on 3 April 2024
Dear all at IPC.
We have the joy of a load of weddings at IPC in the next few weeks and months. I am at the stage of having to prepare new wedding sermons and realised I’ve never preached on Jesus at the wedding in Cana of Galilee at a ceremony. As Scripture always does, it surprises you and shocks you. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to preach this for a while but here is what I’ve discovered.
What exactly is the problem in the wedding of Cana in John 2? The wine has run out and there’s still hours of the wedding to go. There are two possible options for why this has happened. One could be that the bride and groom have invited heavy drinkers to the wedding who’ve got through the wine far more quickly than they thought. The guests are slightly inebriated and now there’s the problem that there is no wine. The other option, which I think is more likely, is that the groom failed to do his job and plan properly. It’s quite possible he was being rather cheap and didn’t provide enough wine for the wedding. He’s let his new wife down and brought shame on both his and her family. The guests are getting restless and Mary, Jesus’ mother, a fellow guest, hears about the impending crisis.
The interesting thing about this situation is that when Mary comes to Jesus she doesn’t bring a solution, she just very briefly states the problem in 4 brief words ‘they have no wine’. We don’t know how she said it, whether it was through gritted teeth or quietly in a corner. She doesn’t tell her son to go and rebuke the unruly drunks for their sin, nor does she instruct him to tell the crowd to forgive the groom for being inhospitable. She doesn’t tell him how to act, give him her wisdom or insist that he follow her instructions. She doesn’t say to Jesus you have the power to do a miracle and fix this problem, go and do it. No Mary simply reports the problem to Jesus stating, “They have no wine”. Jesus rebukes her saying “his hour has not yet come”: now is not the moment for him to be displaying the power of God before the crowds. However, Mary doesn’t give up. She just looks at the servants of the feast and says, “do whatever he tells you”. It is a beautiful confession of faith that Mary makes here. It reveals her trust in her son. Mary is recognising Jesus’ sovereignty, he is no longer under her authority as a mother.
When Mary sees there is a problem in her midst, she doesn’t go to her son with a list of demands or a solution. She hasn’t figured out the answer and then asked Jesus to give that to her, to bless her ideas. Rather Mary believes that Jesus knows what is good and right and has the power to act. In saying to the servants ‘do whatever he tells you’, she is showing that she trusts, that in the end, he will do what is good and right. He does all things well.
Mary is a magnificent example to us of trusting Christ. The danger for us is to come up with a solution that we somehow want the Lord to endorse: Jesus fix my problem, do this and do that; restore me to health; cure me; provide this; give me that. I am forever providing Jesus with exactly what I need, and then telling him to do it.
Of course we are encouraged to pour out our hearts to God, to make known to him the desires and griefs of our hearts. We ask him to provide our daily bread. He always does what is best, he does all things well. We pray his will be done because we recognise that God’s ways are higher than our ways. We pray humbly knowing that God always answers and he will answer rightly even if that means I don’t get what I want.
The key in marriage, as in all of life, is to follow Mary’s words: “Do whatever [Jesus] tells you” and to rest in his sovereignty and believe Jesus words have the authority. They are the life giving words. It is his voice we are to follow. It’s the key to a fruitful life and the key to a happy marriage.
Of course in one way John 2 is not really ultimately about a wedding. It is showing us the fullness and richness of what Jesus has come to bring. He is the fulfilment of what was promised. John 2:11 tells us, ‘This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory’. In many ways this is the great foundational sign of John’s gospel which brings total transformation, of new creation. There’s a hint in v1 ‘on the third day’ – it’s a phrase that we find again and again as scripture reaches it’s climax at the end of the gospel in the resurrection of Christ on the third day. When Jesus speaks of ‘his hour’ in v11 which has not yet come, he is using a phrase that will come up a further seven times in John’s gospel, and always refers to his death. Jesus is showing us that this transformation of newness, goodness, and fullness come through the cross.
This life giving transformational God-man Jesus has come to make new creation and give life. Jesus takes the public shame of the groom and in its place he gives joy and transformation and overflowing goodness. The jars in the story that were used for ceremonial washing are now replaced by what Jesus has accomplished.
“Do whatever he tells you”. It is the answer to what makes a marriage be what it should be, it’s the answer to what our lives should look like.
Your Minister and Friend,