John 2:1-11
The hardest part of planning for a wedding can be the reception. The bride and groom have control over what they will wear, who will officiate, where the ceremony will take place, but there's one thing they can't completely control - the guests!
If you've ever worked on an event that required a response for attendance, you know this is true. The guests may fail to respond, respond with a "Yes", then change their mind, or reply "No" only to ask a few days before the event if they can come after all. This can make the arrangements with the caterer for food and drink quite challenging! I'm not sure of the invitation protocol for a Jewish wedding, but I can relate to the poor couple that finds themselves without the staple of their celebration here in John 2:1-11.
Jesus and his disciples were invited to a wedding, his mother, Mary was also there. Sometime during the festivities the wine runs out.
Wine is an important element in the Jewish wedding ceremony. As the bride and groom stand under the wedding canopy a glass of wine is blessed and both drink from it. The wine is symbolic of life - it "...begins as grape juice, goes through fermentation (during which is is sour), but in the end turns into a superior product that brings joy...", and "also symbolizes the overflowing of Divine blessing" as in Psalm 23:5 "...my cup overflows." (www.ohr.edu "The Jewish Wedding Ceremony" by Rabbi Mordechai Becher)
Mary makes Jesus aware of the lack of wine in John 2:3, and in John 2:5 tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do. I wonder what was going through her mind - did she know He could perform a miracle that day?
Six stone jars were standing nearby. These were capable of holding 20-30 gallons of water that was normally used in the kitchen and for ceremonial cleansing. They were heavy - cut from a large piece of stone and the water had to be hauled in to fill them. (A picture of this type of jar can be found at www.facingthechallenge.org/stonejars.php).
The water in the stone jars was turned into wine - better than the best wine the host had previously offered. This was the first of Jesus' miraculous signs, revealing His glory and providing his disciples an opportunity to put their faith in Him.
We can't control events in our future. We can plan, and work, but the results belong to God. The bride, groom and thier families may have thought they'd provided all that was necessary for the celebration of the wedding, then ran out of wine. Jesus knows our needs and provides for us even better than we are capable of ourselves!
"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21
Kathy how familiar this sounds. Our biggest fear before Bree & Andy's wedding was that we would run out of food. How many nites did Bree & I wake up in the middle of the night wondering if the people we loved so much, those that were committed to traveling so far and sit in the blazing heat, would have enough to eat. We should have taped Ephesians 3:20-21 to our foreheads. But as the week before the wedding approached and more pressing matters were at hand, we experienced Philippians 4:7 in its fullest, And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. The lyrics of the song (Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
ReplyDeleteLook full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace) became true. The food was a non-issue, the only thing that mattered was that "a wedding was about to take place and two heart would be joined as one."