An Encounter with Jesus gets the Party Started

Weddings are huge. Ours was 600 people, my dad planned it all.

Weddings were huge community events, ancient cultures put far more emphasis on the family and the community than on the individual.  The purpose of a marriage was not primarily the happiness of the two individuals but instead to bind the community together and raise the next generation.  The purpose of marriage was the good of the commonwealth.  The better the marriage the better the community.

Each wedding was a public feast for the entire town because marriage was about the whole community. It was also the biggest event in the personal life of the bride and groom.  Ancient feasts went on for at least a week.

And today we start with a wedding disaster…

The wine is out…Now here is where it gets all kind of confusing in our culture because its wine, and should I drink wine, and why is this Jesus’s first miracle, what kind of wine was it, were they drunk?

This is where I can insert my opinion like Paul did a couple of times in his 13 letters in the new testament and our stance on drinking is don’t do it…after doing the addiction workshop this past Wednesday its just too much of a problem in too many people’s lives. It takes over and causes pain and destruction or can take the place of God’s relationship in your life it has become an addiction. 

Not only that what you do in moderation, the people behind you tend to do in excess. 

I am a living example to those who are coming behind be and I would never want people to say well I saw Tara doing it…we used to attend a church where the communion was wine and the pastor felt strongly not to do communion one Sunday morning, later that evening a young man walked in and said if he would have drank the wine from communion he would have gone back to his full blown addiction and now he is an older man and has NEVER GONE BACK!!

This is not the kind of wine that we are talking about. 

I am not saying that it was grape juice with no alcohol content though it could have been a lesser content than today’s wine, what I am saying is that it was NOT THE POINT!! The point was never well Jesus turned water into wine, so I can drink too…

This would have been the single most important element at the feast….

And in that shame culture it would have been shameful to run out of it…

A better cultural comparison today would be if you ran out of food…

My dad the wedding planner would have been horrified if we would have ran out of food…

The look on your faces says it ALL!!

The Wedding Party

John 2 (1-12)

1On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

2Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." 4And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come." 5His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." 6Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. 8And he said to them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast." So they took it. 9When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now."11This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

The key to understanding this event is NOT THE WINE AT ALL!!  It’s the last verse.

This was not called merely a miracle but a sign.  A sign is a symbol, or signifier, of something else.  Jesus did not have to exercise his power in this situation, but he did.  And when he chose to do so, it became “the first of his signs through which he revealed his glory” –his true identity—to others.

This is the very beginning of Jesus’s career, of his public ministry.  This is the thing that everybody will know you for.  Why would Jesus decide that a quintessential signifier of all he was about would be to keep the party going?

Why would he do that? What did this act signify about what Jesus came into this world to do?

Jesus Christ comes to bring transporting joy and deep fulfillment, not only later but now.

The first thing he want to be known as is “bringing the party.”

But the whole bible is about Jesus bringing the party!!

Isaiah 25:6-8 “On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines.  On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfold all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations, he will swallow up death forever.  The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces, he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.  The Lord has spoken.”

We’re not going to be taken out of this world into heaven, but heaven is going to come down at the end of time to renew this world. (Bring the PArtY!!)  That’s what he came to do. 

He says that he believes that at the end the reality will be so astonishing, the joy will be so incredible, the fulfillment will be so amazing that the most miserable life will feel like “One Bad Night.”  So, the first thing that Jesus does to fulfill that, turn water into wine. Remind them I am the master party giver and fulfiller of all joy, and remover of all shame.

Jesus Christ says, “I am the Lord of the Feast.” 

In the end I come to bring joy. 

That’s my calling card, my first miracle, is to set everyone laughing.”

That tells us what He came to bring: but how will he Do it?

3When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." 4And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come." 5His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

Mary says “what a disaster. They’ve run out of wine.” To which Jesus says “Why are you telling me this?  What does this have to do with me.”

What? 

Mary as a mother might have a few consequences for her adult son.  Mary knew that her son’s response to a simple statement is emotional, sharp, enigmatic, and somewhat offensive.It is not a way to talk to your mother, especially in that culture.

But she doesn’t argue, or ask him to explain, or walk away in disgust like most parents would.  She remembers what the angels told here and so she goes to the servants and says, “do whatever he says.”

You see, when Jesus makes this statement it’s as if he were looking far away, past his mother and past the bride and groom and past the whole wedding scene.  He’s seeing something else.  He’s thinking “Yes I can bring festival joy to this world:  I can cleanse humankind from its guilt and shame.  I can come into the world to bring joy Mother, but I am going to have to die to do it.”

It is as if Jesus says Woman, I’m not ready to die…

So here is the answer to the final question.  How is Jesus going to bring us our joy?  By losing all of his life.  By leaving his heavenly existence with His Father.  By leading a lonely, misunderstood life.  By going to the cross and dying in our place.

6Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. 8And he said to them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast." So, they took it.  9When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now."

He was going to fulfill the law, the price that needed to be paid.

We must be pure to experience Festival Joy, he was going to take that on.

We can’t even score an invite to the party!!

Us filling jars would never pay the price, we aren’t going to get there on our own.

So, he performs a sign of what is to come.

He takes water and turns it to wine.

He takes the cross and sheds his blood.

So that we can experience festival Joy!!

The story was never about alcohol content it was about Jesus content.

An encounter with Jesus brings Festival Joy to our lives!!