"The First Sign" (John 2:1-11)

Water into wine. That’s one of those stories where you think, “Yeah, that’s kinda cool.” But does it mean anything?

It does seem kind of a strange miracle for Jesus to perform. Especially since, according to John’s gospel, it was his first miracle. It sets the bar, right? It establishes expectations for the miracles that follow…

Maybe you’ve read this story and wondered, “Am I missing something here? Is there something I’m not getting? Because I’m not quite sure what the first century equivalent of a kegger has to do with the gospel…”

The challenge, when we hear a story from the Bible, is that what we bring to the story is very different than what a first-century hearer would bring. I’m talking about our expectations, our cultural influences, all the things that help us interpret and give meaning to a story.

And the challenge is great. Even biblical scholars don’t know everything about what life was like 2,000 years ago in the region along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. For this reason it is important to read the Bible with humility. Too many people pull out a few hand-picked verses from the Bible and use them to base their entire belief system, without having any clue about the context in which these verses originated, or how those to whom the words were originally addressed would have heard and understood those words.

And in some cases, they do great damage by using scripture like that.

What is this scripture about? It seems that the story of the wedding in Cana is all about wine. That by itself is enough for us to form an opinion of this story. And your opinion may be very different from mine or anyone else’s.

If you are a wine connoisseur, you would have one opinion of this story.

If you are a teetotaler, you might have a very different opinion.

If you are in recovery, or if you know someone who has been killed by a drunk driver, that affects how you interpret this story.

Very different opinions and interpretations, and that’s just among a group of people living in the same city in the same year.

What about people living in another part of the world 2,000 years ago?

Generally speaking, one thing we can assume is that ancient people, reading John’s gospel, were familiar with what we call the Old Testament. Their familiarity varied. It’s likely that the readers of Matthew’s gospel, for example, knew the scriptures best of all, but even the readers of John’s gospel would have been familiar with the old stories of faith... more familiar than most people today are.

And they would know, in the back of their minds, that the Old Testament talks about wine. And they would remember that, when scripture talks about wine, it often does so metaphorically.

So the image of wine carries with it symbolic meaning.

Here are a couple of the Old Testament scriptures that mention wine.

“The Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines strained clear” (Isaiah 25.6).

The wine that Isaiah talks about here is the good stuff: “well-aged wines strained clear.” It is part of a feast of “rich food” which the Lord of hosts makes for “all peoples.”

It’s not the wine that Ginger and I won once in a raffle at a community event we went to. Our friend Ernie, who owns Willmore Wine Bar, took that bottle from us. He said, “Friends don’t let friends drink that. I’ll give you something better.”

The wine Isaiah talks about is the “something better.” The wine that Jesus made from water is the “something better.”

Here’s another scripture that mentions wine, from later in the book of Isaiah:

“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price… Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food” (Isaiah 55.1-2).

Here, Isaiah again talks about rich food and good wine, being made available to all people, with no cost. This is not a feast in the Emperor’s palace, limited only to those with power, influence, and wealth. It is a feast for everyone to enjoy, even those without money. It’s a feast for the people. And it’s not canned soup or boxed macaroni and cheese or instant ramen. It’s the good stuff – the good wine, the rich food – the stuff kings and emperors eat, but made available to everyone.

Here’s a scripture from the book of Amos:

 “The time is surely coming, says the Lord, when the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit…” (Amos 9.13-14)

I think we get the picture. Over and over again, the image of a great feast, filled with rich food and good wine, is presented by the prophets. It is presented as an image of the ideal kingdom, the kingdom of God, the beloved community where everyone shares in the wealth of the kingdom. The kingdom of God is like a great feast where the food and wine are top quality, they never run out, and all people are invited.

So this is what would be in the minds of first-century listeners when they hear a story about a great feast with an endless supply of rich food and good wine.

And first century listeners would also know that a wedding feast was the feast of all feasts. It could last for several days, or possibly even a week. It was a big deal.

And of course, weddings bring families together. Families that previously were separate. Weddings are a joining together of people, a celebration of unity and connection and love among guests who otherwise might have had nothing in common.

Wedding feasts are about eating and drinking together. Dancing. Laughing. Smiling. And welcoming people into the family.

In all these ways, a wedding feast resembles the kingdom of God. And so, when Jesus turned water into wine, it was more than a miracle. It was, as John says, a sign.

The gospels tell lots of stories of Jesus eating and drinking. Even when others were fasting, Jesus and his followers were feasting. They dined with all sorts of people, including those who wouldn’t normally be invited to the feast. The banquet described by the prophets appears to be taking place over and over again in Jesus’s ministry.

Out of wine? That’s not going to happen in the kingdom of God. It’s not going to happen any more than the idea of running out of fish or bread. Jesus multiplies the loaves. Jesus multiplies the fish.

And Jesus turns water into wine.

There is always enough for everyone in the kingdom of God. No one goes without. No one is turned away. God is the provider of all.

I’m not going to preach long today. We have meetings after worship and many of us will be attending the South Coast Interfaith Council’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration this afternoon, where Bobbie Smith is keynoting.

I guess it’s appropriate, though, to ponder today the image of a great feast to which everyone is invited: a great coming together of people, rich and poor, from every race, every nation… A feast where the food is the richest in the land, where the wine is the finest, and where neither food nor wine ever run out.

Unlike the feast of the world, where people are excluded because of their race, or because they can’t pay, or for so many other reasons, this is the feast of God, the feast of Jesus, the feast of heaven.

And it’s up to us to set the table, and send out the invitations.