1 Chronicles 22.17-19; John 2.1-11
How strange … how curious … how wonderful …
The ministry of Jesus begins …
At a party … a shindig … a wedding feast … several days of drinking … lots of drinking … and the wine runs out …
Oh oh … someone miscalculated … too many guests showed up … or not enough wine was ordered … or maybe everyone was just feeling so good, they drank more than should have …
The wineskins are flat … empty … the wine is all gone … and the host is about to be embarrassed … perhaps not his fault, but embarrassed nonetheless … it’s his party … and guests will talk about him … he’ll become the joke of the town … years afterward, folks will hoist a cup of wine, and say to one another, “Remember when we ran outta wine at the wedding party? What a cheapskate, stingy host … didn’t get enough wine for all of us … well, I’ll tell ya’ this much, if it was me, there’d be enough wine, enough wine for everyone. Wouldn’t run outta wine at my party! No siree, wouldn’t run outta wine at my party.”
But the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray, as the poet puts it … things happen … we plan carefully, we set our strategy, and then, the unexpected … the hiccup … the strange twist of fate and fortune … who knows where that came from … who knows why … and there we are, the wineskins are empty … we did our best, or thought we did, or hoped we did, and the best wasn’t good enough … and now we’re about to be pay the price …
Life is full of blips and bumps … gaps in memory, lapsed promises, dreams ignored, promises made and forgotten, plans gone astray and maybe we did our best, and it still didn’t work out, and maybe we didn’t do our best, and we hoped no one would notice, and sometimes no one does notice … there is the unexpected grace in all life … we breath a sigh of relief when we finally pile into bed that we made it through the day … it wasn’t as bad as we thought … or even it it was bad, really bad, and sometimes things get really bad … we made it anyway … we came out the other end, and it was okay … not that it was easy … very little about life is easy … but we make it through the day … we make it through the dark night of the soul … there is grace to be had, grace that comes our way, whether we ask for it or not …
Maybe someone else steps into the gap for us … for our sake.
Did the groom know that the wine was gone?
Did the host know how close he was to failure?
He didn’t know it … but others did … Mary’s mother was drinking her share of the wine, and when she held out her cup for a refill … the servant shook his head, and said, “Sorry, ma’am, we’re out … this has been one heck of a party; folks were real thirsty; there’s no more wine left.”
Mary tells her son, “There’s no more wine left” … and he tells her right back, “Woman, what’s that to me? My time hasn’t yet come yet; I’m not ready for this.”
Was Jesus reluctant to get involved!
Did Jesus have an inkling where it would all go if he took the first step? … “If I do this now, then I’ll no longer be just Jesus the rabbi, Mary’s son, but a man destined for who knows what? … once I say, Yes, there’ll be no end to it … when the wheels of history begin to turn.”
Jesus is fully human … he’s not so sure he wants to say yes … does he know the fateful road that lies ahead of him?
Perhaps he did … and maybe he needed Momma to give him a gentle push to take the first step.
A little more wine for a wedding feast.
Do what he says, says Mary to the servants … and we know the rest of the story.
The wine made by Jesus is the best of it …
There are so many things in this remarkable story …
I think of Mary ...
She’s an intercessor for the groom, for the party, for the guests.
She doesn’t waste time wondering if her son might do something … she tells him the deal …
I like that about Mary … she’s on the side of the host … she’s not willing to let things take their course … she doesn’t want the groom to be embarrassed … she doesn’t want the party to flop …
She’s got compassion in her heart.
She’s got some courage, too.
She’s not afraid to put the question to Jesus?
Are you gonna do something about this?
Maybe when Jesus says to his Momma, You think I care about this?
Maybe it’s a rhetorical question … a good question put to all of us … Does God care about the stuff of our life?
Right now, in our study of Job, that’s one of the big questions - does our life matter to God? Does God even care what’s happening to us? Is God gonna do anything about it, or do nothing about it?
Dear friends, this little story, the wedding at Cana, is a very big story …
Perhaps the story reminds us, that in all of life’s many difficulties and sorrows, there is grace.
And in ways we cannot even imagine, or see, God is at work, because others are at work, too … I wonder how many people are praying for us right now, and we don’t even know it …
When the headwaiter samples the wine, he’s surprised - it’s the best wine yet.
He compliments the groom for saving the best wine for the last … most parties begin with the best; when folks have had they’re third or fourth cup, or fifth or sixth, then bring out the cheap wine; folks won’t even notice.
Perhaps the groom, already a couple o’ sheets to the wind, simply smiles and enjoys the compliment … the party goes on.
Only a few know the real story … the grace, the grace unexpected, that saves the day.
When I was in high school, I was the third or fourth car in a line waiting for a train to pass … I’m not sure if there were gates, or just lights, but when the train passed, the cars ahead of me crossed the tracks, and I did, too … I wasn’t very much on the other side of the tracks when I looked in my rearview mirror only to see a high-speed freight train rumbling through the intersection from the other direction.
I came close that day … close, but no cigar, as they say.
I wonder how many others moments I’ve had that I don’t even know about … when grace unexpected came my way.
How many times have we been saved, all of us, and we didn’t know it? … grace shown to us, and we didn’t see it? … folks interceding for us, and we haven’t a clue?
Life is full of grace …
We don’t always see it … we can’t always see it … much of it behind the scenes … those who pray and those who serve … parents and teachers, friends and family … the saints of old, and the saints today …
Water turned into wine.
The party goes on.
Amen and Amen!
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