Introduction
Last week I began by asking you a question. I’m going to do the same thing this week. I want to start by asking you a question about driving. It’s a really easy question to answer but it does help us in understanding our passage today: When driving, do you keep your eyes on the side of road to keep your eyes on all of the road signs or do you quickly get the meaning of the important signs and then turn your attention to what they’re pointing to? For instance, if you see a road sign indicating that a sharp turn is ahead, do you pay careful attention to the road or do you keep scanning the side of the road in case there are more important signs to be read? Of course, you pay attention to the road, because the sign tells you there’s a sharp turn ahead that you have to be aware of.
What is the significance of signs, then? Are they important in and of themselves? Are we to pay a lot of attention to the signs themselves? Or are we to be more concerned with where they are pointing us?
Just looking in the dictionary tells me that a sign is something that conveys information about something else. Many of the definitions of sign use the word symbol, and a symbol is something that represents or stands for something else. Signs convey the meaning and importance of something else. This is true of road signs, of signs and symbols used in mathematics, of any kind of sign. This is also true of biblical signs, and it is significant that “sign” is John’s word for “miracle.”
A Wedding Faux Pas
So here’s the occasion. It’s the day after Jesus calls his first disciples, and he has literally just begun his public ministry. He, his disciples, and members of his family, including his mother and brothers, are invited to a wedding. And of course they attend. Now, weddings in the Jewish tradition lasted seven days – an entire week! – and the bridegroom as the host was expected to provide enough food and wine for the whole seven days. Knowing how much work a wedding celebration is that lasts only a day or so, just so recently having been involved with Alisha’s brother’s wedding, I can’t even begin to imagine how much work it was to pull off a wedding like this one in Cana! And perhaps the bridegroom didn’t know much it took either, because they ran into a big problem at this wedding – they ran out of wine!
What we basically have is an example of first century Jewish math: The wine has run out plus an unfinished wedding celebration equals a major breach of social etiquette. In Jesus’ time running out of wine at a wedding celebration was considered a major social faux pas – a definite no-no – and the host would be the butt of jokes for years to come. Being in Alisha’s family I know what it’s like to be the butt of a joke.
You can be sure, then, as you read this story that this embarrassing situation is going to haunt the bridegroom for years to come unless something is done to fix it. Have you ever been to a wedding celebration where something embarrassing has happened, something that reflected poorly on those who prepared the reception? That is what’s happening here in our story. What happens next?
“They have no wine.”
Well, Jesus’ mother, Mary, is also present at the wedding, and when she learns that they have run out of wine she approaches Jesus. This is the Gospel of John’s first mention of Jesus’ mother and this story provides us with some evidence that Mary perhaps knows of Jesus’ power and identity. We definitely know from the other Gospels that Mary had a habit of pondering things about her son quite deeply.
But Jesus does not, it seems, respond positively to his mother’s implicit request. What does he say? He says, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?” Another translation says, “Woman, what do I have to do with you?” Now before I get into the actual main point of the story, I want to talk about Jesus’ conversation with his mother here, because it can be easy to misunderstand. Some people might say Jesus is showing a lack of respect for his mother here, and that he is being harsh with her. Is this true?
The fact is that Jesus often addressed women by saying “woman.” Now it was unusual in Jesus’ day to use this form of address when speaking with one’s mother, but it seems Jesus does this to play down their familial relation. It calls to mind Jesus’ saying, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Rather than be seen as rude, it was Jesus way of distancing himself from his family connection.
Jesus’ response to Mary tells us also that Jesus is not controlled by anyone – the will to which he is subject is the will of the Father. Not even his mother has a privileged claim on him. Jesus’ actions will be governed by the hour set by God and not anyone else’s time and will. And we should also note that Mary’s response reflects the humility and character that she exhibited 30 years before when first approached by the angel Gabriel and she spoke the words, “Let it be with me according to your word.” Here she says, “Do whatever he tells you.”
The Significance of Miracles
So we next see Jesus – of his own volition – choosing to do something about the wine. What does he do? He has the servants fill the six stone water jars, normally used for Jewish purification rites, and once they have filled them to the brim, orders them to draw it out and bring it to the chief steward. At what precise moment the miracle occurs, we are not told, but once it reaches the chief steward the water has transformed into wine. The steward, seemingly ignorant of what has happened, congratulates the bridegroom for saving the superior wine until this point in the wedding festivities. The servants appear to know what has taken place, but only the disciples believe in Jesus as a result.
I once heard a story about an alcoholic who became a believer, and he was asked how he could possibly believe all the nonsense in the Bible about miracles. Someone asked him, “You don’t believe that Jesus changed the water into wine do you?” “I sure do,” the man said, “because in our house Jesus changed the whiskey into furniture.”
Have you ever asked God to show you a sign? You thought to yourself, if only God would show some kind of miraculous sign, I would find it easier to believe. I would believe! No longer would I doubt. My faith would be stronger. I know that I have felt this way. Maybe it’s a moment of weakness, and you just want to confirm His truth and His existence in a powerful way. Maybe you’ve seen some of those healers and preachers on television who seem to be able to work miracles and wonders almost on cue.
