The wedding at Cana

Psalm 35: 5-10; John 2: 1-11

I’ve recently been reading story of Eric Liddell: you might remember his story from the film Chariots of Fire. 

He was a young Scot, the son of missionaries, who was due to have raced in the 100m final of the 1924 Olympics, but refused to run when it emerged the heats were to be held on a Sunday. He was switched to run in the 400m race instead, and famously won the gold medal. He was lauded as a hero and spoke at churches and chapels all over the UK, but gave it all up to became a missionary to China, as his father had been before him, and died of a brain tumour in a Japanese internment camp during World War 2. 

As well as being steadfast in keeping the Lord’s Day (and never running on a Sunday) he also refused to drink alcohol, though not, his biographers are keen to say, in a way which made him a killjoy. I wondered how Eric Liddell would have felt about preaching on the story of the wedding at Cana, with its many gallons of wine.

 

But the story of the wedding at Cana is far more than the story of a wedding with a lot of wine; just as Jesus, at the heart of the story, is far more than a hero like Eric Liddell, to be looked up to and admired.

John’s gospel tells us that this miracle is the first sign Jesus performed, and that because of it the disciples believed in him.

To understand the sign we need to think of the wine as something more than just a help to make the party go with a swing.

We have heard from Psalm 36 a broad and generous description of the way that God provides for God’s people:

Love that reaches up the heavens, righteousness like strong mountains, justice like the deepest sea. The love of God provides people with a great feast, and they drink from the river of delights.

The prophet Amos describes the time when the love of God will rule the whole earth, and “the mountains will run with fresh wine”. Abundant, flowing wine is a sign in the Hebrew scriptures of God’s love and grace all over the world.

So when Jesus provides about 200 gallons of wine at the wedding this is a sign that God is now at work in the world in a full way, in a way that shows God’s grace and generosity and blessing of all people. And Jesus shows that he is the one who is demonstrating God at work, he is ‘God with us’. The disciples see all this and believe in Jesus – the one sent by God as saviour.

There is a little detail which I think John means us to spot in the story. The first thing that Jesus tells the servants to do is fill the stone jars – and we’re told they fill them to the brim.

We are only in the second chapter of John’s gospel here: in the first chapter, John has told us that the Word has become flesh:

“And we have beheld his glory, the glory of the Father’s only Son – full of grace and truth.” (John 1: 14)

And then in verse 16:

“From his full store we have all received grace upon grace”

This fullness, this totality of blessing, is a sign of God at work: in Jesus God fills the world ‘up to the brim’ just as the servants fill the stone jars.

Jesus will go on, in chapter 10, to describe himself as the Good Shepherd of the sheep – echoing Psalm 23 

“the Lord is my shepherd.. my cup runneth over”.

In that same chapter 10 (v10) Jesus says :

“I have come that they may have life, and may have it in all its fullness.”.

The sign of the miracle at Cana reveals to us the abundance and promise of new life in Jesus.

Some of you will have heard me mention Malcolm Guite before – he is an Anglican priest and poet.

He has written this about this story – which he calls

Epiphany at Cana  

Here’s an epiphany to have and hold,
A truth that you can taste upon the tongue,
No distant shrines and canopies of gold
Or ladders to be clambered rung by rung,
But here and now, amidst your daily living,
Where you can taste and touch and feel and see,
The spring of love, the fount of all forgiving,
Flows when you need it, rich, abundant, free.

 

Jesus shows us what the world looks like when God is present in it. More than that, the guests at the wedding can taste for themselves how rich and sweet and wonderful God’s presence is.

We, who read the story, can share in this miracle where the presence of Jesus fills the ordinary things of life with the promise of God’s grace and God’s salvation.

 

If this week we find our cup feels empty – Jesus offers the grace of God to fill it once again.

 

If we are fortunate and our cup is full – the presence of God in Jesus can make our celebrations even fuller and more meaningful.

 

If we know this grace which fills each cup of life to the brim, Jesus calls us to believe in him and to be part of the company of those who follow him. 

As those who enjoy the fullness of grace, let’s be ready to share the good news of the kingdom of God, which offers hope and fullness of life to all. 

In the name of Jesus. Amen.