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May 07, 2006
The Sign of Joy and Sorrow
Amos 9: 11-15
John 2: 1-11
May 7th, 2006
Over the course of my short life I’ve discovered very different attitudes toward wine out there. I grew up thinking wine was a liquid that virtually bubbled up from hell; an agent of the devil. “Wine is treacherous,” the prophet Habakkuk wrote. But for the life of me I couldn’t figure out its treachery after tasting it once as a child. Give me my daily dose of shark’s liver oil any day!
I grew up not knowing what to do with the 104th Psalm’s statement that God gave wine to make the heart glad—and oil to make the face shine. Both were odd blessings. Wine was yuk! and I watched my mother take a little round case out of her purse to put powder on her face to keep it from shining. Who would put oil on her face? The blessing of wine was explained: it was just “good” unfermented grape juice, not “good” in the way Nappa Valley means “good.”
Well, with all this as a background, it was awkward to know what to do with Jesus’ first miracle. Jesus turned water into wine. How could Jesus make this mocking drink, this disgusting, treacherous beverage that has been the downfall of so many people? Well, God had very good reasons. And it was real wine—fermented—the kind that would burst old wineskins.
We read from the prophet Amos this morning of a time when God would raise up the booth of David, that is, rebuild Jerusalem after it was destroyed. In that happy day “the one who treads grapes will overtake the one planting grape vines.” That means the supply of grapes won’t be able to keep up with the need for wine to celebrate the joy of God’s restoration of His people.
And then there was the last supper which we will commemorate this morning, in which Jesus used wine as the sign of the most precious gift He had to offer, His very life’s blood shed for the sins of the world.
But wine at the Lord’s final Supper was a mixed symbol. First it was the good dinner beverage at the close of the day. But then Jesus used it as a symbol of sorrow. How puzzled they were to hear Jesus say it was His blood soon to be shed. Then at the conclusion of that last meal with His disciples Jesus said, “I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my father’s kingdom.” So wine ended up as a sign of joy yet to come.
Turning water into wine was Jesus first “sign” in the Gospel of John. This was so clearly a joyous sign. Why did John call this a sign and not a miracle? Because it points us toward something beyond the water turned into wine. A miracle makes us momentarily amazed. A sign tells us to look beyond the moment to something more. A stop sign is not just a pretty red shape. It says STOP!! Let me refresh you on the story of Jesus’ first sign. Let’s look at a few of the details closely.
On the third day there was a marriage at Cana, a town near the Sea of Galilee. What does John mean in saying, “The third day?” Three times before this we read, “The next day,” which suggests that Jesus’ first sign took place on the fifth day.
I wonder if John writes, “On the third day” because the first two “days” didn’t refer to a sequence of three actual days in Jesus’ life—since He obviously was born more than three days before this. Instead, John is telling us of three significant moments in the relationship of the Son of God to the world He came to save.
The first “day” refers to when “He was in the beginning with God and was God (1: 1).” The second day was when He specifically identified Himself with sinners at His baptism. The third day was when Jesus first revealed His glory at this wedding feast.
In the Book of Exodus God revealed Himself to Israel on Mt. Sinai “on the third day” after telling Moses to have the people get ready. On the morning of that third day, “there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain. It was a frightening event. The people were afraid and trembled and stood afar off. They asked Moses to speak to them, and not God, because they were afraid if God spoke to them they would die.
On that first “third day,” God showed His glory fearfully on Mt. Sinai. At the end of our story of Jesus turning the water into wine ”on the third day,” John tells us, “This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory.” Do you see a connection in this?
This Gospel starts by telling us of Jesus, “In the beginning was the Word,” but this Word was different from the word God gave through Moses. The word given through Moses was the law. In the Hebrew form of Exodus 20; the Ten Commandments are called ten words. The word given in Jesus was full of grace and truth. This is part of what we are to see in this story. The third day was a clue that God was about to show His glory. But how different God’s glory looked at Cana of Galilee from Mt. Sinai.
Let us still look at Jesus with awe and wonder—though not with fright.
Second, I remind you that Jesus’ first sign took place in a time that the host of a wedding feast was very embarrassed. The wine had run out. I have read there was a custom then for wedding guests to bring wine with them, but Jesus and His disciples were poor and didn’t have any wine to bring. This is why Mary told Jesus they had run out of wine. In effect, “It’s our fault.”
Remember, John tells us this was Jesus’ first sign; that is, Mary had not before seen her Son miraculously take care of a problem. But she had pondered many things in her heart from before Jesus’ birth. And she remembered His name was “Jesus, “ or Yeshuah, which means “The Lord delivers.”
Many people come to Jesus out of a feeling of need. In fact, those who come to Jesus without a sense of need don’t really think they need Him at all. In Jesus’ day the most religious people thought they didn’t need him. It was the poor, the needy who came to Him. So at this early dramatic moment Mary understood that if there was to be any deliverance, any supply of the need it had to come from Him, the present need was obvious…wine.
But this shortage of wine that made the host embarrassed was not the kind of need that was most important of all—hardly the kind of need that made the Son of God come in human form. If people had left that feast not having drunk as much wine as they were accustomed to drinking at a wedding reception, they would have gotten over it. Maybe for a while there would have been some gossip about the inadequate supply of wine. When the bride and groom were old they’d think back with a chuckle to when Uncle Levi didn’t get as drunk as he expected to at their wedding. But it was not a major need when seen on the grand scale.
So when Jesus replied to His mother’s request that He do something about the problem, “Woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come,” he at first seems to be saying, “This is not the kind of need I came to help.”
I see the apparent tension between Mary, Jesus’ mother, whom He refers to politely as “woman,” ishah, in light of the Hebrew word in Genesis that Adam used to refer to the mother of the human race. Adam called her first ishah —which means “woman.” Later he named her, Eve (havah Gen. 3: 20) a name that looks like the Hebrew word for “living” (hayah).
