John 2v1-11
The life of the Party
At the end of last year, New York magazine asked 10 celebrities what makes for a great party? And the most common answers weren’t surprising: Goodmusic, good food, good guest list, free alcohol, live performances, dancing girls. I suppose that's not too surprising for many celebrities living in New York.
But I can tell you one answer that wasn’t on anyone’s list. No one mentioned Jesus!
And I suppose that’s not too surprising either. I suspect most people don’t see Jesus as a key ingredient for a great party. In fact most people probably see Jesus as a party-pooper. Not as a party-maker.
Well in our passage today we are in for a surprise. Jesus attends a wedding party. And it starts to go downhill fast. The wine has run out. But Jesus comes to the rescue. He provides new wine. He is the life of this party.
So that might be a big surprise to us.
As one man put it: Wewould probably expect Jesus to go around turning wine into water. But here He turns water into wine.
If this is a surprise for us, it might mean we don’t understand Jesus very well.
Now before we dive into this passage, let me just give you a bit of background.
We are kicking off the year with a series on the 'Signs of Jesus' from John’s gospel. And you might be wondering: What do we mean by 'signs'? Well that’s just John’s way of referring to Jesus’ miracles. He doesn’t just call them miracles. He calls them signs.
And if you think about it, that actually teaches us something about these miracles.
Imagine you're driving from PE to Umtata, along the N2. You drive through Grahamstown, and it isn't long before you come to the first sign showing the way to Umtata. You’d be completely missing the point if you then park your car under that sign, unpack your bags and say; "Yes! We’vearrivedat Umtata."
No you haven’t arrived. You've simply come to the sign. The sign is there to point you further.
Well, in the same way, you can’t just stop at these miracles and think that you've arrived. You can’t just say; "Wow what anamazingmiracle! Look at thispower."
Jesus has got power. No you've got to go further.
John’s gospel is full of criticism for people who follow Jesus simply because of the miracles. But they haven’t understood the sign.
So that’s what we need to do in this series. We need to see the significance of the signs?
And as we come to this first miraculous sign, I want to emphasize how significant it really is.
You need to realize how selective John is with his material.
Apparently only 20 days of Jesus’ life get recorded in this book. Think of His whole life and ministry! Only 20 days get chosen. It’s a selective presentation.
Turn to John 20 verse 30. Here you can see the criteria John uses to select:
"Jesus did manyothermiraculous signs that arenotrecorded in this book."
So many signs get left out. Only 7 are included. So why did John select only 7? Look at verse 31:
“But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and thatbybelieving you may have life in His Name.”
That’s John’s purpose. He wants people to believe in Jesus. And to have life in His Name.That’s our purpose as we start this series. We believe that true life is only found in Jesus. Wedon’tbelieve that you can find life apart from Jesus. We are concerned for people who don’t know Jesus. So I hope that you’ll invite your friends to come and see Jesus in this series.
And so as we turn back to John chapter 2, here we’ve got one of the 7 most carefully selected signs of Jesus. And what makes this one especially significant is that it’s the first one.
If you look at chapter 2 verse 11 it says:
“This, thefirstof His miraculous signs Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee.”
If you are launching a new project or enterprise, you want to make sure at your inaugural speech or presentation that you get right to heart and soul of what it’s about; the real essence of what it stands for.
And so here Jesus launches His public ministry. His first miraculous sign. And in the words of Tim Keller: Here’s the great surprise.
“Jesus uses all of His great divine power on a catering disaster.”
Or in the words of Reynold Price, this is “a miraculous solution to a mere social embarrassment.”
And it’s true, a catering disaster can be embarrassing. Jenny Erasmus was telling me about a catering disaster she faced when she had to feed a large crowd and how grateful she was when God helped her in a miraculous way.
But still if you are choosing the most important miraculous sign, the one that’s going to launch your public ministry, surely you would have chosen something different; an exorcism of demons; healing of a disease; resurrection from the dead? Surely not the provision of wine at a wedding?
What does thismean? What’s the significance of this sign?
Well I want us to see two points of significance.
Two things that we can learn about Jesus. Firstly, Who He is. And secondly, what He provides.
1)So firstly, Who He is (verses 1-6)
Jesus and his mother and disciples are invited to a wedding. And the wedding is going badly. In verse 3 we see that the wine has run out:
“When the wine was gone, Jesus mother said to Him, 'They have no more wine'.”
Now immediately that suggests something about Jesus. Why would Mary tell Jesus the wine has run out. Clearly, she expects Him to be able to do something. In verse 5 she tells the servants; "Do whatever He tells you.”
