Epiphany 2 2007
Isaiah 62:1-51 Corinthians 12:1-11
John 2:1-11
Wedding Feast/Marriage Preparation
Just this past Friday I presided at a wedding here. In the lead up to it, I’d met with the couple several times for wedding preparation. Although I often find myself totally unqualified to impart any great wisdom, I did share this with the couple. A older friend said to me the night before my wedding, “Just remember, Sam, tomorrow you enter husband school. And by the way, you’ll never graduate.” I think the important thing is being committed to staying in school. And as you grow into it, marriage becomes the wonderful gift that it is.The wedding liturgy reminds us that weddings and indeed marriages are signs, albeit sometimes imperfect ones, of the marriage of the Christian, of the Church, to Christ, to God. And Jesus frequently used the image of a wedding feast to describe the joy and celebration of the time when we will be truly and fully with our Lord. Jews would know that Isaiah and Hosea and the Song of Songs spoke metaphorically of God’s being the husband of his chosen people, Israel. Such was the intimacy of the relationship, or so it was supposed to be. So is it any surprise that the first miracle (or sign as John calls them) that Jesus does is at a wedding?Jesus was a bit of a party animal. He enjoyed banquets and feasts. Even with the most unlikely people. And there, we see a demonstration of the generosity of God, the love that covers over a multitude of major sins and minor social gaffes – like not having enough wine for the guests at your wedding reception.A wedding feast could go for several days, and running out of wine was a serious faux pas. Jesus was sensitive to such a thing such that, despite apparently dismissing his mother’s urgings, he allows it to become ‘his time’. Jesus knows that as soon as he shows who he is, the wheels will be set in motion towards his death. But he goes ahead with his sign, even though it will get the rumor mill going. All because he is sensitive to a bridegroom’s slip-up. Incredibly touching, I feel.This first sign in John’s book of signs is at a wedding on purpose. The bridegroom is there, and he will help another, earthly bridegroom. In the process, Jesus shows his disciples a little something about the nature of God.Six huge stone jars or cisterns, practically barrels, were there. They were used for ceremonial washing. 6 is the number one short of completeness. The Jewish rituals and even John the Baptist’s baptism of repentance were not enough, people still needed to be baptized into the Spirit. Cleaning the exterior is never enough. We need washing inside and out. And we also need sustaining. We need to drink in the Spirit, as it were, to enjoy New Life. John’s Gospel lacks the Last Supper, but here may be another way of alluding to it. The Last Supper is a banquet too, but there the wine is drunk not only in the joy of celebrating a friendship, as we and Jesus do at parties, like this wedding. Wine also speaks of sacrifice, of his blood spilt for us. Both aspects of wine show how we are freed and saved better by this great feast of love and sacrifice than by a mere ceremonial washing. But we must accept the invitation to the feast.Jesus does not just provide a little wine at Cana. 6 jars, 20 – 30 gallons a piece. 120 to 180 gallons altogether. That’s like 60 to 90 cases! The Lord’s generosity is enough for all. It is simply beyond our comprehension. What a party.10 “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 till now,” the master of ceremonies tells the clueless earthly bridegroom. But the disciples know better or more deeply: the last will be first and the first will be last in the kingdom. Moreover: Jesus’ own last act is the greatest and sweetest, better even than all the signs that point to it.11 This (we are told), the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. But (it goes on) He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.And they and we only begin to understand what the wine and the wedding would come to mean.So to sum up:All of life is marriage preparation. (Even our own marriages are marriage preparation for the great one with Jesus.)We are invited to the wedding feast. We should accept the invitation. The party will be beyond our greatest dreams.There may be a lot of guests we hadn’t expected at the wedding. There may be a lot more wine than we expected. The more the merrier. Church even gives us a foretaste of that. Here we who are individually weak and needy, but each gifted in our own way, are drawn together with others. Together we are more complete than we are apart. (1 Cor 12)Our job as servants, is simple. Servant= διακονος. See verse 5: 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Sometimes that will involve finding other people or even jars for the banquet (and, figuratively, we are all vessels, perhaps dirty inside, perhaps washed out; perhaps this even describe a church or two). But the servants can helping fill vessels with God’s cleansing life-giving fluid. But get ready to be surprised, stand back and marvel, because the Lord may then fill these vessels to overflowing with wondrous things. To his glory and our salvation. Amen.
Any questions? Contact:
The Chaplain, Revd Sam Van Leer, 026 495 0620,
