The Sign in the Wine

Signs, signs everywhere signs. We are inundated with signs.  Signs point the way, give direction, tell us where we are, where we aren’t.  Signs welcome us or tell us to keep out.  Signs bear messages, some favorable, some unfavorable.  Signs are visual cues, reminders, and attention- grabbers.  Signs advertise and entice.  They provoke or they seek to console.  They convey a public message.  We see so many signs, we ignore them.  Sometimes with consequence.   Signs organize us, give order to things.  Keep us moving along.  People say, “it’s a sign” when they mean that something means something else—that an occurrence is pointing to another reality altogether. People sometimes look for signs—signs of change in the seasons of life.  Signs signal when something is about to happen or when something has happened to which we ought to pay attention. 

John’s gospel tells us that Jesus performs signs. There are seven of them.  He tells us when the first two happen; then he leaves the rest for us to find like clues to a scavenger hunt. We heard about the first sign in Cana of Galilee; the wedding feast, he turns water into wine.  He does so reluctantly, at the request of his mother---Jesus’ date to the wedding.  One of his disciples, Nathaniel is from Cana and does not believe anything good can come out of Nazareth.  Then the man from Nazareth performs this miracle, this trick, this sign.  At a wedding that has gone on for hours or days, at which the wine has freely flowed, an embarrassing social faux pas occurs.  They run out of wine.  Jesus insists that the timing is not right for him to act, but he does because his mother instructs the servants to do what he tells them to do.  He turns 150 gallons of water into choice, costly, vintage wine.  The chief steward compliments the bride groom on this unprecedented act of lavish generosity.  The implications are many: 1.  the hosts save face in an honor/shame culture where hosting and hospitality are essential to one’s having a good reputation.  2. The wedding feast continues.  With that much wine, it continues into an indefinite future.  The party will end before the wine does.  3. Jesus’ disciples believe in Him. It moves them from uncertainty to faith.  From doubt to belief in Jesus as God’s appointed savior.  In suspect people want to be moved by something that someone does, an act of bravery, valor, heroism, generosity.  We want to be moved, to be inspired.

Finally, this sign points us forward; after all, John gives us another clue because it happens on the 3^rd day.  On the third day is a big thing in the bible.  On the third day Jonah is spit out of the whale onto dry land where he can reluctantly take up his mission as prophet to the Ninevites.  On the third day, Jesus who was crucified is risen from the dead and appears to Mary and his disciples.  The third day is the day of resurrection and life.  The third day is the new beginning, the fulfillment of God’s promises to forgive, to heal, to save, to rescue, to adopt us and welcome us home.  The third day is part of this sign. It points us to a new reality taking place in Jesus;  ritual water, cleansing waters, holy waters, drowning waters, tears, all these waters that are part of Israel’s story, part of Israel’s identity as God’s covenant people are turned into wine.  No more tears. Only JOY.  This is a sign that our tears, and the symbolic flood waters of all that threaten to overwhelm us, drown us, destroy us have been transformed by Jesus into the wine of rejoicing.  The wedding banquet that knows no end will one day come to pass and we will be part of it.  We will sing and dance and drink with JOY on that day.  When you need a sign that God is going to turn rain into sun, tears into laughter, sorrow into joy---look no further that John 2; look no further than Jesus of Nazareth,who turns water into wine and death into life.  Amen.