e-vo for week of January 16

Dearest e-votees-

I will be out of the office for a preaching conference until Thursday so this is an early dispatch of this week’s devotion.

May your week be blessed with epiphanies of God’s generosity, grace and goodness.

Peace,
Karl

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1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." 4 And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." 5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." 6 Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. 8 He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it. 9 When 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 bridegroom 10 and 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." 11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

John 2:1-11, NRSV

Jesus, mom and his disciples are at a wedding. The wine runs out and Mary decides to lean on Jesus to have him help.

Given that Jesus hasn’t performed any signs up until this point it is interesting to speculate what Mary exactly expected Jesus to do. Was this her timing or the timing of the Holy Spirit?

Jesus protests but steps into action. He tells the servants to fill jars with water. There are 6 which in total hold 120 to 180 gallons of water. To this day if you go to Jerusalem there are jars of this sort to be found. At one location called the “Burnt House”, which was torched during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, you can see such jars up against the back wall. These were apparently used for some sort of ritual cleansing according to Jewish rites. The servants, unlike Jesus, spring into action without protest to either Mary or Jesus. Jesus tells them to take water to the chief steward. It is not clear whether the servants thought they were taking water or knew they were taking wine. Either way their lack of recorded reaction is noteworthy. Either case seems as it would arouse response.

The steward offers praises to the bridegroom for saving the choice wine until last. Jesus seems to lay low. Scripture is not clear about who knew when about Jesus’ miracle save that the disciples knew and believed him.

So many of the miracles and signs of Jesus that are recorded in scripture are centered around healing and deliverance. This miracle seems of a different sort. Jesus ensured that the celebration of this very human institution of a wedding went along without a hitch. Could it be that God is concerned not just with ultimate healings and deliverances but even with bringing joy and delight to others in very human circumstance? It seems to be so. Perhaps some of our views of Jesus as gaunt and stern and stoic could use some reimagining. Jesus had a reputation of being a drunkard and a glutton. Perhaps that was merely by association. Perhaps, thought, it reflected that he would, when appropriate, enter into human celebration.

For God so loved the world that God came into the world. God lived among God’s people for years (good times and bad; celebrations and times of grief) before facing the cross. God became one of us. And God continues to make God’s self known in water (turned to wine or not), bread, wine and in scripture. Our best efforts pale in comparison to the “good wine” that is yet to come. May we believe and drink deeply of all that God has in store for us.


God, thank you for gladdening the wedding at Cana. Gladden our days and bring us at last to that wedding feast that has no end. Amen.