A bonus in being a minister is that I get to share in a lot of weddings. Weddings are joyous and happy times. In the service of marriage are these words:… we are gathered together in the sight of God,… to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony;… which holy estate Christ adorned and beautified with his presence in Cana of Galilee.

It was a wedding in Cana of Galilee that Jesus does his first “sign.” The story is told in John 2:1-11.

Weddings then, as now, were great and grand occasions. Friends and family came from miles away; the poor relatives and the rich relatives, the eccentric aunts and the harried uncles. Jesus was a guest at this wedding in the town of Cana.

In Galilee a newly married couple would hold open house for a week. This week of festivity was a high moment in the li…