ANOTHER REVELATION
Today’s Gospel is very familiar. There is a danger in that - we overlook what it is telling us about how we respond to this revelation of Jesus’ glory, this cause to believe in him. Jesus chooses to reveal himself to his new disciples at a wedding. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures and in many of the sayings and parables of Jesus the wedding feast features as the setting, with Jesus often as the bridegroom. It is quite natural that he would launch himself on his mission at such a feast. Heaven, the Jews had been told, was like a wedding feast, a place of joy and happiness, of closeness to your loved ones and to God. What happens at Cana is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet and Jesus is the source of the joy. There are lots of incidental details that it is hard to ignore, even though we don’t fully understand why they are there. Why are we told this is ‘after three days’? Is this a pre-echo of our Lord’s resurrection? Then there are the water jars. Why are there six? Is this an incomplete number? They are empty. Why? Are they waiting for their real function, to change water into wine? Are we like those jars? Waiting for Jesus to fill us with his Spirit, like new wine? That is one thing I take away from this story. Or are we like the servants? They do whatever Jesus wants, and they keep their knowledge to themselves. Are we being called upon to be like them, ready to do whatever Jesus instructs us to do? That is certainly one thing that I take away from this passage. I should be ready at all times to follow our Lord’s commands. That is one message that comes from some of the ‘bridegroom’ sayings of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel. We are called on to be ready to receive our Lord at any time of the day or the night. Why so much wine? Six jars of twenty or thirty gallons each! This is going to be some party, and it is the best wine too. Of course it is! Clearly the rules of heavenly feasts are different from those of earthly feasts. Never give God less than the best - is that what this is saying? There are so many questions in what is, on the surface, a simple story of one neighbour helping another out in a very embarrassing situation, even if neither the steward or the bridegroom actually know the source of the new wine. Then there is the role of Jesus’ mother Mary. She doesn’t occur much in John’s Gospel, but here she is at the start of Jesus’ ministry and she nudges the action forward, even if she gets a dusty answer for her pains. She is there again at the foot of the cross in John’s Gospel, and some of Jesus’ last words are reserved for her - ‘Woman, behold your son.’ As is typical with this Gospel writer, there is a lot going on under the surface of a simple incident. It is called a ‘sign’, not a ‘miracle’, and I think that is because it reveals something about our Lord, it shows his ‘glory’ and, as a result, his disciples believe in him. So should we. Almighty Father, whose Son our Saviour Jesus Christ is the light of the world: may your people, illumined by your word and sacraments, shine with the radiance of his glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; for he is alive and reigns now and for ever. Amen
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AuthorCanon John Green Archives
May 2021
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