10/8/06 Water Into Wine

JOH 2:1-11 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it." Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water." So they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, "Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter." So they took it to him. When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom, and said to him, "Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now." This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.

The next event John records for us

is one that most of you will be familiar with,

even if you’ve had very little direct contact with Scripture up to this point in your life.

It’s the account I just read for us,

the account of Jesus turning 180 gallons of water into wine.

John is the only one of the four Gospel writers to record this event,

and for a number of reasons

it is certainly one of Jesus’ most popular miracles.

Maybe “popular” isn’t the best term to use,

but the truth is

it is one of the miracles that we seem to like the best.

It’s different from so many of the other miraculous works Jesus did

because it seems to be so unnecessary.

I mean,

giving sight to a blind man,

or giving strong legs to a lame man,

or giving life to a mother’s only child who has died -

those all seem to be compassion-driven acts of kindness.

They make sense to us.

They clearly meet a specific, urgent need in an individual’s life.

The suffering being experienced by the recipient of the divine act

seems to somehow justify the divine miraculous interaction of God in their lives.

There is obvious intense emotional or physical pain

that God is choosing to eliminate from the person’s life.

But this miracle,

this very first supernatural act performed by Jesus

is not like those at all.

From our point of view

there seems to be so little reason

why it should have taken place at all.

I’ve heard preachers who have talked about how it was Jesus’ way

of emphasizing the sanctity and importance of marriage,

but if that was really what He was doing

why didn’t He just say so?

I have thought a great deal about this miracle

and about what I believe is really going on here,

and I want to take our morning to share with you

what I believe to be the two greatest reasons why

Jesus chose this as His first supernatural act.

The first of those two reasons is perhaps the most obvious,

though I’m not sure it’s the most important of the two.

And I can share it with you best

by borrowing part of my account of this event

as I presented it in The Fisherman.

And for this to make sense

we have to keep in mind that at this point in the disciples’ relationships with Jesus

they really had no idea whatsoever who He was.

He’d never taught publicly,

He’d never performed any supernatural act,

He’d never done anything or been anything apart from being a carpenter in a small town in Israel.

We have such a disadvantage looking back on these events,

bringing to them our knowledge of Jesus’ entire life on this earth,

along with 2000 years of religious heritage.

It makes it difficult for us to appreciate what was really going on.

But John does something crucial for us in His Gospel-

he takes us back to the very beginning,

back to the first few days in the disciples’ friendship with this man.

And then he lets us walk through those days with them.

And what we see happening

will only make sense if we allow ourselves to really believe

that these men were just like us.

They weren’t St. Peter,

and St. Andrew,

and St. James

and St. John.

They started their relationship with Jesus

exactly the same way all of us do -

99.9% flesh driven

and about one tenth of one percent true spirit response to God.

So with that as background,

let me read my imagined account of this miracle

as seen through the eyes of Peter

because it will explain the first of the two reasons why I believe Jesus chose this as His first supernatural act.

The wedding celebration we attended was for one of Jesus’ cousins, the daughter of his aunt on his mother’s side. His mother, Mary, was obviously pleased with Jesus’ arrival. She had been deeply involved in the planning and preparation for the celebration and, though we all received a quick introduction as soon as we arrived, during the next several hours Mary was little more than a flying blur in and out of the kitchen. There appeared to be a far greater turnout for the event than the family had expected, with people standing, talking, eating, laughing, and sitting in every available corner. Though I didn’t know the couple, it was evident everyone felt very good about this union. I heard snatches of a dozen different conversations; people took credit for getting the couple together or for helping their relationship along at critical points during the engagement. Cana was Nathanael’s hometown, and he seemed to know at least half the people there. He introduced us to a number of his friends, and we spent several hours enjoying the food, the wine, and the celebration.

Then, late that afternoon something happened that altered our perception of Jesus forever.

The seven of us were all in a group talking and joking when Mary came up to Jesus, obviously deeply concerned about something. She nearly had to scream to be understood above the noise of the party, and all six of us heard the one sentence she spoke to her son.

“They have no wine!”

The family had underestimated the size and length of the celebration, and the wine was all gone. Unless something could be done quickly, it meant embarrassment to the newlyweds and a premature end to the festivities, though I couldn’t imagine what she expected Jesus to do about it.

I remember at the time puzzling over his response to Mary’s words. His tone was not harsh, but his mother’s statement seemed to face him with a difficult choice. He told her this was not his concern because it was not yet his time.

Then he glanced up at the six of us standing there, eavesdropping on their conversation, and made his decision. When he turned back to Mary, a tiny smile crept across his lips, and he gave her just the slightest nod. She immediately called several servants and instructed them to do whatever Jesus told them to do.

Just behind us, lined up against the wall, were six empty thirty-gallon water containers. Jesus told the servants to fill them to the top with water. The servants were not pleased with this added responsibility right in the middle of their other duties at the feast. Filling those pots involved more than forty trips between the well and the house. They were able to recruit several other servants to help, but even then it took more than half an hour to finish the job.