So we don’t know whether or not He’s done a miracle like this before, but obviously she knows He’s got unusual power.
And yet Jesus seems upset by this request. Look at verse 4:
“'Dear woman, why do you involve me?' Jesus replied. 'My time has not yet come'.”
Now the NIV and some other translations just don’t seem comfortable with what Jesus actually says here. They add the worddear. Literally Jesusdoesn’tsay: “dearwoman why do you involve me?”
He doesn’t say, "Mother".
Those would all be respectable ways of talking to your mom.
But instead Jesus literally says: “Woman” why do you involve me?
And that’s abrupt. I wonder if you've ever spoken to your mom like that? “Woman”
Its sharp and its abrupt. Its almost as if Jesus is angered here. He’s troubled.
And so we need to understand why Jesus is so troubled by this request?
You can see the reason Jesus gives in verse 4:
“Woman, why do you involve me? Mytimehas not yet come.”
Now for many years I read this verse and I assumed that Jesus was talking about miracles. In other words; 'Don’t involve me in this problem. Its not yet my time to do a miracle. It’s not yet time to go public and to start gathering followers.'
That’s what I used to think. But I’ve changed my mind.
Surely that’snotwhat Jesus is saying, because immediately afterwards, what does He do? He does the miracle.
If Jesus was talking about a miracle, surely he wouldn’t have done it.
And so Jesus must talking about something different. And you can see what it is if you look at the word for "time". The Greek word for time is literally “hour”.
And that’s a very significant word in John’s gospel. It comes up over and over again. And each time it’s a reference to His death.
John 7v30 – the Jews try to seize Jesus but they can’t because His hour hasn’t come.
Same thing inJohn 8v20.
Now look at John 12 verse 23. This is just before Jesus is about to die and He realizes the hour has arrived:
“Jesus replied, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground anddiesit remains only a single seed. Butifitdies, it produces many seeds.”
Verse 27:
“Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father save me from this hour?' No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your Name!”
And so you see, this is the hour of Jesus. It’s a troubling hour. It’s the hour of His death.
But now the question is: Why does Jesus think about His hour? His mom’s simply asked Him to provide wine? That’s not threatening or dangerous. Why does He think of His death?
Well you need to put yourself in Jesus’ shoes here. Imagine you're an unmarried man. And by the way Jesus is already 30 years old. In that culture, probably most of your friends are already married. And so as one of the older bachelors, you get invited to a wedding. What’s going on in the back of his mind? Especially if your mother is there. You’ve come with your mother.
Surely at the back of your mind and your mother’s mind is your own wedding. When areyougoing to get married?Willyou get married?Whowill you marry? Those are the questions going through your mind?
And I think that’sexactlywhat’s going on here. Jesus is thinking of His wedding.And that becomes even clearer when we consider what Mary’s asking. She’s asking Him to provide the wine.
And I’m not sure who’s responsibility that isnowadays. It seems to be different at different weddings. But inthosedays, as we can see from verse 9, the responsibility lay with thegroom.Thegroomprovided wine for his wedding.
And so again, Mary asksJesusto provide the wine, what’s going through His mind? The day whenHewill be groom… and provide wine for Hisownwedding.
Now we can start putting the pieces together. Jesus is thinking about His wedding, He’s thinking about His bride.But for Jesus that’s a troubling thought.
You see throughout the OT the bride of God is Israel. And over and over again we see how Israel has been unfaithful to Him. They’ve rejected Him. They’ve run away.Jesus knows, the only way He can marry His bride is if She’s washed with His blood.
And if you are still not convinced, if you think we are reading too much into this, just look at verse 6.
Notice thekindof water jars that Jesus uses:
“Nearby stood six stone water jars, thekindused by the Jews forceremonial washing”
Now, as we’ve said, John’s veryselectivein his material. He only includes themostimportant details.And so this isn’t just random info. It’s significant. John wants us to know. These jars were used for ceremonial washing.
And ceremonial washing was a symbolic ritual in the OT. It was an outward symbol highlighting sin, reminding the people that theyneedto be washed, that they canonlyapproach God if their sins are washed away.
And so Jesus specifically chooses these water jars to highlight this point. The only wayHiswedding can take place is through the washing of His bride.
On the screen is a famous painting of this event entitled The Wedding at Cana. It was painted in the 16 hundreds by Paolo Veronese. It hangs at the LouveMuseum in Paris. It's an enormous painting, about 7m by 10m and weighing about 1.5 tons.
