Wedding Pictures from Cana

Some of you remember the story of Louis Zamperini chronicled in the book, “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand and retold again this week by Peggy Noonan.

Zamperini ran for America in the 1936 Olympics. He joined the Army Air Corp after Pearl Harbor. He crashed in the Pacific, drifted in a raft on open water for 47 days, came near death from storms and shark attacks, and survived only to be captured by enemy troops. He spent two years in prison camps, tortured and brutalized, and came back a hero.

But Louis couldn’t get his life together—rage, alcoholism, self-destruction. He couldn’t stop the slide, couldn’t hold a job. Cynthia announced she was leaving.

Billy Graham was launching a crusade in Los Angeles. Cynthia talked Louie into going. And in that tent meeting, Louie says, he experienced the grace of God and made the turn that carried him out of his despair and into a useful and productive life.

I know that some of our church members came to Christ in the Billy and Franklin Graham Celebration of Hope back in 2006. More than 2,000 people did. Did you come to Christ through the ministry of Billy?

It’s all about grace—the unearned favor of God for sinners.

I think that is really what this miracle story is all about—the grace of God made available through Jesus Christ. Let’s read it.

"Then he called the bridegroom aside and 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.' What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him."

The purpose of this miracle is made clear in verse 11. It is a sign given so that the disciples will believe in Jesus and will understand more about who he is. It is the first of such signs, as John states. So it is one in a succession of signs that are given to accomplish this same purpose. John reiterated this purpose in 20:30-31, acknowledging that there were many other signs he did not record, but he chose to tell these so that we would believe.

An Awkward Development:

"the wine was gone." — John 2:3

Awkward for me. The teetotaler in me wants to celebrate. “Maybe they will stay sober and won’t run their donkeys into pedestrians on the way home.” The last thing they need is more alcohol, I muse. “Let them drink water!”

• If you run out of beer at your party, don’t ask me to go to the store for more. I abstain from alcohol like my father before me. We don’t drink alcohol as a beverage at my house.
• But I am seeing this scene from my own cultural perspective. I have safe water right at my fingertips.
• This family has six huge water pots because they have to store water and transport it in large quantities from a well. The water they get may or may not be free of microbes that cause sickness. The ancient world is like the Third World today. “Don’t drink the water” may be the most common health instruction for travel to the Third World.
• Wine is safer to drink than water in the time and place where Jesus lived. The alcohol killed the bugs like chlorine kills the bugs in our water. We will leave it at that for now.

Awkward for Mary. “They have no more wine” (v3).

• The mother of Jesus is not celebrating. She is upset. She knows that running out of wine at the wedding feast is awkward for the host family.
• Apparently she wants Jesus to fix it. That’s why she tells him. And he knows what she wants.
• We do not know that Mary expected a miracle. We have no miracles of Jesus recorded before this one. We don’t know that Mary ever witnessed Jesus performing a miracle. Maybe Mary is doing what my mother might do—telling me the problem just because she wants me to know, maybe with a hope that I can help.

Awkward for Jesus. “Woman, why do you involve me?”Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come” (v4).

• Mary seems to be involving Jesus, asking him to intervene in some way, though she may not know how.
• Jesus seems to be reluctant because the timing is off. “My hour” refers to his suffering and death which will be precipitated by his public ministry of preaching and miracles.
• Mary is insistent just as the importunate widow is insistent and just as Jesus teaches all of us to be insistent in prayer. In fact, every time that a petitioner comes to Jesus and gives a response to his hesitation, Jesus follows through and provides the answer.

Why Does John Record This Miracle?

The parallel in the Synoptics may be the “new wine into new wineskins” saying of Jesus set in the context of a wedding (Mark 2:18-19; “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast…”).

Maybe because it is the first of his miracles, and that is enough reason to record it. This miracle is the first sign in a series of signs. It is akin to the loaves and fishes.

Running out of wine may be a picture of Israel and its Spiritual Condition. Israel is God’s vineyard in Isaiah 5. But she fails to produce good grapes. Jesus has come to restore what has been stolen, killed, and destroyed by the Enemy. John may want us to see this symbolic significance in the miracle.

Maybe because, for John, this was the moment when for the first time he saw the glory of Jesus, the hour he first believed.

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear
And Grace, my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed (Amazing Grace, John Newton)

In the presence of Jesus all previous religious institutions, customs, and feasts lose their meaning. He is the true temple, his wedding feast is the true feast, his water alone can satisfy, his flesh is the true bread from heaven, his blood is real wine, and he alone is the resurrection and the life.

What Should We See In Our Own World?

Religion has run out of wine.

In our city. We are a very religious city that has the highest murder rate in America. We are a very religious city with spiritual strongholds of hopelessness and despair and lust and pride and addiction that we cannot seem to dislodge.

In our country. The churches are losing their place as beacons of morality and truth. Our words sound empty and hollow and political rather than spiritual. We appear to represent our own interests of wealth and power rather than the interests of Jesus.

In our world. Religion has compromised its moral authority by getting into bed with dictators and power-brokers. It has prostituted itself with the powerful because it no longer believes that “this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4). We have given up on the gospel in favor of politics where we think the real power lies.

You Have Saved the Best 'Til Now

The wedding ran out of wine. The Jewish religion had gone to seed. God was no longer the point.

But God intervened, as he often did in the history of Israel, to bring about repentance and revival.

This time, though, God brings the best. This is the climactic moment, “the hour of decision.” God sends his One and Only Son into the world to rescue sinners and bring redemption.

The goal is to See Jesus. See his glory.

• Jesus told Nathanael (1:50): “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things…”

We have the best in Jesus. He is with us always, never leaving or forsaking us. He is in this place now. He is the best, for he is the living God who was made flesh. And in him we have the glory of God revealed like the rising of the sun.

The best is overflowing. Six stone jars, 120 gallons, 500 bottles of the choicest wine they ever tasted, spilling from this wedding, running through the land: This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Can you see it, the artesian well that is Jesus himself, spring up to everlasting life?

• Abundant life: “I am come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).
• Abundant fruit: John 15: “I am the vine, and you are the branches. Whoever abides in me will bear much fruit."

Billy Graham story: “How will I ever tell Ruth?” And so Billy Graham was always focused on the individual, on you, even in a crowd of thousands. And his favored hymn of response was...

“Just as I Am” was always the response song at the Billy Graham meetings. When he preached here, the Franklin Graham team was doing the music, and they had prepared for a different response song. But when Billy came to the time of invitation he announced the song “Just As I Am” and everyone on the platform scrambled to make the change.