Here in our story only the disciples believed in Jesus because of the miracle or sign of the turning of water into wine. The servants saw it happen too. The text doesn’t say they believed. Were they indifferent? Confused? Astonished but yet unbelieving? The steward didn’t even seem to notice the miraculous source of the new wine. Or if he did, he ignored and gave a rational explanation – he explained it away. One scholar comments that “the steward tried to reshape the miracle to fit his former categories, while the disciples allowed their categories to be reshaped by this extraordinary transformation of water into wine.”
My point here is that there was more than one response to the sign that Jesus performed – and only the disciples are described as believing in Jesus as a result. This says to me two things at least: first, just being in the presence of a miracle doesn’t mean I will notice anything miraculous; second, even if you witness a miracle, this doesn’t mean you will understand the significance of this miracle or respond the way God intends.
The Meaning of the Sign
Miracles, in and of themselves, are not significant. God’s desire is not to impress, astonish, amaze, and, worse, entertain us. Remember what I said about signs at the beginning of the message today? Signs are pointers. They draw and direct our attention to something, or in this case, to someone else. I like how John calls miracles “signs” because it really highlights what kind of importance these powerful deeds of Jesus have and where their significance lies. John doesn’t try and dress it up and use it as a moment to amaze us. And therefore our question is this: if the turning of water into wine is a sign, what is it signifying? What is the meaning of this sign? Where is it directing our attention?
New Wine in Old Jars
Notice first of all the stone jars or jugs. The story gives us a vivid picture of the jars that are used to make the wine. These jars would normally be used for Jewish purification rituals. At the beginning they are empty waiting to be filled. The Judaism of Jesus’ day, at least at the levels of leadership, was corrupt and spiritually bankrupt and empty – and the filling of these jars with new wine tells us that something new is being created in the midst of Judaism. It reminds us that there is continuity between Jesus and Judaism, and between the Old and New Testaments, that we cannot ignore.
Grace Upon Grace
The jars were filled to the brim with water. They could each hold 20 or 30 gallons. There were six of them. All of these facts point us to the extravagance of the miracle about to take place. Through this sign we see the superabundance of gifts available through Jesus Christ, through whom, we read in 1:17, we have received “grace upon grace.”
The True Bridegroom
The steward, when he tastes this new wine, congratulates the bridegroom for this unusual breach of etiquette – of saving the best till last – but we know that the bridegroom isn’t responsible for this new wine. Or rather that it is the true Bridegroom, namely Jesus that is responsible for the wine. John the Baptist refers to Jesus as the Bridegroom later in 3: 29, 30. Here Jesus is revealed as the Bridegroom, the only one who can provide new wine.
Pointing to Jesus’ Glory
Our story explicitly says that through this sign Jesus “revealed his glory.” What does this tell us? Look back at 1:14 where it says that Jesus’ glory is that of a Father’s only Son. This points us to Jesus’ relationship with the Father. We can trust Jesus to reveal who the Father is – to make God the Father known to us. One clear purpose of miracles was to authenticate the character and person of Jesus and his relationship with his heavenly Father. By revealing his glory through this sign Jesus reveals who he is and who his heavenly Father is. As someone says, “The deed reveals the doer.”
My Hour Has Not Yet Come
When his mother tells him that there is no more wine, Jesus says “my hour has not yet come.” What does he mean here? Has his ministry not yet begun? What does Jesus mean by “hour”? If we take a quick look at John 17:1 – 5 we catch a glimpse of what this hour refers to. John 17 is a passage many call Jesus “high priestly prayer.” Some call it the real “Lord’s Prayer,” because it is the prayer that he prayed and not one he gave to his disciples to pray. It takes place in John’s Gospel in the same place as the prayer in Gethsemane takes place in the other gospels. The first thing he says in this prayer is this: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.”
When Jesus speaks of his “hour” he is referring to the cross, to the journey to Golgotha, to Calvary, that he is going to take. Once Jesus reveals his glory through the first of his signs, that hour has come. John’s Gospel links this story with the cross as bookends to everything that happens in between. It is in going to the cross and being raised from the grave that Jesus is glorified and God made known.
Conclusion: Responding to the Sign
The whole point of this sign, this miracle of Jesus, is so that his glory might be revealed and that we might believe in him. The whole point is to draw our attention to who Jesus is and what his purpose is. The whole point is to look away from the miracle as quickly as possible and look toward Jesus – and to look toward him with eyes of faith, of belief, of wonder, and of trust, knowing that by looking at him we are also looking at God himself.
So how do we respond to this miracle, this sign of Jesus? Do we rationalize it like the chief steward? Do we react with astonishment and awe without believing like the servants? Or do we respond with belief like the disciples? The greatest miracle here is not the turning of water into wine. No, the greatest miracle is the belief of the disciples. The act of putting our faith in Jesus Christ is more amazing than all the miracles and signs put together. There are places in the gospels where Jesus could not perform miracles because of the unbelief of people. There are other places where faith precedes miracles, such as the woman who was healed by touching Jesus garment. Each of us should always be more interested in seeking more of Jesus than more miracles and signs and wonders.
