John 2:1-11

January 9, 2022

John 2:1-11

Initial Thoughts

• Water into Wine kit from the Science Company

• John butts in yet again- every 2nd Sunday after Epiphany

• Well known story- only appears in John’s Gospel

• Epiphany isn’t a season, but it could be. This fits a series of stories of Jesus being revealed

  • “What kind of Jewish Dionysus is this? The Jesus of John has saved the good wine until the ‘now’ of a first disclosure of his glory. It was a manifestation, an epiphany, and it was meant to be that - observed later in the church as the Epiphany on the feast of Dionysus, January 6 in our calendar, when it was reputed in the Greek world that the god turned water into wine.” (Sloyan, Interpretation: John)

Bible Study

• Third Day-Introduction to the ministry of Jesus

  • Day Zero - Baptized

  • Day One - “steals” Peter and Andrew from John

  • Day Two- Goes to Galilee and recruits Philip and Nathanael

  • Day Three- Wedding in Cana

  • First “miracle” and act of ministry outside of calling the disciples

  • symbolic of resurrection - foreshadows the wedding feast of the faithful and God

• This is NOT John the Baptist who ate locusts and honey and lived in the desert- the Word is going to the people, not waiting for them to come to him

  • Jesus’ miracle is evangelistic only in the celebratory nature and in how the disciples believe in him

  • Not a broad miracle in which many come to believe, but is misunderstood to have been the good work of the bridegroom

• Jesus’ Rebuttal- “Woman, what Concern is that to you and me?”

  • Mary’s name is never used. Always “mother of Jesus”

  • Was this rude? 

    • Jewish Annotated New Testament: “an unusual and discourteous address to one’s mother… This mode of address implites a distance between Jesus and his mother, and it contrasts with the importance attached in this Gospel to the Father-Son relationship.” (p. 178)

    • Women’s Bible Commentary: “His words are not an act of rudeness to his mother, however, but are an important assertion of Jesus’ freedom from all human control. Verse 4 insists that Jesus’ actions will not be dictated by anyone else’s time or will. His mother’s response indicates that she understands this. She tells the servants with utter confidence that Jesus will do something. His mother enacts discipleship: she trusts that Jesus will act and allows him to act in freedom.” (p. 520)

  • Foreshadows the very end of the Gospel in John 19

John 19:26-30 (NRSV)

26  When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son."

27  Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

28  After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), "I am thirsty."

29  A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth.

30  When Jesus had received the wine, he said, "It is finished." Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.  

• The Gospel of John is encapsulated by the death and resurrection of Jesus

  • BUT - this is not a time for dying but a time for living

  • Perhaps a rejection of those who want to rush through the life of Jesus to the crucifixion

• What happened? Did all the wine run out or just the “good wine”?

  • Perhaps just the good wine - Instead of being practical and bringing out the sour wine (see 19:29) Jesus revealed an abundance of good wine.

  • Good wine? More alcoholic, saved only for the best of occasions, safer than water

• Extravagance of God and the scarcity of the world

  • The scarcity of the world

    • Not enough

    • Practical - Use the best first so they won’t notice the cheap stuff later - save $$

    • Jars are used for Ritual purification- not so you can get drunk!

  • Abundance of God 

    • Filled to the brim

    • Good wine

    • 6 jars holding 20-30 gallons each

    • Anything and everything can be used for God’s good works- even “holy purification jars”

• This is a transition story, reflecting the shift from before Jesus to after his arrival

  • “Nothing is changed but everything is changed. What had been water is wine. Word has become flesh. An hour that has not yet come is here. This is existence at the edge of the ages, a point at which the old eon and the new dance a figured minuet. What will be is. What seems to be is no more. In this Word and Light of God who is man, all is new. How else can the transformation be conveyed except in quiet parables of cosmic change?” (Sloyan, Interpretation: John)

• Carol Lakey Hess in Feasting on the Word - Question of Theodicy

  • The Wedding at Cana pits the needs of the world in direct confrontation with the abundant generosity of God

  • If God is so miraculously generous and filled with abundance, then why are so many left without wine/clean water/safety/education/ healthcare, etc.

  • Are we to be the servants through through which God’s abundance flows?

  • Are we to be Mary constantly voicing the concerns of the people to God in confidence that God will make it right?

    • “John 2, however, reveals what God has in mind—abundance, and the mother of Jesus nudges us to ask what God had in mind—during slavery, the genocide of Native peoples, the Holocaust.”

  • Both?

  • Great tie in for MLK weekend

Thoughts and Questions

• Is the church a church of John the Baptist - proclaiming the good news for all who come to hear or is the church a church of Jesus who goes out and meets people where they are with joyous extravagance?

• The abundance of God in which we have more and better than we ever could have imagined meets our culture of scarcity in which we can never have enough.

• How do we balance out the miraculous abundance of God with the great and unaddressed needs of the world? Carol Lakey Hess in Feasting on the Word

Opening music: Misirlou, One Man 90 Instruments by Joe Penna/MysteryGuitarMan at MIM

Closing Song by Bryan Odeen