"What's It To Me?!"

(Scripture:  Isaiah 62:1-5; I Corinthians 12:1-11;  John 2:1-11)

Today’s Gospel reading tells us, if nothing else, that Jesus was not afraid to have a good time.  It’s a very human story, reminding us that Jesus had family and friends, and got invited to parties.  And in this party, when the wine runs out, Jesus the guest turns out to be Jesus the unseen host.

 

Cana was a small village, far from the bustling city, and so what we have here is a snapshot of a country wedding.  Daily life was difficult,  and “rite of passage” moments such as a wedding would provide the village with a festive change of pace, a relief from the day-to-day routine.   Likely the whole extended families of the bride and groom, along with much of the village would have been invited.  The feasting would have gone on for days, to allow time for distant guests to make the journey out to Cana.   It goes without saying that one’s wedding day would be perhaps the most memorable time of one’s life.  Given that people would have traveled significant distances on foot to get there, I think we can intuitively get some sense of the embarrassment of the host family, that the wine had run out – they couldn’t just run out to the state store to pick up a few bottles.

 

Mary picks up on what’s happening and tells Jesus, “They have no wine.”  And, to our ears, Jesus basically comes across as an obnoxious jerk when he responds, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.”  First of all, Jesus addressing his mother as “woman”, to us, sounds just plain rude – apparently in that culture it wouldn’t have been quite as offputting as it is to us, though it’s notable that Jesus doesn’t address Mary as “mother”.   Then Jesus basically says, “Hey, not my problem!”   And then Jesus says those mysterious words “My hour has not yet come.” 

One of the recurring themes in John’s Gospel is Jesus’ hour of glorification – which is a reference to the crucifixion, when Jesus is lifted up, drawing all unto himself, and the resurrection.  Twice in John’s gospel, we’re told that the religious leaders wanted to arrest Jesus, but they didn’t do so, because his hour had not yet come – the same phrase we hear Jesus use today.   For John and his community, it was important to state that Jesus was in control at all times – he would come to the aid of the wedding party, but on his own terms, not because of his mother’s prompting.  And Mary seems to recognize this when she tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 

 And what he tells the servants to do is to fill up six stone water jars with water.  We’re told that each jar held twenty or thirty gallons – so we’re talking about 120 to 180 gallons of water – a huge amount.  And then Jesus tells the servants to draw some out and take it to the chief steward.  When the chief steward tasted the water that had become wine, he told the bridegroom, “Usually people serve the good wine first and then save the cheaper wine for later, but you’ve saved the best for last.”  Not only the best wine, but the most wine – from a situation of shortage Jesus provides abundance, more wine than they would have known what to do with.  And he does it secretly – while Mary and the servants know what’s going on, the chief steward, the bridal party, and the guests do not – and so Jesus is perfectly fine with letting the bridegroom take the credit for the wonderful wine that had been saved for last.  Jesus, the wedding guest, becomes Jesus, the secret host of the wedding party.

In Roman Catholic theology, this passage is a basis for addressing prayers to Mary.   As she did at the wedding feast, many call upon Mary to intercede with Jesus, to plead with Jesus to help us in our struggles.  As Protestants, while we respect Mary, our prayers are to Jesus.  And yet Mary remains a model for us, not standing by indifferently when there’s trouble, but asking Jesus for help – which is something we are called to do as well.

In some of the prophetic books of the Old Testament, wine is a sign of the coming of the reign of God – near the end of his book, Amos speaks of a time when “the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.”   So Jesus’ provision of wine not only speaks of God’s extravagant abundance, but of the reign of God where there will be enough for all.  And it speaks of a God concerned not only for big matters of life or death, but for something as small as the supply of wine at a wedding feast. 

 

While our lives are much easier than those of the country peasants who would have attended the wedding at Cana, for many of us, and for our neighbors, life is difficult.  For many of us, and many of our neighbors, not only has the wine run about, but along with the wine much else has run out - our groceries, our health insurance, our heat, our lights, our mortgages, our leases.   Many of us wish that running out of wine was the worst of our problems.
 

Jesus said that he came that we may have life, and life abundantly.  We look around at our situations and wonder if we have enough, let alone anything left over.  Prosperity preachers tell us that if we pray the right magic prayer – and especially if we mail in our love offerings – God will open the heavens and shower down blessings on us.  But I believe that the abundance of which Christ is available, not in isolation, but in community.  You may not have enough of one thing and I may not have enough of something else, but together there may be enough of both – enough and to spare for others.   In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus told his followers that there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for his sake and the sake of the kingdom, who will not receive a hundredfold in this age – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields – and in the age to come eternal life.  Our individualistic culture calls us to self-absorption – faced with someone else’s suffering, we’re tempted to say, “what’s it to me?”  But like the servants at the wedding feast, we should listen to the words of Mary, “Do whatever he tells us.”   Do whatever Jesus tells us, even if it’s as seemingly irrational as filling water jars in order to get more wine – to do whatever Jesus tells us, not only with our money, but with our time and talents, to help one another and our neighbors.  Paul’s writing to the church at Corinth reminds us that it is together that we are the body of Christ, each with various talents for building up the whole body.  In the church, no single person is called on to do everything, but we are all called to offer our gifts and talents.  And likewise, we should also be humble enough and teachable enough to receive the benefit of one another’s gifts and talents, allowing others to exercise their God-given gifts.  And in this way, we have gifts in abundance.

 

And on this Martin Luther King day weekend, we are reminded that God’s abundance is for all, not just for some, that the blessings of justice and peace are for all, not just for some.  Dr. King was one who did what Jesus told him to do, even when it meant putting himself in harm’s way, being arrested, eventually being murdered.  We are all guests at the great wedding banquet of God’s son.  To the extent that we try to bar others from the table, we ourselves will be cast into outer darkness – for it is God’s banquet, not our own.

 

And at this banquet, God saves the best for the end.  The turning of water to wine at Cana was Jesus’ first sign, but as significant as it was, it was nothing compared to the signs at the end of Jesus’ life, the raising of Lazarus, and his own resurrection.  In the same way, though God provides for our lives here on earth, when we meet God in the world to come, we will find that the best earth has to offer will not compare to being in God’s presence.  Amen.