Gordon McPhee

                                          John 2: 1-11

WILL THAT BE RED OR WHITE?

Scripture:  John 2:1-11 [MSG]

INTRODUCTION:

Welcome to our second Sunday after Epiphany, which means we’re continuing to talk about the Gospel stories surrounding Jesus’ first revelation to the world: the Magi, the baptism and temptation, Jesus in the temple, and today’s story, the wedding at Cana. All pretty heady stuff, except is it? The Cana incident is about Jesus going to a wedding with his mom and some friends and bailing out the bridegroom, who was about to run out of wine. Excuse me, is this the same Jesus who healed the sick, cured the lame, preached the sermon on the mount and went to the cross to save us from our sins?

I took a course a year ago in the Department of Jewish Studies at McGill on the books of Ruth and Esther. Most enlightening for me was the Jewish attitude to the scriptures. We Christians take things so seriously. Everything has to be just so, giving the appearance of order and reverence as if we actually believe God doesn’t know every tiny unholy detail of our minds and hearts. Not so the Jews who say what needs to be said and fling open the doors to get done what needs to be done. We had so much fun and laughter in that class and discovered whole new perspectives on the texts.

Well, assuming the Gospel of John was composed by Jews, which is a reasonably safe assumption, I hope that today we can have some fun with this story and, rather than allegorize it by seeking grand mysteries that we can’t relate to, find something real and applicable to our lives now.

SERMON:

The Gospel of John doesn’t leave very much out of this story except perhaps two details: the identity of the bride and groom, which is significant as an indicator that the wedding is not what the story is about, and second, the kind of wine Jesus produced, hence the title of the sermon, “Will that be red or white?” Important also to recognize is the characteristic difference between the Gospel of John and that of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Synoptic Gospels.

Mark

Jesus Heals Many

If we take only the section titles indicated in most Bibles, Mark has set the pattern the others followed. John the Baptist prepared the way as the prophetic voice of one crying in the wilderness, followed by Jesus’ baptism and testing in the wilderness and then his first round of preaching, announcing the gospel. He calls his disciples, and then his power and glory are manifested in healing diseases and infirmities, casting out demons, and affirming that he is Messiah.

Matthew

Jesus Heals the Sick

Matthew adds a bit of prologue he felt Mark left out but then carries on with the same story as Mark.

Luke

Jesus Calls His First Disciples

Luke’s the guy who is going to set things straight, adding stories overlooked by the other Gospel writers about Jesus' childhood and a different genealogy than Matthew. Still, then, he faithfully continues the story as Mark told it, and each one culminating in Jesus affirming the truth of his ministry with healing miracles. Of course, we remember He also walked on water and fed thousands with only a few bits of food. Still, Mark, Matthew, and Luke use these first miracles to corroborate Jesus' identity. They are cautious in presenting these miracles so as not to make Jesus appear to be some itinerate Jewish healer with medicines and incantations.

John

Jesus Changes Water Into Wine

The Gospel of John takes its own path. In its mystical way, the first thing to know about Jesus is that He is God and that by and through Him, everything was created. He is the Logos, the Word from which everything else exists. Then, rather than baptizing Jesus, which may give the impression Jesus is below John the Baptist, the Gospel has John denying emphatically that he is the Messiah. Jesus acquires some disciples, which is the only parallel with the Synoptics and then performs His first miracle.

Now, you might assume from the tenor of the epic and expansive beginning of the Gospel of John that the first miracle was going to be a real whopper. It wouldn’t consist of just saying Jesus healed many people nor casting out one puny little demon from one person by simply saying “go away” like the synoptic Gospels record. No, this is the Gospel of John; Jesus is the Word that created the universe and everything in it; this is Jesus' coming out party, his first big epiphany to the world and his newly acquired disciples. So where does John take us for this grand event? To an insignificant wedding in a small city in Galilee. And the miracle to be performed? Make wine.

I read a lot of commentaries on this story, and considering the amount of speculation and conjecture offered by most of the very respectable and well-educated commentators, I don’t feel out of place adding my own interpretation of the described events. So, let’s begin with the guests. Jesus’ mother was there, so she would have come from Nazareth, about five kilometres away. Jesus was the eldest son and so assumed responsibilities for the family in the apparent absence of his father, who most speculate was dead. Hence, he is invited too, apparently along with his newly formed cohort of disciples.

Inviting Jesus’ mother from a distance would suggest she had some importance and possibly a connection with the wedding hosts. Often, we’re told of Jesus being born to the poor carpenter and making reference that he had nowhere to lay his head, but that was his choice during his itinerate ministry. A carpenter was a specialized skilled tradesman at that time. Like a construction engineer, they made your tools, but also your wagon and home. I sometimes wonder as I walk around Chateauguay past a huge home I could only dream of affording and parked in front is a relatively new and spanking clean $120,000 Ford F150 king cab with an $80,000 construction trailer attached, and I realize this isn’t the guy laying the floors in the big house, that’s the owner of the house, the guy I call to come and lay my floors.