When the pots were finally filled, Jesus told one of the servants to draw some of the liquid from the pots they had just filled and take it to the headwaiter. I could see the servant from where I was standing, and as he drew out the liquid, the strangest expression crossed his face. He looked up at Jesus but said nothing, then went straight to the headwaiter. We all followed behind him to see what was going on. When the waiter tasted what had been brought to him, his face reflected first amazement and then irritation. He grabbed the pitcher from the servant, then charged over to the groom and began scolding him for saving the really good wine until so late in the feast.

The waiter’s words brought two immediate responses. The groom whirled around and stared at the waiter with a look of helpless confusion on his face. At the same time six friends of Jesus grabbed goblets and bolted back to those pots. We must have looked ridiculous, pushing and squirming our way through that crowd, like a footrace mistakenly routed through the center of a public market.

One taste of that wine was all I needed. It was good—as good as any I had ever tasted in my life. But it wasn’t the wine I was excited about; it was the future. I didn’t know how he had done it; I just knew he had. And the implications were staggering. If he could do it again, we could sell this stuff and be rich overnight. If ever Jesus needed a partner, it was now, and I was clearly the man for the job. I could handle the whole business wing of the thing, and he could devote his time to the production side.

It was Andrew who finally jolted me back to reality. I glanced over at the pots and saw him sitting next to one of them in a sort of stunned silence. I went charging over, cup in hand, and blurted out, “Wow, little brother, did you see what he just did?!”

Andrew looked up at me and said, “No, Simon, did you see what he just did? This man just accomplished the impossible. Listen, Simon! This man isn’t just a prophet. This man just performed a miracle. Prophets preach. Prophets exhort. Prophets don’t change 180 gallons of well water into wine. And Simon . . . Simon, he didn’t do this for them, for all those people out there laughing and having a good time. They don’t even know about it. Simon, he did this for us, for you and me and James and John and Philip and Nathanael. He wanted the six of us to see his power. Use your head, Simon. Even the great King David never did anything like this. And when our God performed miraculous works through Moses and Elijah, he did it to meet some critical need affecting our entire nation. But not like this! Not at their cousin’s wedding! And certainly not simply because someone forgot to order enough wine.

“Listen, big brother—what just happened here isn’t about wine. It’s about him and about us. This man doesn’t need us. This man turns well water into wine without even speaking a word. What in the world could we offer him? And yet, for some reason he wants us with him; he wants us to see the supernatural power God has given him. Something just happened here today that hasn’t happened before in the history of our nation. And, Simon, I’ve never felt so honored in my life.”

After hearing Andrew’s words I decided to put my wine-selling scheme on hold for a little while. Somehow it just didn’t seem like the right time to bring it up. I knew Andrew was right about one thing—Jesus planned this miracle for our eyes only. What a day! It began with a neat little bundle of expectations and assumptions about what it meant to be a disciple of this fascinating new prophet. Those expectations now lay in a shattered heap. In their place I was left with a man I couldn’t even begin to understand.

There are several things happening between Jesus and His disciples at this wedding.

The obvious thing, of course,

is that Jesus was beginning His revelation of Himself to His people.

He wanted them to know

right from the start

that He was not just a prophet.

He was something else,

something far greater.

It was a process of revelation that began at this wedding

and then continued on a daily basis for the next four years,

a process that culminated with His stepping out of that tomb alive.

And here is the amazing thing -

in the beginning I believe these men wanted Jesus to be just a prophet.

You see, a prophet was someone they could understand,

someone they could manage mentally,

someone they could deal with.

But Jesus would not give them that luxury.

He refused to remain just a prophet in their eyes.

From the very beginning He kept confronting them with the truth,

even though the truth brought with it profound implications.

And it’s no different today.

I think with all of us

when something first begins to stir inside us,

drawing us to what?...to Christianity?...to church?...to Jesus?...

we’re really hoping that it’s just a religion.

I mean, we want it to make a difference.

We want it to have some level of meaning and reality.

We may even want something supernatural.

But we don’t really want it to be a living real GOD.

Just as the disciples wanted Jesus to be just a prophet,

so there is a part of us that wants Him now to be mostly just a religion.

We’re fine with it being a system of beliefs,

and a calling to higher moral living,

and maybe even something that demands from us commitment,

and dedication,

and faithfulness to the group.

But there is something terrifying that happens within the human spirit

when we begin to realize

that what we’re being called to is none of those things.

What we’re being called to

is God Himself.

The implications are staggering.

We loose control.

You see, acceptance of a religious system,

even a very demanding religious system,

is radically different than submission to a living God.

As long as it remains religion

we remain in control.

We decide how much,

how far,

at what cost.

And we can always draw the line.

But submission to a living God

brings with it by it’s very nature

the loss of control.

And the human spirit will resist submission and dependance at all costs.

And yet those are the only terms on which God does business with us.

And when I had Andrew say to Peter,

when I had Andrew say that

I was trying to put into words

both what I believe was at the heart of this first miracle

and what I believe is at the heart of all true human interaction with God.

God isn’t interested in our faithful adherence to any religious system.

He’s certainly not trying to get us to “go to church” every week

or fulfill some set of religious duties.

What He’s after, what He wants is us.

