In John 2, Jesus attended a wedding that ran out of wine. His mother famously brought the problem to Jesus. And He asked, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour is not yet come.” And Mary simply told the servants to do whatever Jesus told them. So Jesus saw six large stone water jars nearby, kept for Jewish purification rites. They held 20-30 gallons a piece, that’s 120-180 gallons total, and Jesus told them to draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. This means that Jesus made the equivalent of between 600-900 bottles of wine, which, if you were wondering, is 50-75 cases of wine.
The bridegroom was apparently the one entrusted with providing the wine, and it may have been a source of significant embarrassment or shame for him to run out of wine right in the middle of the celebration. But when the miracle is performed, the embarrassed bridegroom is given the credit for not only providing wine, but providing the best wine, saving the best for last. And the gospel says that this was the first miracle and sign that Jesus performed to manifest His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.
This story is no accident at all. It is the first sign because it reverses the first sin. In a garden 6,000 years ago, the first bridegroom failed, and he failed like the bridegroom in this story with regard to food and feasting. God provided a feast in the Garden, even the Tree of Life, from which God said they were welcome to eat of every tree, just not the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. But Adam the Bridegroom failed to protect his bride and sinned, and their eyes were opened to their guilt and they became ashamed. And God pronounced curses upon them and ushered them out of the garden, away from the feast. Now they would work a cursed ground, with thorns and weeds, and the food and feasting would only come by great trial and toil.
This great toil was pictured by the ceremonial laws of the Old Covenant. After the Fall, everything was dead and decaying, everything was unclean and impure, tainted with sin and shame. Anyone who has lived long in this world knows about this. But God in His mercy still came near to His people, but He required them to constantly wash themselves and wash everything around them. God wanted them to constantly acknowledge that they need Him to cleanse them. And Hebrews calls all these washings “baptisms.” They had to be baptized over and over, sprinkled with purification water again and again because they were always getting unclean again. It was never enough.
Until God sent a new Adam, a new Bridegroom to make the world new. Unlike the first Adam, Jesus did not listen to the serpent. He did not seize food or glory or power. He waited patiently for it to be given. And here at the very beginning of His ministry, He demonstrated why He had come. He came to bring the feast. Or better, He came to bring us back to the feast, back into the garden. But He provides what we cannot provide. And He even alludes to this when His mother tells him they have run out of wine. He says, “Woman, my hour is not yet come.”
It’s worth noting that in the Garden, the woman’s name is “woman.” Her name is not Eve until after the Fall, and after the promise is given that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. He names his wife Eve in faith believing that she will become the mother of all the living. So you kind of have to wonder if Jesus said this line with a grin and a twinkle in His eye, calling His mother “woman,” and I wonder if His mother smiled back as she told the servants “just do whatever He says.”
Later, Jesus will refer to “His hour” as the time of His death on the cross. He knows that His death is the real moment when He will provide for all our needs and cover all our shame and welcome us back to the feast with the very best wine of all. But He pictures that coming hour in that quiet wedding in Galilee, perhaps in someone’s backyard, who suddenly had a lot more wine than they probably knew what to do with. And His disciples saw it all and they believed.
So this really is a glorious sign of the gospel. Jesus comes as the new Adam, the new Bridegroom to supply what the first bridegroom and all other bridegrooms have always struggled to supply: life and joy. But in this sign, Jesus proclaims that He can supply what we cannot. But more than that, Jesus provides what we cannot provide, and then He lets us get the credit for it. He covers our shame. Of course, we should always want to point away to Him as the One who makes it all possible. But this is how Jesus loves to do it for all who believe in Him.
Cyrus, today you are the bridegroom, and from this day forward, you are called by God to bring life and joy to your wife and family. You are to do this by imitating Jesus. Ephesians says you do this by leading your wife and loving her. And when you do this faithfully, it will require you to lay your life down for her in obedience to God. And this will be exceedingly hard. But this is the wine you are called by God to supply for the feast, and sometimes you will run out. So the only way to keep the feast going is for you to constantly look to Christ, telling Him that you have run out, and He will always provide more. All of this requires great strength and joy: strength and joy for the many burdens and trials of life, but also strength and joy to ask Christ for more. But He died on the Cross and rose from the dead to provide that strength for every man who asks. Jesus gives His blood for wine so that He might live in You, and His life makes you strong for this. And your glory is this strong joy.
Ava, today you are the bride, and from this day forward, you are called to help your husband as he seeks to lead you and your family in obedience to God. In Song of Songs, wine is a central theme in celebrating marital love. As Cyrus loves you, you are called to return that love with joy, and hospitality, and children. He brings the wine of joyful sacrifice, and you return it to him with the wine of respect and obedience and submission. We live in a world that is utterly embarrassed of a woman’s obedience to her husband, but we call it glory because Ephesians says you are imitating the glory of the Christian Church, which submits to Christ in all things. At the same time, your task will not be easy because you are promising to obey a fallible man. And you will be tempted to resent his weaknesses and failures. Sometimes you will run out of the wine of respect and obedience, and so the charge is the same for you: look to Christ for the wine that you need to supply. Tell Him when you have run out, and He will always supply you with more. He died and rose again so that every woman might have the strength she needs to submit to her own husband in the Lord. Jesus gives His blood for wine so that He might live in You, and His life makes you strong for this. And your glory is this submission and respect.
In this way, as Cyrus pictures Christ in his leadership and love and you respond like the Church in joyful obedience, together you are spreading a feast, and Christ will always supply the wine, the next vintage always better than the last.
In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.
Photo by Luigi Pozzoli on Unsplash
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