We might think of Eve, the first woman, the first mother looking out for the needs of her sons, Cain, Able, and then Seth. When they were hungry they needed food right then--for breakfast, lunch, or supper. And Eve would look to God and say, “They’re hungry, Lord.” And God would feed them food as He does all His creatures.
When this second Eve, Mary, came to Jesus to supply a momentary need He had to tell her, “Ishah, it’s a whole new ball game now.”
Jesus came to supply life’s deepest need rather than just the momentary apparent need. Some “needs” we don’t really need. We can get by very well without them. But there was something Jesus would supply on another “third day” that we really need. This need is to be saved from sin and death. This He supplied on another “third day” after He was crucified.
But now, at this wedding feast it was a third day of ordinary need. It was a day in which Jesus would bring deliverance to the very ordinary predicament of a host of a wedding feast. And so Jesus told the waiters to fill six stone jars standing by with water. Stone jars were associated with purity, by contrast with jars made of clay. These stone jars probably had been full of water to wash the hands of dinner guests before they ate and drank. But now they were empty, ready to be filled again.
It was only a temporary need, but Jesus lets us know in this first sign that He cares for temporary needs as well as for our need of salvation and eternal life. He would teach His disciples to pray, “Give us today our daily bread.” And his mother here asks Jesus, “Give us today our present need.”
Ever after people have found themselves praying, “Help me, Jesus” in all sorts of trials. In danger, “Help me, Jesus.” In sadness, “Help me, Jesus.” In humiliation, “Help me, Jesus.” “Give us today our daily need.” The first sign Jesus did teaches us, “I came to bring life and life more abundant” not just in the hereafter, but also now.
Third, it seems clear to me that we are to see the significance of the good wine, the best wine that Jesus supplied at the end of the wedding feast. It reminds me of what I mentioned in the last Faith Family News about the kind of ointment the woman put on Jesus’ feet at the dinner to which she came uninvited. It was expensive ointment; it was the most fragrant ointment; it was the best she could buy. It was a gift befitting God offered out of a heart filled with love.
And here we see the Son of God making a gift to people of the very best wine—out of a heart full of love. It was better than money could buy. This was a sign of God’s generosity. This generosity cut two ways.
First, at the moment it made everyone glad who drank it. Second, it pointed to a time beyond time when we will be invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb.
At the moment, when Jesus turned the water into wine the waiters had no idea how good the wine was that they took around to fill the empty glasses. But they soon saw how good it was from the look on peoples’ faces. People who sat around may have seen what was going on: the lack of wine; Mary whispering to Jesus and the look on His face as He replied; the waiters busily filling the six stone jars. They were curious when the waiters brought to them this final wine of the feast. What would it be like, so oddly made? When they tasted it, did they look at Jesus with amazement?
I remember the 65th Psalm in which David remembers God’s supply. “Thou visitest the earth and waterest it, thou greatly enrichest it . . . Thou crownest the year with thy bounty.” The delight of this psalm is not just in the things that God gives, but also in the realization that it is God who gives everything.
If you and I in the course of life look to God as the wedding guests looked at the One whom they saw change that water into the best of wines, and live with gratitude to Him for His supply of our daily need, we are on to an abundant way of life. Remarkably, whether we are poor or rich, when we see what we have as God’s daily supply, what a rich perspective it puts on life. “A cheerful heart has a continual feast,” we read in the Book of Proverbs. This is true of rich or poor. One reason why the Bible so often says good things about the poor is because the poor are in a position to realize their need of God’s supply. Jesus at this feast showed God’s supply.
But second, and in conclusion, when Jesus turned the water into wine, He turned it into the beverage that at the last He would say, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
I don’t know what to make of the fact that John does not tell of the Last Supper as do Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Instead John tells of the last meal Jesus had with His disciples when the central and most noticeable act was Jesus’ washing the feet of His disciples. He told them to do this to each other, as in the other Gospels Jesus tells His disciples to remember His death until He come by the breaking of bread and drinking of wine together in the Eucharist.
Maybe John wants us to see how from the very start of His ministry, Jesus was pointing to the pouring out of the most excellent wine of all—his red blood poured out in love for our sakes. He didn’t need to give Jesus’ explanation of this in a final meal. It had already been displayed at a wedding feast.
How very much our happiness in life depends on how we look at it. Some of us tend to see through dark glasses. Even a sunny day can look gray if the glasses are dark enough. I wonder if Jesus’ first sign—not miracle, but sign—took place at a wedding feast because we need to see Him in both these ways. “Give us this day our daily bread,” as well as, “Lord, give me eternal life.” We say we “believe” in Him. Faith is essentially looking at life through lenses Jesus gives trust.
Some of us are better off than others, but how soon a rich person may discover herself penniless. Our paper assets easily burn. Each of us is equally weak at the moment of death. But if we trust in Jesus and look at life in that sense of trust in Him, we have all that we need—and that’s quite enough.
I began noticing how wine is a sign of joy and sorrow. It may intoxicate to the point of stupefaction. It may also bring a sense of joy. This is God’s intent. But the color red reminds us of suffering too, not just as in the suffering of Jesus for our sake, but the suffering that wine may bring. God mysteriously weaves together joy and sorrow in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
As we take the Lord’s Supper this morning, let us remember with gratitude God’s supply of our daily need—and that it is indeed God who provides this supply; and let us remember that God has cared for our far greater need which we associate usually with life’s end. It is God’s intent for us to live and to face death remembering that on “the third day” He has cared for all our need.
Let us pray: O Lord God, we thank you that You have graciously supplied all that we need, in life and in death. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Pastor Stuart D. Robertson
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at May 7, 2006 09:30 AM