cam and St Cyrs, Stinchcombe

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Exactly one month ago, it was Christmas morning. We were celebrating a feast day in the church in the same way a feast is celebrated in our Gospel reading. On Christmas morning, especially for some of our children, the expectation was all about an abundance of presents. In fact, children of all ages will often study the quantity of presents and the size of the boxes under the tree before wondering what they could be.

The general rule of thumb being, the bigger the better. At first analysis, contents are less important, it’s all about the size versus quantity ratio. In fact, the contents can sometimes be so unimportant that even an empty box would be welcome and often, an empty box can be just as much fun as a full one. All a big empty box needs is an abundance of imagination.

In our Gospel today, there is a message of abundance, but not in a selfish or wealthy way, which I’ll explain later.

Jesus was at a wedding as a guest and it’s usually assumed that he was there because he knew or was related to the family, he certainly wasn’t there to preach, perform the ceremony or perform a miracle. It turns out that this is the only recorded wedding Jesus attends in the bible and this event is something we often quote in our wedding ceremonies today.

The wedding feast though would have been quite different to a modern Christian wedding, the wedding in Cana would have been according to Jewish custom and the feast may have lasted up to five days and it was the bridegroom who was expected to provide everything, including an abundance of wine.

But we are told very little about the wedding itself, nothing about the couple, about their families, their past or their background. Only that, in John’s gospel, the only gospel where this type of miracle happens, Jesus performed his first ‘sign,’ and note that John never refers to miracles, only to ‘signs’.

We get the impression that Jesus wasn’t ready for this though, he seems reluctant to act and his mother forces his hand, saying to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you,’ mothers can be like that sometimes. None the less, he did act.

There are a few symmetry’s in the Gospel reading today with events at the end of Jesus life and the first of these occurs here; Jesus’ mother is mentioned just twice in John’s Gospel, here at the wedding and only once more, at the foot of the cross where he entrusts her care to the disciple he loved.

Each mention of Mary marks the beginning and end of her sons ministry on earth.

We often say things like; what is God’s plan or we must pray for God’s plan to be revealed, we often pray this way in the assumption that God’s plan for us is set, and can’t be changed and yet, here, before Jesus ministry even starts, his own plan is changed, “My hour is not yet come,” he insists, but his mother has asked, she trusted him,  she had faith in him and she knew what he could do, after all, an Angel had told her about him before he was born.

The reason for Jesus deciding to act was more profound than this though, he was signalling his power, glory and majesty, revealing his presence as God’s son. Note how he revealed this not to the groom or to the Steward, but to the servants, who along with Mary were the first to know about the miracle. Once again in the story of his life, Jesus reveals himself not to Kings and Princes, but to Servants and Shepherds. This is a reminder about how he came to the world humbly, not to rule or conquer, but to save through mercy and sacrifice.
So his first miracle wasn’t a healing, a resurrection or feeding thousands, but making sure the bar didn’t run dry. It was a conversion. What a truly human, abundant way to begin a ministry.

It was abundant because of the quantity of wine produced. We are told the jars were between 20 and 30 gallons each. This would be up to 180 gallons, which, would be about 800 litres, or just over 1000 bottles of wine. It’s also equivalent to 1700 pints and not even Thursday Social could manage that much in a sitting, so that is quite a feast. We don’t know how many people were there or how much longer the wedding feast was going to last, but that is a lot of wine. Much more than was needed.

It was an abundant miracle.

I’ll come back to abundance in a moment, but why did wine become the first miracle of John’s Gospel? John chose his stories carefully and his words are very precise.

At the start of the reading, we are told that on the third day there was a wedding.

The third day, there is another symmetry here, Jesus and his new disciples had just walked from the Jordan in Judea, where John had been baptising, to Cana in Galilee, a distance of about 70 miles. This would take about three days. So, the three days to the wedding, at the start of Jesus’ ministry, is a parallel to the three days Jesus spent in the tomb at the end of his ministry before the resurrection. A resurrection preceded by the sharing of wine, at the last supper.

Wine used by King Melchizadek, the great high priest, to bless a victory in our Genesis reading.

Wine, which must surely have been part of the great marriage supper of the lamb in our reading from the Book of Revelation.

Wine which was shared at the last supper before the crucifixion, another symmetry to this miracle and to the end of Jesus life.

Wine which we will share today at the Lord’s Table in our feast, our communion, a remembrance of that meal.

Our taking of communion today not only re-connects us with Jesus and his disciples at the last supper, but also to the wine created for a wedding in Cana of Galilee two thousand years ago.

Perhaps the most striking feature of this story though, is the abundant quantity of wine. Jesus was clearly making a point. A point we can have faith in today, that when we ask trustingly, like Mary did, Jesus will hear our prayer and he will answer, but not necessarily in ways we would expect.

Most of all though, God was sending his Son into the world completely, he was filling the world to the brim with his spirit, through Jesus. In John’s first chapter, he says in verse 16, “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” This first sign is that fullness in all its wonderful abundance.

Jesus was also creating something new from something old. Wine from stone jars used in Jewish purification rites. The old and new ways were brought together and God’s love overflowed as Jesus came into the world.

So now, as we work through Epiphany, and Christmas is just a memory, we begin to understand why Jesus came to earth.

And today, we can have faith that through the Holy Spirit, Jesus is still in the world, in all his overflowing abundance. All we have to do is trust in him, in the same way Mary trusted him, before he turned water into wine.

So Jesus has filled the world with an overwhelming abundance of grace, hope, forgiveness and most of all, love.

His abundant grace brings comfort when we are in pain, grieving or feel alone.

His abundant hope brings a spirit of peace and reconciliation.

His abundant forgiveness heals our sins.

And the abundant love of Jesus, with us now, is a constant reminder of a good which is greater than any act or creation of human kind and this love connects us all through faith.
All we have to do is to be like the disciples in the last verse of the Gospel, “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.”

Amen

Genesis 14:17-20

^{Abram Blessed by Melchizedek}

¹⁷ After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).¹⁸And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High.^*19He blessed him and said,
‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High,^*
maker of heaven and earth;
²⁰ and blessed be God Most High,^*
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!’
And Abram gave him one-tenth of everything.

Revelation 19: 6-10

⁶Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunder-peals, crying out,
‘Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
⁷ Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready;
⁸ to her it has been granted to be clothed
with fine linen, bright and pure’—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

⁹ And the angel said^* to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These are true words of God.’¹⁰Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, ‘You must not do that! I am a fellow-servant^* with you and your comrades^* who hold the testimony of Jesus.^* Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus^* is the spirit of prophecy.’

John 2; 1-11

On 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 bridegroom¹⁰and 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.