1. Water turned into wine

Today’s lecturing part is the episode of the wedding in Cana. The scene is situated in a small village in Galilee near to Nazareth, Jesus’ home town.

Jesus mother Mary was serving guests at a wedding party. The host family might be one of her relatives. She seemed taking care of foods and drinks. It is said that Jewish wedding party of the time continued for a week. The ordinary people then were very poor and sometimes lucked of daily bread. So being invited to a wedding party was an excellent occasion to appreciate good cooking and wine in abundance. Therefore it became a great matter if the quantity of served wine was not enough. And it happened ; - When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” (John 2:3)

Mary was upset because she felt responsible for the shortage. And she thought that her eldest son Jesus could find some solution. But Jesus answered coolly ; - “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied, “My time has not yet come."(John 2:4)

Jesus might not appreciate that Mary asked him to intervene into such an issue because luck of wine was a trivial matter for God. “My time has not yet come” means it was too early to show his divine power. Nonetheless Mary was sure that Jesus would help her ; - His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you."(John 2:5)

Then Jesus was touched by her confidence in him. Jesus would say that fervent requests had power ; - “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find.” (Matthew 7:7)

And he acted ; - Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet."They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine.(John 2:7-9)

Naturally the master were astonished ; - He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. 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.” (John 2:9-10)
The miracle of Cana happened thus. The Gospel does not give further explanations for how it could do. Because miracles are God’s works which go beyond humans understanding.
We only should notice that the essence of the story is not the phenomenon of turning water into wine. If it were, the episode became a mere magical tale. The key point of it is the fact that the water in jars was for ritual use ; - Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.( John 2:6)

Observance of ‘ Ceremonial washing ‘ was very important for Jewish people of the era. Mark tells us; - The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.(Mark 7:3-4)

Those persons seem to us almost maniac by making enormous efforts to keep themselves clean. They were so afraid of getting unclean caused by contacting elements of surrounding world. They would not visit gentiles whom they thought considered to be ‘unclean’, for example. They considered those who would not respect Jewish law to be ‘unclean.’

Therefore each time they gat back home from outside they washed themselves in order to purify their body. Because out of their house there was always the risk of touching or eating ‘unclean’ objects unknowingly. So much so such a quantity of water for ceremonial washing was needed. Without that they could not live calmly.

2. No need of ceremonial water

Matthew reported ; - Jesus called the crowd to him and said, ” Listen and understand. What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’ (Matthew 15:10-11)

Though we think that those Jewish people were overreacting against uncleanness, we might also live in excessive fear for something, being hurt for example. In today’s Japanese society the reason of main problems is relationship trouble, in company, school, or even inside family. Almost all of us experienced mental pains and distress due to aggressive talking. In consequence, we have the tendency of protecting our feelings by closing ourselves inside us.

We know that our words reveal, more or less , reveal our depth in mind, which is very often offensive. Jealousy or dislike, for instance, cannot be concealed. So our talking sometimes unknowingly hurt feelings of neighbors. James explained that this way ; - Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. ( James3:5-8)
Jesus taught that what came out of our mouth made us ‘unclean.’ Such an uncleanness cannot be cleaned with water. Several hundreds of gallons of water cannot solve the problem and our relationship with neighbors is likewise. It means that our efforts are never enough to built perfectly harmonious relation with nightbors because ‘uncleanness’ is inside our heart, not out of it.

Th Bible calls that uncleanness ’sin.’ Sin in the bottom of our entity hurts others then hurts ourselves in return. That sin has another name, ‘egoism,’ which prevent us from caring about others. As long as we are under influence of egoism we will never live in peace. But Jesus died on the Cross to make us free from the yoke, The Gospels tell us.

Miraculous wine symbolizes Jesus’ blood shed on the Cross. The act of Jesus of turning ceremonial water into wine opened the path for humans to emancipation from uncleanness of heart. Therefore the early church read aloud the passage of Cana at the time of Lord’s Communion.

I tell you a short legend story here : Someone asked St. Jerome if the guests of the wedding in Cana had drunk up such a quantity of wine. The answer of Jerome was, “No. Therefore we continue drinking the rest in our Lord’s communion.”

3. Blessing and truth, came from Jesus.

Todays’ invocation verses are John 1:16-17 ; - From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John is the unique Gospel writer who reported the miracle in Cana. Besides he placed the episode just before the clearing the Temple at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. And he concluded the story with this verse ; - This, 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.(John 2:11)
In contrast, the corresponding passage was reported as the last event of the week of the Passion.

The water which Jesus changed was that of ritual use, not for drinking. John suggests there that wine represented Jesus’ blood which made ceremonial water needless. So he wrote “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

In the episode of cleaning the Temple, John described reaction of Jewish people who were strongly offended by Jesus’ act. Furthermore they were provoked by Jesus’ response ; - Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” (John 2:18-19)

‘Raise’ is ‘ἐ¦Ã¦Åί¦Ñ¦Ø {eg-i’-ro}’ in Greek text which also means ‘to raise from the sleep of death’ or in other words ‘to resurrect.’ We can translate the verse above this way ; Destroy my body and God, my Father, will resurrect me in three days.

Jesus’ message was that Isralites established rites of sacrifice to redeem humans’ sins in the Temple and were collecting taxes to maintain those activities. But those rites and the Temple would be useless because Jesus would take charge of all by offering himself as the sacrifice on the Cross. Therefore Jesus predicted the destruction of the Temple.

John wrote the Gospel around in 90 CE and the early church of the time was suffering from oppression of Jewish religious authorities. Therefore John felt need to encourage believers by emphasizing that Judaism, based on rites and law, was obsolete because blessing and truth was given through Jesus’ sacrifice. Jesus become God’s Temple and remains always with us. In that purpose John put the episodes of Cana and clearing the Temple at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. John is announcing the Good News that the blood of Jesus made humans free from yoke law, to us too.

We learn from today’s lecturing portion that we should not return back to the world ruled by laws. To follow Jesus is not to live in ascetic way. We have no need to respect restraining directives, for example, ban of alcoholic drinks by Japanese protestant church. The custom was born in 18 century in England due to excessive alcohol consumption then brought into Japan by American Methodistic preachers. But to be a christian is not to be a strict moral-teacher.

Isaiah sings ; - On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine— the best of meats and the finest of wines.

The Bible shows us that the best of meats and the finest of wines represent God’s blessing. If we focus on merely negative effects of wine drinking we become similar to law teachers who adhered obsessively to nutritive interdicts. The risk of formalists is to consider secondary rules to be the essence of the faith .

John compels us to find joy of life in worship of God by abandoning ascetic attitude. Sttendance of Sunday service must not be an imposed obligation. We should come to church to feel happiness by praying God. Thus the Passion of Jesus becomes the emblem of gratefulness and happiness, not that of sufferings. The Passion opens the path to the Resurrection. For that reason the day of the Passion is called ‘ Good Friday’

It might be difficult for us, Japanese people, to acknowldge that a man who was executed on the Cross is the Savior. But that death of Jesus allowed us to be blessed. We must witness to the fact not only with words but also with our acts of love. Then we will understand the truth ; - For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. (1 Corinthians 1:25)
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* Saint Jerome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusebius_Sophronius_Hieronymus