1. Do not get drunk on wine. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. That instruction from St Paul gives in Ephesians 5 is the key to the story of the wedding in Cana

2. This story tells us that three days after the Holy Spirit came down on Jesus at his baptism, he began his work in unexpected way where you would least expect it – at a wedding reception at a home in Cana.

• Oddly, the focus of this puzzling story is not on the newly married couple and the members of their families, but on two other guests, Mary the mother of Jesus and Jesus himself.
• There are five surprises in John’s account that celebration.
• The first surprise is that Mary acted as if it is the wedding reception of her son in her home rather than the unnamed groom and his unnamed bride.
• When she noticed that the wine had run out, she told Jesus rather than the groom to supply some more: They have no more wine.
• Then she also told the waiters to follow what Jesus said rather than the groom: Do whatever he tells you.
• The second surprise is that, even though it wasn’t his wedding, Jesus supplied the wine that was needed for the celebration to run its full course.
• He told Mary that they were not responsible for the provision of wine at this wedding banquet, even though he would set the menu at another, future meal: What is that to you and me? Why do you involve me? My time has not yet come.
• Yet despite that, he told the waiters to fill six large stone jars with plain water where it was turned into wine.
• Then he told them draw some of it out and take it to the best man, the master of the feast, for his approval.
• The third surprise is that Jesus supplied such a large amount of the wine when the feast was almost over.
• He produces 600 litres which is about 750 bottles of wine.
• That’s more than they ever needed, even if more guests were invited, and the celebration went on for whole week rather than just one day as was the custom for ordinary people.
• The fourth surprise is that when the master of the feast tasted the new wine that Jesus had made, he assumed that the bridegroom had deliberately kept the best wine last for no good reason: 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 last surprise: John notes that Jesus did not perform this miracle for the benefit of the married couple and their guests but for his disciples so that they would put their faith in him.
• This was his first sign for them.
• It displayed his invisible glory as God’s Son in that home rather than a holy meal at the temple in Jerusalem.
• It is a preview of another even greater meal that we celebrate here today.

In John’s Gospel this is the first of seven signs for us as the disciples of Jesus.

• They are seven miracles that show us who Jesus is and the gift of life he provides for us as his disciples.
• The seven signs occur in this order
• The transformation of water into wine by his command (2:1-11)
• The healing of a dying boy by Jesus with his word (4:46-52)
• The healing of a lame man by Jesus with his word (5:1-8)
• The feeding of 5000 with five loaves and two fish so that there were 12 baskets of leftover bread (6:1-14)
• The journey of Jesus across a stormy lake at night to join his disciples in their boat (6:16-21)
• The healing of a blind man by Jesus who told him to wash himself with water (9:1-7)
• The resuscitation of Lazarus by Jesus with his word (11:38-44)
• At the end of his Gospel he says: Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20:30-31).
• They foreshadow the even greater miracles that the risen Lord Jesus would perform through his word as it is proclaimed in the church and enacted in baptism and Holy Communion.
• So the transformation of water into wine at Cana gives us a preview of what we now have through faith in the risen Lord Jesus.
• What he did at Cana gives us a foretaste of the life that we receive from him as our risen Lord.
• He joins us as our heavenly bridegroom to make himself at home with us and show himself to us as our life-giving Lord.
• His presence with us here in church and at home with us puts his glory on display for us and to others through us.

4. Well what is the wine that Jesus provides for us by his presence with us?

• There are two passages that tell us what it is.
• In Isaiah 25:6-9) we have this prophecy of an international feast for people from all nations to celebrate the death of death with rich food and vintage wine in the new age, the time of salvation:

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined…
He will swallow up death forever,
and wipe away tears from all faces.

• In Acts 2 we hear how the 12O members of the congregation in Jerusalem seemed to be drunk with wine because they were filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
• The wine that Jesus gives to us as his disciples is the Holy Spirit who, as we have just said in the Nicene Creed is ‘the giver of life.’

5. In what way is the Holy Spirit like wine?

• People often feel that they are only half alive..
• They feel that they are missing out on life and deprived of happiness and joy.
• They are dispirited and disappointed because they have not found the enjoyment which they had expected in their work and leisure, their marriage and family.
• So they long to escape their humdrum existence and enjoy a full life, an abundant life that does not peter out, but gets better and better as they go on living.
• They long for something to boost their sagging spirits and energize them, something to enhance their vitality and revive their sense of enjoyment.
• They search for this happiness in two main ways.
• When they are young and healthy, they focus on having a good time in many different ways, but most of all in a loving sexual relationship with another person.
• They look for joy in marriage.
• They expect marriage to rescue them from their cheerless isolation and give them the joy of intimacy with another person.
• They want love to put a spring in their steps and a song in their hearts.
• But sadly, as you all know, some people never find anyone to marry.
• Even worse, married life disappoints others who do get married.
• Worst of all, their marriage ends a divorce or death.
• And with that the glory goes out of their lives.
• Then in disappointment they turn to artificial stimulants such as alcohol or drugs to dispel their misery and make them feel alive once again.
• When that too fails to deliver what they want, they are left with a sense of frustration.
• So they cut their losses and make do with what they have, because they fear that the best is behind them and the worst is yet to come.
• But imagine if that did not happen.
• Imagine a life in which we went from joy to joy with the prospect of ever-increasing enjoyment.
• Imagine a single life that was better than the best marriage or a marriage that never grew stale but became better and better the longer it lasted.
• Imagine a life of continuous celebration and the enjoyment of ever-deepening love.
• Imagine a fine, divine wine that produces unutterable and exalted joy, heavenly joy for your life on earth
• That is what is promised to us in the story of the wedding at Cana, a story that manifests the glory of Jesus to us as his disciples and shows us what he offers to us who believe in him.
• Jesus is our heavenly bridegroom who dines with us in this congregation and our homes to cement his union with us.
• Both at church and at home he turns the plain water of everyday life into the wine of eternal life that we begin to enjoy already now here on earth.
• He lives with us as our loving bridegroom so that we can now live with him as his beloved bride, even if we are single and unmarried.
• By his wonderful cohabitation with us we enjoy eternal life with him and his heavenly Father, more and more of it as we are fit to receive it.
• That was why he died for us.
• He sacrificed his life for us, so that we could share in his divine life as God’s Son.
• So he now gives himself and his Spirit to transform us, because he delights in us as his bride.
• He gives us his Holy Spirit, the Spirit of joy and gladness, the Spirit of celebration and jubilation.
• Thus Jesus fulfills the promise that was made by Isaiah:

you will be called Hephzibah, My-Delight-in-Her,
for the Lord will delight in you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so will your God rejoice over you.

• That joy is the fruit of the Spirit who gives us a foretaste of life in heaven already now.
• Here is how St Peter describes it: Though you have not seen Jesus, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, as you obtain the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls (1 Pet 1:8-9).

6. So join the celebration of your marriage with Jesus who has made his home with you and rejoice with unutterable and glorious joy.

• Come to Jesus this Sunday and every Sunday and ask him to give you his holy wine to drink, the Spirit of glory that gives you better joy than the best wine.
• Begin every meal with this simple grace by which you welcome him to dine with you:

Come Lord Jesus, be our/my guest
And let this meal to us/me be blest.

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