Isaiah 62:5 (NIV) As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.
From John 2 (NIV) 1On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. 3When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine." 6Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. 7Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim. 8Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." They did so, 9and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10and said, "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." 11This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.
In a society where we are taught to be self-sufficient, in a time when we are gaining or trying to gain more and more control over life, the notion of Jesus doing for us is hard for many to understand in mind and spirit. It is hard for many of us to see our need for the Cross. And it is futile to try and convince us of that need. Rather, the question might be, “Has the wine of our life run out?”
We do a lot of striving to make our life good and secure and happy. Has it worked? Do we find ourselves to be busy and bored? Our lives filled with much activity but not much meaning, direction, and purpose? Could it be that all this striving of our life is the “old wine” that has run out on us, has failed us? It does not give us the life we had hoped for?
The Greek word used here for wedding is gamos, which actually refers to the wedding feast, not the actual ceremony. The wedding feast was a time when the people enjoyed the sheer goodness of life, and at the heart of that enjoyment was wine and a marriage, the coming together of a man and a woman in a life long commitment of faithfulness and love. That marriage reminded the people of their special relationship to God. But then the wine ran out. There was no wine left to help the people celebrate this marriage relationship.
Wine was a religious symbol of a Hebrew ritual and law that was no longer working for the people of Israel. When Jesus turned the water into wine, He gave back to the people a way to this special relationship to God that they had lost. He restored the goodness of life in this marriage relationship to God. Specifically, this miraculous sign points to the time when the wine of His blood will be poured out for the forgiveness of sins and to call us back into this marriage relationship to God. Jesus gives us back this relationship that is at the heart of what the good life is really all about, gives us back this relationship that is a constant source of celebration and joy, and which will never run dry.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 18, 1998
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
No comments:
Post a Comment