And it’s actually very clever. It gets right to the heart of this passage. Firstly because ofwhereJesus isseated. He’s seated right at the centre of the table. Strictly speaking, the scholars point out, that’s where the bridegroom should be seated. But the artist putsJesusin the seat of the bridegroom.
Secondly, the artist puts two very significant details directly above Jesus’ and directly below Jesus. I don't know if you can make it out, but directly above Jesus there’s a man with a raised knife, busy slaughtering an animal (probably a lamb). That’s directly above Jesus’ head.
And then directly below Jesus, between two musicians, there’s an hour glass.
And so in perfect symmetry; directly above and directly below, you've got these key symbols.
It’s a very clever painting. Jesus is in the seat of the bridegroom. But in order for Him tohaveHis bride, His hour is coming when He’ll be sacrificed like a Lamb.
That’s what this miracle is all about. It’s a pointer to the wedding of Jesus
I hope you can now see why John chooses this sign. And he uses it to launch Jesus’ ministry.He’s announcing: the bridegroom has arrived!
And that becomes even clearer one chapter later in John 3 verse 26. Some people come to John the Baptist and say something like; "Hey John, you used to be the great prophet. Everyone was following you. But now they are following Jesus. Doesn’t that bother you?" And John replies; "No. that’s exactly whatshouldhappen. The bride is for the bridegroom. I’m just the best man. Jesus is the groom!"
So I want us to take a few moments to let this sink in. If you've got a relationship with Jesus, do you realize what this says aboutyou?
Whenever the Bible describes God in a certain way, it is always also saying something about us.
So if Jesus is the King. Then we are… His subjects.
If Jesus is our shepherd. Then we are… His sheep.
If God is our Father. Then we are… his children.
And if Jesus is ourgroom. Then we are His bride.
I asked you earlier to describe your relationship to God. How do you relate to Him?
Do you just relate to Him as a master who must be respected and obeyed?
Or do you just relate to Him as a King who must be honoured and feared?
Or maybe He’s more intimate to you. You think of Him as Your shepherd. He leads and guides you in your life.
Those are all beautiful images.
But none of them capture this same intimacy. Jesus is your groom.
A master might not delight in His slave.
A king might not delight in his subjects.
A shepherd might delight in his sheep.
But surely a groom delights in his bride.
It’s a universal custom in weddings that the bridegroom doesn’t get to see the bride. All day she gets beautifully dressed and prepared for that moment when she enters the ceremony. When she walks down the aisle it is all designed to take the groom's breath away, to stun him, to move him to tears. And to fill Him with delight in His bride.
Can you believe that’s how Jesus describes our relationship? He delights in us. Not because of ourownbeauty. Not because of ourownrighteousness. But because we’ve been washed by His blood.
So that’s Who Jesus is. He’s the bridegroom.
2)Now secondly look at what He provides. Verses 7-10.
It’s not hard to see. He turns water into wine.
Maybe this is a stumbling block for you. Maybe you consider yourself to be a scientist and you find this veryunscientific. Water is one of the most stable compounds. In other words it’s very hard forwaterto change its form.
In fact, this last week I found a glass of water under the podium here. I don’t know how long its been there. I don't know who put it there. I didn’t want to taste it. But you know, it still looked like water. It hadn’t changed its colour. It hadn’t changed its smell. It was still water.
Just compare that to leaving a glass of milk outside for a month. It would definitely change… into something not very nice.
Water’s different. It doesn’t change easily.
And so some people dismiss this as unscientific. It couldn’t have happened.
But let me challenge you. Don’t confuse science with an atheistic worldview. Of course, if thereisn’ta God, then it’s impossible for this to have happened.
But if there’s a God, Who created everything, then surely this is what you’d expect Him to be able to do. There’s nothing unscientific about a Creator altering the rules of His creation.
And so that’s what you’d expect from someone like Jesus. If He’s claiming to be God. Then surely He needs to be able to do things like this. Otherwise you’d want to question His claim.
So Jesus turns water into wine.And it’s not just a little bit of wine. Notice the quantity in verse 6.It's six jars, each holding between 75 and 115 litres. I’ve done the maths. You are looking at between 450 and 690 litres. That’s just under a thousand standard bottles of wine.
That’s too much to drink. Its abundant wine.
And it’s not just a greatquantity. It’s also the bestquality.
Look at verse 8:
“Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He didn’t realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best until now.”
In other words this is the best quality wine. The master of the banquet is a professional. He is used to tasting good wine. He knows good wine when he tastes it.