And this first miracle

was carefully designed by Him

to confront His followers with their first big step toward the truth.

He wasn’t just a prophet,

He was, in fact, God in a human body.

And the implications of that truth

would ultimately change their lives forever.

But there is a second message imbedded in this first miracle as well,

and it is this second message

that, for many of us, is even more difficult for us to accept.

You see, with this wedding wine thing

Jesus is introducing us not just to who He is,

but He’s also introducing us to what kind of God He is.

And the truth is

I think we have trouble understanding this miracle

for the same reason we have trouble understanding our God.

No matter how often our Creator talks with us

about how much He loves us,

we still always begin all of our interactions with Him

with the unshakable conviction that there simply has to be some other reason,

some greater reason,

some more reasonable reason why He would involve Himself in our lives.

You see, that’s why the other miracles make sense to us.

Because they eliminate a person’s pain,

or because they prove the power of God,

or because they in some way reverse the consequences of sin in the world

they therefore make sense to us.

Those are the types of thing that God would want to do.

But the thought that He would at times find ways of showing kindness to us

for no other reason than because He delights in us

simply makes no sense to us at all.

It was exactly forty years ago this month

that God barged into my world

and asked me if I would be willing to place my life into His hands.

During the past forty years

there have been critical times in my life,

times when I desperately needed my God

to intervene in my life

or in the life of someone I love,

times when I spent my days

and sometimes my nights

desperately clinging to Him for hope,

and for deliverance.

At those times

I always found Him faithful

and I found His presence with me

to be equal and more than equal to the pain I was feeling.

He heard,

He intervened,

and He showed Himself to be all that I needed and more.

But with all of those critical times in my life

there was a sense in which I saw God’s direct involvement in my life

to be at some level justified

because the event itself was, for me, huge.

I mean, at some level it made sense to me

that God would involve Himself in what was happening

because what I was praying for

had big implications both in my life and in the lives of others.

The end justified the means.

For me

it was equivalent to those healing miracles of the Lord

in which He would cleanse a person of leprosy

or give sight to a man born blind.

But there have been other events along the way

that have in some ways affected me far more deeply

because they forced me to wrestle with the truth

about why God has involved Himself in my life at all.

And the answers I have been forced to

are more unsettling then any others I’ve ever received.

In the fall of 1970 I was young,

single,

and broke.

I’d just returned from my second short-term mission trip to Trinidad.

I was working at a restaurant in Seattle as a busboy,

hoping a waiter position would open up

so that I could start making the really big money.

I heard about a seminar in Portland

being conducted by a man who was having a significant impact on the Christian community at the time

and I very much wanted to go.

I had enough money to pay for the costs of the seminar,

and a full tank of gas

to get me down there and back.

But that was it.

I had no other money.

The seminar went on for a full day,

and halfway through the morning session

the speaker gave us a short break.

I remember during that mid-morning break

watching all the people lined up at the vending machines buying snacks.

I stood at the back of the crowd,

looking longingly at the coffee machine.

When the crowd finally thinned out

I walked up to it

and on impulse reached into the coin return slot.

In that slot I found enough change

for a cup of coffee.

Now you may think that was no big deal.

But I knew then

and I’ve known ever since

that God personally bought me that cup of coffee that morning.

And He did it for just one reason -

because He really is involved in my life at that level

and He wanted me to know it.

About 20 years ago now

one Sunday morning Sandee and I were sitting together in church

and Sandee happened to glance down at her hand

and, to her shock, discovered that the diamond in her wedding ring was gone.

She held out her hand to show me,

and as soon as she did so

I leaned over and told her I knew where that diamond was.

When the service ended

we drove home and as soon as we got there

I went inside,

went up to the loft,

lifted the cushion off of the couch,

reached down and picked up the missing diamond.

You think it was just a lucky guess?

It would be far easier for me

if I could believe that.

But the truth is

I knew then

and I still know today

that somehow God’s Spirit

simply told me where that diamond was.

You see the problem with events like that

is having to deal with the realization

that God’s love for us,

God’s love for me

and His involvement in my life is at that level.

I mean really,

why should He even care?

And yet He does.

And I think that is part of why we sometimes have trouble

with this water-into-wine thing here in John chapter 2.

It’s because there is no nice neat religious reason why He should have done it.

He wasn’t fighting evil.

He wasn’t freeing someone from physical or emotional pain.

He wasn’t undoing some aspect of the consequences of Adam’s curse.

He was simply contributing to a few people’s brief enjoyment in life.

He was helping a few people

escape the drudgery of life for a few hours.

And if that’s true,

it means that His love for us

is so very different than we usually allow ourselves to believe.

It means this whole thing between us and Him is intensely personal.

It means that,

for reasons we will never understand,

our God delights in each one of us,

and when Paul said, ROM 8:32 “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”

he was showing us the heart of our God

in a way that has the potential of altering our lives more profoundly

than anything else we could ever discover about our Creator.

You see, if it’s true that He loves us like that,

then it means that everything He’s said to us in the past

and everything He’s saying to us right now

is motivated by that kind of love

and that kind of longing to lead us into the most deeply fulfilling life we can ever know.