'Mary said to Jesus, ‘They have no more wine.’ John 2:3
Friends, weddings are part of life. We’ve all been to them, and some of them we will have enjoyed. The great ones are where the company has been good, the time has flown, there have been great speeches, and wonderful wine. I want you to remember that wedding in your mind. The fun you had, the enjoyment of the service, and the love expressed across the entire day. I want you to remember a great wedding, for when it comes to hope God in the Scriptures presents us with a wedding. During Advent we thought about Christ’s Second Coming, His second Advent. In our first reading today we are given a picture of what that will be like. The people of Israel had forgotten about God, they had ignored His ways of living, and hence Isaiah tells them that they will be kicked out of their land, that they will be sent into exile. But… and it’s a big ‘but’, exile is not the end of the story. God says though Isaiah: ‘For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch.’ God has not forgotten His people, and He will bring them back, He will save them. And so Isaiah can say: ‘You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married.’ The picture of being saved, the picture of God’s people being rescued is one of the land being married. At the end of time, when God returns to the earth, the picture He gives us is of a great wedding between God’s people and God Himself. God will be the groom, and His people will be the bride, and there will be an amazing feast of tender meat, and fantastic wine… a bit like the best one you’ve ever been too, only far, far more enjoyable. That is the hope of the Scriptures. That is what the end of the world looks like. A wedding party to beat all wedding parties. And so as we move to look at our Gospel reading, I want you to picture the best wedding you’ve ever been to…as a small indication of the hope which God gives us in the Scriptures.
Now, when we think of Jesus’ great miracles we probably think of the amazing feeding of five thousand, or of Jesus curing a man born blind, or Jesus raising someone from the dead… and if you were making a movie you’d probably want to start with something as dramatic as that. What you wouldn’t start with—I don’t think—is the miracle which John starts with, or the sign which Jesus begins with. In our Gospel reading today, Jesus begins His ministry with a miracle which almost everyone who was present missed. If a blockbuster movie starts with a bang well Jesus’ ministry seems to begin with a bit of a whimper! However, now having reminded ourselves of where history is headed—having reminded ourselves of the great hope given in the Scriptures, of the wedding between God and His people—perhaps the location of this first sign isn’t so odd after all. Our Gospel says: ‘On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.’ Jesus begins His ministry at a wedding, and John records it for us all to read, and I hope now you can see why. As we’ve noted in our reading from Isaiah, God’s people were in a bad way, they were spiritually at the end of the line and nothing had been heard from God for many a year. For the Jewish people wine was a symbol of joy and celebration. So bear that in mind, and listen to verse 3: ‘When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine’.’ Here is a deep theological statement about where God’s people were spiritually. The people where spiritually depressed. They had no more joy, the spark had gone out, God’s people had dried up, they had nothing to celebrate, and it was as if they had… no more wine. Often enough, I think we in the twenty-first century feel exactly the same! We feel depressed, we feel as if we are at a low ebb. We’ve tried living the way we’re told. We’ve shopped till we’ve dropped. We’ve drunk everything in the pub. We’ve followed the advice of our teachers, of our politicians, of the culture around us and, to be honest, the promised joy and excitement has never come… or at least has never lasted. We’ve followed the advice of the twenty-first century and inside we feel like we’ve got nowhere. We too are spiritually depressed. We too are out of joy. Our spark is going out, and we feel dried up. Mary’s statement could be true of many us here today: ‘They have no more wine.’ Is that you here this morning? Are you feeling like you’re missing out on life, as if all the promises you heard in your youth have not come true? Well what can we do? Who can solve our problem? Surely only our Creator, the One who made us! What shall we do? Mary knows! Mary tells us: ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ Do whatever Jesus tell you, listen to Him, follow Him and you will find life, you will find the wine that leads to real joy and celebration. Listen to Jesus, do whatever He tells you, and you will find all that you have been looking for and far, far more. If wine is the symbol of joy and celebration, the symbol of real and fulfilling life, how much will Jesus give us? A glass? A pint? A two-litre bottle? We’re told in verse 6: One hundred and twenty litres! Jesus will give us life, real and joy-filled life and give it to us in abundance!
My sister is a teacher, and she got a job at a top private school in London. At the end of her first term a child she had been helping brought her a bottle of wine from his parents as a ‘Thank you’ for all my sisters help. She was of course pleased, and thanked the boy very much but as the boy was leaving he quite cryptically turned to my sister and said: ‘Miss, don’t just have that with your tea, save it for something special’. My sister was intrigued and when she got home she Googled the wine… and to her astonishment found it cost two-hundred quid! What kind of wine did Jesus make? Are we talking some cheap vintage, something you can buy for a couple of quid in Asda? Something which makes us merry but frankly doesn’t taste that good and afterwards leaves us with a terrible bad head? Absolutely not: ‘Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.’ The wine Jesus produces, the joy Jesus gives, the life which Jesus imparts, is top draw stuff, the stuff which they don’t sell in Asda and which wine connoisseurs save for special occasions. That's the kind of God we’re talking about! That’s the kind of person Jesus is, the kind who makes huge amounts of top quality wine just to help out His friends. This is the Jesus who speaks to those who are at a low ebb. Who speaks to those who are spiritually dried up. Who have listened to the world and everything it has to offer, and have come away feeling let down. Jesus speaks to us, and to our modern culture, and offers joy, and celebration, and life. What must we do in order to feel this joy, to take part in this celebration, to gain this life? As Mary tells us in verse 5, we must ‘Do whatever He tell us’, and then we will have life, and have it to the full. Amen (from Fr Mike).