The Wedding at Cana
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, ‘Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.’ So they took it. 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 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.’ Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
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Have you ever through about it would be like to see Jesus in this day and age? I mean, if he were born and grew up round here; what would he look like, how would he stand, what would his hair be like, what would his voice sound like? What would it be like if he walked down the street.?
I think when we think about this, we are all too tempted to think of a man a man in a long robe with sandals on, an old school hippy haircut being all ascetic and eating bugs and grass and having a sage and wise thing to say every two seconds. In other words we think of something alien, something ‘other,’ something that we can’t really relate to in our daily lives.
Of course, that isn’t how he would be at all. Jesus wouldn’t be so boring and cliche. He would dress normally, he would act normally, he would ‘be normal.’. He would have normal human relationships, he’d have family and friends, he would have a job, he would eat at the local pub, In fact, I think he would spend a lot of time in the pubs and bars and coffee shops. He would go where the people are; he would talk to people and get to know them to know them. He would speak into their lives. I don’t think this is just speculation either. Why? Because this is exactly what he did in the first century; well, maybe not coffee shops and pubs, but you get the idea. He was relatable, he did normal things.
That is what he did after all when he walked the Earth, spent time with lots of people and spoke into their lives; he visited people in their homes, he had a lot of meals with so called undesirables, he spent time with his family and his friends, he went to weddings.
Now weddings are the kinds of places where you really let your hair down and have fun. In the bible, when the wine is flowing, the fruit of the grape vine, it always means it is a time of blessing. Hence why there is wine at a wedding of course! Because it’s a day of blessing
So, what can we learn from that? What can we learn from the fact that Jesus attended a wedding? I think it’s this, we can learn that Jesus isn’t just some far off character that we can’t connect with at all, no not at all. Rather his humanity shows just how close he is to us. Yes, we worship Jesus, it is what we are doing right now. But we do not worship a distant figure. We worship somebody who understands us and who we can understand. We worship somebody that we can relate to. He knows the way that we think, for he thinks in the same way. We can have a relationship with him.
I was in saint Mark’s school on Thursday doing an assembly. And I spoke about how it is possible to deepen our relationship with God by taking a little time each day, to just sit quietly and still and open ourselves up to his presence.
After I said that I asked if anybody found that idea strange? One boy did and was brave enough to admit it. And I said, yes it does seem strange, it does seem strange in our day and age that is full of busyness and distractions that we can connect to God, the idea of connected with and infinite God seems strange, yet we can.
Now I was speaking in that case in the context of prayer. This context is more of a social one, but the point is the same. God is not some strange ‘other’ he is close to us, he relates to us, it is normal for him to be around us and us around him. What we do in church is not just some ‘over spiritual nonsense’ that we like to do on Sundays.
But the miracle in this passage also shows something else, it shows Jesus’ divinity. It shows us that although he is human, he is also divine and through his heavenly father has power unimaginable. The end of the passage says this is the first sign which revealed his Glory.
Imagine if we knew somebody like that. Somebody who, though he was human had all the power of the divine in him. Imagine if we could ask him for help in our own situations, just like Mary did in her situation in our passage today. What if he could help us with a difficult situation with a family member, or if we’re in financial trouble, or we’re at a crossroads in our lives and we don’t know which path to go down. Now this isn’t, having friends in high places who can get something done for us, giving us a leg up in certain situations; this is the Lord almighty Jesus Christ, who can help us. all we need to do is ask.
We can all come to Jesus just as we are with all the situations of our lives and say Jesus, I’m struggling I’m this area, will you help me. Lord I really need a miracle here please help.
This May seem silly to do at first, like that lad who thought that sitting in God’s presence was strange. Sometimes I have felt silly asking for things in prayer. But like anything else, it takes a bit of practice.
Yet we can be confident that he will listen and answer our prayers, because he loves us. Sometimes the answer is not in the way that we expect or want. But he will answer them. When we quieten our hearts and minds, we may see an image in our mind’s eye or hear a still small voice speaking to us about our situations, giving us a sense of peace over them, and even acting miraculously on occasion as we see in today’s passage. He does kind and loving things for people. His mum tells him that they’re ran out of wine, and he decides to do something about it. How human and normal is that; a mother asking a son to sort something out.
I remember I mentioned a few months ago about something they I was praying for and there hasn’t been movement in a long time. In the last couple of weeks though, after a lot of prayer and anguish, there has finally been movement. In one day so many things came together and fitted together just so perfectly, it wasn’t chance. It was the Lord listening to his adopted child, helping him in his hour of need.
So this week, my invitation is that we open ourselves up in prayer to God, asking him for help with the things that we need. Asking him to speak into our situations; asking him to shower us with his love and his peace and be a real tangible presence in our lives.
Amen
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