“The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus‘ mother was there” – John 2: 1
Commonly recognised as Jesus‘ first miracle is the turning of water into wine, one of four of his ‘messianic miracles’ – miracles that supposedly only God could do. But the richness in the story here early in John’s Gospel is vast and belies its simplicity. It reveals some of the deep characteristics of God, traits that we have trampled on and made a mockery of over the centuries since Christ walked.
What is it about Jesus that makes him so compelling for the world, for us who choose to follow him?
A Palestinian wedding in Jesus‘ day was a true celebration; marriage was the joining of a young couple and the bringing together of great families. A young couple was brought together while being carefully nurtured into the surrounding life of the town, not discarded off to start life on their own in another place. Betrothal happened months or even years before, an engagement where the couple were already committed to marriage without the living together. There was little more serious in the community than a wedding, as the community understood the foundation of the family in its own survival.
Celebrations would last at least a week, and would frequently involve an entire village! It is worth reading more widely on the wedding celebration in those days, but God is no dullard when it comes to celebration – and there he is, right in the midst of the dancing, drinking and joy that carries on. It is we who have blunted the enthusiasm for God’s celebration, in our austere interpretation of the law and saturation in the ‘thou shalt not’ culture. Not so Jesus, who ate and drank with sinners, and immersed himself with everyday life.
This would have been a poor village family, lives tormented and tortured by the Romans and their own religious elite who dwelt in the more luxuriant cities, and for them a wedding was a relief from the drudgery and grind. The parents of the bride would host the celebrations, and central to it all was the food and wine. To run out of wine midway through the festivities was to invite terrible shame and embarrassment on the hosts and the young couple.
It is here then, that we begin to see a new picture of God, one who comes willing to us to remove our shame. In his display of such willingness to roll up his sleeves and be part of our world, we see this God – this beautiful Christ, so ready to come to our rescue. Jesus does the miracle, because he has the opportunity to remove the shame for a young Palestinian couple. He does not stop and ask questions as to their worthiness beforehand, the readiness to put right what is wrong, simply pours out of him throughout his life.
God’s readiness to take away our shame is a picture of the entire Bible, but in this Jesus we have the opportunity for it to be removed once, for all time. We get things wrong when we think God is the big teacher with the stick. For this ordinary family – for you, for me, we have a Saviour so willing to join with us in our daily lives, to walk, to strengthen, to help, to love. For many though, even especially ‘Christians’ this is simply too much. We prefer our own ways, to walk in our own strength, our own moral preeminence.
‘Do as he tells you’ says Jesus‘s mother to the servants. Will we allow ourselves to come under him today, this gentle, this lovely Jesus, the divine personality who has our best interest at heart. Will we trust him today with our lives, he asks us?
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