When Jesus’ mother came to inform him that they were running out of wine we understand that she had a stake in this wedding celebration. She knew the hosts, and they had invited her from 5 kilometres away because she was important to them and a significant guest at the wedding. When the wine was running low, Mary wanted to help but didn’t have a husband to appeal to. Jesus, her son, assumes the role of head of the family. Hence, he doesn’t call her ‘mother’ but rather ‘woman,’ a term of respect a husband might use. Many commentators want us to read into this interaction all sorts of profound mystical theology that Jesus' relationship with his mother was changed as he began his ministry. I’m sure my Jewish studies class would have understood this much more simply and pragmatically. Mary wants to help out the host and buy some more wine quickly, but present-day protocols mean she must appeal to the head of the household, who holds the purse strings and is responsible for these decisions.

Which is Jesus, who comes up with a better idea. I almost called this sermon “and now for something completely different,” but unfortunately, I’d already used that title on another occasion. Mary, reinforcing my opinion of her position and authority at the wedding, orders the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do, which I’m sure she expected him to tell them to canvas the neighbourhood for wine and haul it back to the wedding while he arranged payment. After all, he was President of the successful business “Joseph of Nazareth & Sons Carpentry Co.”

However, in a fashion close to my Scottish heart, Jesus chooses a different, inexpensive way that won’t leave the host indebted to them for bailing them out. Although he told his mother it wasn’t his time, he seems to have reconsidered and decided that this was the right time to, as the expression goes, and forgive the pun, ‘test the waters.’ Jesus orders the servants to fill six stone jars that are there. That they are stone jars is essential for the theology the commentators want to draw out of the story. Clay pots absorb the flavour and contaminants of whatever is in them. In levitical law, if the contents of a clay jar became ritually unclean, you had to dispose of the contents and smash the jar so it couldn’t be used again. But a stone container was impermeable and could be cleaned and reused. So it was much cheaper in the long run, although initially much more expensive, to use stone jars for washing away ritual uncleanness. At least no one could say the previous contents of the jars flavoured the water. They were empty and clean.

What is striking about this miracle is the complete and total absence of ritual or fanfare. Jesus doesn’t say anything. Not “be clean,” or “your sins are forgiven,” not even “be red wine” or “be white wine.” There’s no flourish of the hand, no waiting for the miracle to be complete, only a command, “Fill your pitchers and take them to the host.” Which is an incredibly confident act on Jesus's part. He doesn’t even look to see if the wine is red or white, nor does a taste test to ensure the miracle went well. “Take it to the host straightway; it’s decanted and ready to enjoy.” And enjoy they did—the best wine of the day.

In the Gospel of John, this is one of seven miracles referred to as ‘signs.’ Of all these great miracles, indisputable signs bearing witness to whom Jesus is, healing the sick, lame and blind, feeding the 5,000, walking on water, and even raising a man dead for three days, John chooses this, the wedding at Cana, as the first of the seven. For John, the epiphany of Jesus, his revealing to the world is not his baptism and testing in the wilderness, preaching good news, calling his first disciples, or even healing the lame and diseased. It was an enigma no other Gospel chronicler thought significant to mention. Jesus' first sign, the first glimpse of his glory, was the parlour trick of turning water into wine so the wedding host would not be embarrassed.

In John 20:30-31 the Gospel writer proclaims the purpose of these signs that are chronicled there, “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have [wine, - sorry, I meant] life in His name.” We can understand this story as entirely allegorical as the commentators find most comfortable. We can research into the deep meanings hidden behind the stone jars, water and wine, Mary and Jesus, weddings and Jesus as groom of the church, the fruit of the servant’s unquestioning obedience to Jesus, that it was the best wine and a hundred other details from which we can springboard to whatever glorious truths we can imagine.

And it may well be the authors of John worked very hard to craft all of that into the story as the commentators, who are much more learned than I, suggest, but to what end? Jesus' fame didn’t go forth from there as it did when he healed people. The gospel of John describes it exactly as it appears to be, “a glimpse [just a mere glimpse] of his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” Indeed, very few even knew what had happened. As we are told, the servants, and presumably Mary and the disciples because their faith increased as a result.

For myself, when I grasp at the grand allegorical allusions of the story, it becomes no more than a fantasy. We should begin with, “Once upon a time, there was a wedding at Cana,” and end with, “Jesus and his disciples lived happily ever after.” But when I read it as it is presented in John, Jesus chose, as the first miraculous outpouring of his power, a humble, tender, and gracious act of extreme kindness in a totally common setting. Without fanfare or notoriety, he wasted this moment and this life generating God-power, the same power that spoke the universe, the earth and you and I into existence; he wasted it on a simple act of human kindness. He replied to his mother’s concern for the embarrassment of the wedding family.

That Jesus is the one I love, the one who sees, cares for, and understands my daily human fears, anxieties, and needs and doesn’t dismiss them as trivial human weaknesses. But he quietly, lovingly and humbly answers those needs by going far beyond my hopes or expectations. His answer to all your needs is the same as he gave to his mother, Mary, “You need wine, Mom? I’ll give you wine, red or white?”

Amen