I don’t know how
many times I’ve heard things along the lines of, “Why do bad things happen to
good people?” Or people being worried
about the destruction of storms, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Pain and destruction are real and they are
overwhelming.
But so is joy,
happiness, and abundance. We do well to
remember those times in life too. Our
gospel reading today is all about that experience. It’s the famous miracle where Jesus turns
water into wine. But he doesn’t turn
just a little bit of water into wine the quality of Wild Irish Rose. This is lots and lots of water turned into
lots and lots of excellent wine! If this
miracle makes no sense to you then you’re actually on the right path to
understanding it.
First, this is
the first miracle Jesus performs in John’s gospel. We’re only in Chapter 2. And it’s no mistake that John puts it here –
God incarnate, as Jesus and his inaugural act.
This may not be the best example to explain this, but have you ever had
a new puppy? When you get home from work
your puppy greets you at the door; all full of excitement at your return and
enthusiasm. The puppy twists and wiggles
in delight. His or her tail whips around
almost violently. He or she will jump up
and try to lick your face. All is
excitement and joy. It’s not uncommon
for a new puppy to be so overwhelmed with excitement that it pees on the floor. That’ll probably change your mood pretty
fast, but you get the idea of unbridled delight.
John’s gospel
starts with the words, “In the beginning was the Word…” Those are the same words that start Genesis
and you realize he is tying the story of Jesus into the story of creation. The story in Genesis starts off great but
doesn’t stay great for long. Humans
enjoy life with God in the Garden of Eden, but then they sin. They get kicked out and God becomes more
distant.
But now, in
Jesus, God is back. The garden of
creation is still a mess from humans but God’s come back anyway. And it is as if creation is a little puppy
wagging and wiggling with delight at seeing God. I know molecules don’t have feelings but I
imagine the water molecules in those stone jars so thrilled and delighted at
being reunited with their creator that they can’t help but jump into the finest
and most excellent thing they can possibly be – excellent wine.
John’s gospel
wants us to think about creation and the Garden of Eden all the way
through. Of the four gospels John’s
gospel notes something specific about the location of Jesus’ tomb. It’s in a garden. Where does Jesus go to pray when he is
arrested? In Matthew and Mark it’s a
place called Gethsemane, and it’s hinted that it’s on or near the Mount of
Olives. John, however, doesn’t say Gethsemane. He just says Jesus goes across the Kidron
Valley (which takes you to the Mount of Olives) to a garden. You see the whole idea of the Garden of
Gethsemane is a conflation of the gospel accounts.
Anyway, the
stories easily synchronize. There’s no
way to archeologically verify the location of any of it, but you know well
enterprising people have created the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of
Olives and have set up souvenir shops in it!
And when Mary
Magdalene meets the resurrected Jesus by the garden tomb, who does she mistake
Jesus for? The gardener.
As John’s gospel
portrays it it’s almost as if God’s an obsessive gardener: Garden of Eden,
prayer in the garden, tomb in the garden, resurrection in the garden, Jesus
mistaken for the gardener.
The garden of
creation is rejoicing to have God back.
That’s what’s going on behind turning water into wine. It is a celebration of excellence. It is a celebration of abundance. It is a celebration between God, creation,
and humans. It is about the unexpected,
about something new.
Commentator Gail
O’Day notes, “…the miracle challenges conventional assumptions about order and
control, about that is possible, about where God is found and how God is
known… Jesus works an unprecedented act,
the transformation of many gallons of water into good, rich wine. It is a miracle of abundance, of
transformation and new possibilities.
The grace the miracle offers and the glimpse of Jesus’ glory it provides
run outside conventional expectations and place the reader at odds with how he
or she thought the world was ordered.
The interpretive task is not to put this miracle in a framework in which
it “makes sense” but to free the faith community to receive the extraordinary
gifts this miracle offers.” (New
Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 9, pg. 540)
Let’s note two
details about the text itself. One, the
six stone water jars. These would not be
ordinary clay pots for ordinary duty.
Stone water jars took a lot of work to create and they were
valuable. We’re told these were used to
hold water for purification. Thus they
had a holy purpose. They weren’t
Rubbermaid containers bought at Walmart.
They were like our own communion ware.
These jars stood
empty, waiting to be filled. And they
were filled with a wondrous new gift.
What was made for a holy purpose of purification rituals has been
transformed by God into vessels for celebration.
We do well not to
confine God to only somber prim and proper things. We need to remember that God enjoys a good
laugh, God likes to have fun. In fact
God likes to take delight in us and in our lives.
And with all of
this, let’s note a second thing about the text, the way Jesus’ mother
acts. John’s gospel never gives a name
to Jesus’ mother; he never calls her Mary.
Instead she is just Jesus’ mother.
Like many mothers, when she sees a problem she is all too quick to
volunteer her child to save the day.
Jesus replies to her request that he do something, “Woman, what concern
is that to you and to me? My hour has
not yet come.” He’s not being
disrespectful here when he calls her “woman.”
Commentators suggest it is simply creating a distance between himself
and his mother. He’s not going to change
his life course or give preference to something because his mother asks him.
And like many a
good mother when her child says no, she completely ignores him and says, “Do
whatever he tells you.” There’s
something really significant there and let’s not overlook it.
When Mary says,
“Do whatever he tells you.” she is showing that she hasn’t given up. She knows full well that her son can do
something about the situation. However,
she puts it all in Jesus’ hands. She
does not tell him to turn water into wine.
Filling the stone jars was Jesus’ idea.
Mary trusts that Jesus will act, and allows him to act in whatever way
he deems best.
That is an
incredible show of faith and trust. I
think that all too often we ask God for help and we don’t realize that we have
all sorts of conditions and expectations along with it. It’s best to just raise an issue to God in
prayer and then trust that God will do something about it; in God’s own time
and in God’s own way.
But be ready for
the unexpected. This is Jesus first
sign, his first miracle. It is glorious
and wonderful. But at the end of the
gospel we find a greater and more glorious thing. It’s not the resurrection. It’s the crucifixion. John’s gospel sees Jesus at his most glorious
on the cross. So when you truly turn
things over to God be truly ready to not have even the faintest clue of what to
expect. God will work as God knows best.
Jesus will go on
to perform many miraculous signs.
Changing water into wine is the first and truly the most
extravagant. Know that no matter how
hard or black life begins to look, God has such extravagance in store for us
for eternal life. It will be beyond all
reason, all logic, and all sense of propriety.
But God is not bound by the rules we place upon him. It is God’s good will to be gracious to us,
we who do not deserve it. Let us rejoice
that no matter what comes our way, God has something great in store.
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