January 16, 2022 - Second Sunday after Epiphany - Who's Getting Married and Where is the Epiphany?

The Wedding at Cana is unique to the Fourth Gospel and is the first of Jesus’ seven signs in the narrative.

According to John changing water into wine is not a miracle but a sign of who Jesus is. What does this reveal about who Jesus is and what Jesus will do? We should remember that the miracles Jesus performs in the Fourth Gospel are never called miracles. The miracle itself is not really what we are supposed to see, as miraculous as it is.

True, water into wine is something, but the signs point to a truer revelation about Jesus. Revelation for revelation’s sake is really not the point. What deeper reality being revealed? What are we supposed to see about Jesus?

First there is Isaiah 25:6 that predicts what, in the Old Testament, is known as the messianic feast: 

On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine— the best of meats and the finest of wines.

The "mother" thinks this is this is the time for the messianic feast. Jesus says "my hour has not yet come". This is not to be the messianic feast. That will come with Jesus' death and resurrection, his hour. Yet the atmosphere and foreshadowing is undeniable. The Wedding at Cana, for example, opens with and takes place on the third day.

The word “grace” occurs only four times in the Fourth Gospel and only in the Prologue (1:1-18). Why? One could make the argument that John’s source for the Prologue was an extant hymn that John borrowed and inserted into his narrative. But, what if we take the incarnation seriously and suggest that once the Word becomes flesh, the rest of the Gospel shows you what grace tastes like, looks like, smells like, sounds like, and feels like?

Jesus’ signs show you, don’t tell you, what abundant grace is, “from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (1:16). Turning water into wine is revealing abundant grace. And what does abundant grace taste like? Like the best wine when cheap stuff is expected. It’s one thing to say, “Jesus is the source of grace.” It’s quite another to have an experience of it.

The details of abundance cannot be overlooked in this text — six water jars, each 20-30 gallons, filled to the brim, of the best wine. The amount in and of itself is extraordinary. But the best wine? At this point in a wedding celebration? Unheard of. Back in the day, weddings typically lasted a week, where the host would serve the better wine when the guests could actually taste what they were drinking, a nice expensive Chardonnay, perhaps. After a few days of drinking and determined levels of inebriation would the guests be served a Gallo jug Chablis instead. Let's think how real this is and how extravagant. This is not a miracle of healing or feeding. No one is going to suffer if this does not happen. God is declaring party time for humankind

Another important detail in this first sign, this first act of Jesus’ public ministry, is that his mother is present. In the Gospel of John, the mother of Jesus is never named, never called Mary. She is always denoted by her relationship to Jesus. Here, it is her urging that initiates Jesus’ action.

The exchange between Jesus and his mother is really quite funny and we do ourselves no favors when insisting that the Bible is void of humor. She notes that the wedding hosts have run out of wine. Jesus’ response is, basically ,that they should have hired a better wedding planner. But then, she tells the servants to do whatever Jesus says. 

Here we can see the mother of Jesus, like a mother of a schoolboy encouraging her child to get on the school bus for the first time: “Come on, you can do it! I know you can!” But, I also wonder what she saw in that moment. What had Jesus revealed to her up to that point that would cause her to believe that such a miracle was possible from him? How did she suspect this could be a time for revelation even if it was not the messianic feast.

The mother of Jesus appears only twice in the Gospel of John, at the wedding at Cana and at the foot of the cross. Another detail that ties the wedding at Cana to the cross. While we are not told about here about her reoccurrence later in the Gospel, we get a hint of her return in Jesus’ reason for what seems to be a refusal of her request, “My hour has not yet come.” Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus will refer to his “hour” which signals the time of his death.

It is more than poignant that the mother of Jesus brackets his life, surrounds Jesus’ earthly ministry. She is at the beginning of his career and watches him die. She is the nurturing force when he is the Word made flesh, a shared parenthood with God, the father. This can be a reminder that whenever Jesus reveals his divinity, he is simultaneously revealing something about his humanity. Perhaps, in the sign that it is the water into wine, we might even experience something that we need to know about ourselves.

Not only does the water change into wine but, by doing this, Jesus has turned from a guest to being the host. God wants to be, and is always, the bridegroom. And this is the epiphany we can glean from this account