Let’s begin by remembering the story together.

Jesus was attending a wedding in the village of Cana, about eight miles north of Nazareth. His mother and disciples were there too. At some point, Jesus’ mother came to him and told him they had run out of wine. Jesus took some jugs of water and performed his first miracle by turning the water into wine.

That is the quick version of the story, and on its own it creates a lot of questions. The obvious question is why did Jesus do it? Why did he use his powers to do something as mundane as turning water into wine? It seems more like a sideshow magic trick than a miracle from the Son of God.

And while we are asking, why was Jesus at the wedding in Cana anyway? Hadn’t John told us that Jesus had just been baptized and had gone north to the Sea of Galilee? Why was he now in the little village of Cana, some fifteen miles west of the Sea of Galilee?

And why was John the only one of the four gospel writers to tell us this story? Matthew, Mark, and Luke didn’t say anything at all about Jesus turning water into wine. Why is that?

I think it might help if we take a closer look at what John tells us about that wedding and the rest of what was going on with Jesus.

It is interesting that John was careful to give us a clear, day- by-day schedule of what was happening. We don’t find that done in most of the other gospel stories. But John tells us that three days before, Jesus had been with John at the Jordan River where he was baptized. That means Jesus would have been south of the Sea of Galilee, some twenty miles away from Cana. And John told us that when he was baptized, he saw God’s Spirit come down to Jesus like a dove, letting them all know that Jesus was the Son of God.

John said that, two days before, the day after he had been baptized, Jesus was still at the Jordan, and that was when John introduced him to Andrew and Simon Peter, who decided to become Jesus’ first disciples.

The next day, John said Jesus and his disciples left the Jordan River and went to Galilee, to Bethsaida, the town on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee where Andrew and Peter lived. That was when he met Philip, who became the next disciple. Philip then told Nathaniel about Jesus, and Nathanael then became a disciple as well. That was then.

This day, Jesus was in Cana of Galilee, 25 miles west of Bethsaida, where he and his disciples, and his mother, had been invited to attend a wedding.

Are you with me so far? It was a busy few days, and John was very careful to try and keep things straight for us. I wonder why?

One of our questions was why Jesus had been invited to the wedding, and why he made the long trip to be there.

Maybe it was because Cana was Nathanael’s hometown. But that doesn’t explain why Jesus’ mother was there. Over the past few days, she had been back in Nazareth, about eight miles south of Cana. If Jesus was there because of his new disciple Nathanael, why was Mary there?

Some believe that they were all there because the bridegroom at the wedding was John the Baptizer himself. We aren’t told that, but these folks believe that John made the trip back from the Jordan and everyone had come to celebrate his special day with him.

Some believe the wedding in Cana was for Mary Magdalene and that Jesus and his family knew her, and that’s why they were invited to attend. Neither John nor the other gospel writers tell us that, but these people believe they have found other evidence to support their beliefs.

Some people believe that it was not only Mary Magdalene’s wedding taking place that day in Cana of Galilee, but they believe the groom at the wedding was Jesus himself. Again, none of the gospel writers tell us that, but these people believe they have found evidence they believe supports their belief.

There is another possibility, and one that may be a better explanation of why Jesus’ mother was there and why she did what she did later. Cana is only eight miles from Nazareth, and many people in those cities were related. Perhaps a more likely explanation for their invitations to the wedding is that it was a wedding of someone from Mary’s family. She would be there, of course, and her son would most certainly have been invited, along with those who were now traveling and staying with him. If it was a family wedding, that would provide the additional motivation for Jesus to make the journey back to Cana and not send a note with his regrets.

There is another clue that supports this idea of a family wedding. It helps to remember that a first-century wedding was a big event that took place over many days leading up to the final full day to formally celebrate the marriage of the bride and groom. At some point on this final day of the wedding, Mary came to Jesus and told them they had run out of wine. This gives a good hint that Mary was a part of the wedding itself. Wine was a big part of the celebration during a wedding, and running out of wine would be a major embarrassment to the family hosting the event. So, it may be likely that Mary came to Jesus hoping he could save the family from that type of embarrassment.

The way John told the story it appeared that Mary knew that her son could do something miraculous. We don’t know what she might have seen him do over the years growing up as a young boy. There are stories of the child Jesus performing miracles before, but none that had been accepted as true enough to be considered as scripture. From her words, however, it seemed that she believed he could do something to help.

What we do know is that when she told Jesus they were out of wine, he looked at his mother and said, “What concern is that of mine? My hour has not yet come.”

Two things interest me in Jesus’ response to his mother. First, Jesus said that his hour had not come. His baptism and the heavenly dove announcing him as the Son of God was just three days ago. Everything was happening so fast. When he went to the Jordan River, he was now largely an unknown person, just another guy from Galilee. But people were talking about him. People were beginning to seek him out. As he traveled from Bethsaida to Cana, the crowd following him began to grow. It was happening too quickly. He knew the crowds would get the attention of the religious leaders and of the Romans, and that would lead to a confrontation. He knew what was going to happen, it had to happen, his hour of reckoning would come, but not yet. He had to reach more people before they stopped him. If he did something miraculous now, it was too soon.

The second thing that interests me is the look my imagination puts on Mary’s face. Have you ever seen it? That “mother” look that says, “Seriously? That’s what you’re going to say to me? The woman who carried you around for nine months, who fed you, who cleaned up behind you, who saw that you had a clean robe to wear? That’s what you are going to say? I don’t think so!” I can see that look, and maybe the wagging finger, as clear as day.

But John said Mary just ignored Jesus’ response. That’s another effective “mother” move. Jesus said it wasn’t his concern and it wasn’t his hour and Mary simply turned to a couple of servants standing nearby, said, “Do whatever he tells you to do,” and she walked away.

Whatever Jesus felt or looked like, he finally told the servants to take the six, large stone jars sitting against the wall and fill them with water. When they came back with full jars, he told them to scoop some water out of one of the jars and take it to the master of the wedding, the person responsible for pulling off a successful event. The master drank from the cup and immediately handed it to the bridegroom and told him to taste it. The bridegroom was shocked.

They both knew the normal procedure was to serve the best wine at the beginning of the day when everyone could taste the quality. But as the day went on, and the drinking, you would begin serving the cheaper wine, since no one could tell the difference anymore. But the bridegroom said he was surprised that the master had saved the best wine for last. I wonder if the master of the wedding got a better tip for that because John said the only people who knew what really happened were the servants, and they didn’t tell anyone.

All of this brings me back to the question of why John told us this story, and none of the other gospel writers did? I think we find the answer by looking at what John wrote after the wedding in Cana of Galilee. John said that after the wedding, Jesus, his disciples, and his mother, went back to the Sea of Galilee, to the town of Capernaum. Maybe the crowds had found him again and in Capernaum, it was still unknown.

John said that after a few days in Capernaum, it was time for Passover, and Jesus and his mother made the trip to celebrate the holiday in Jerusalem as they always did. But this time, there was a larger group going with them. John told us that it was during this Passover that Jesus went to the Jerusalem temple, turned over the tables of the moneychangers charging unfair rates, and poured their money onto the ground. He broke open the crates filled with overpriced sacrificial doves, he picked up a whip, and he drove the sacrificial sheep and cows out of the temple. As he did these things, he told them all to stop making his father’s house a marketplace.

Someone asked him what proof he could give that he was really speaking for God. Jesus said, if you destroy this temple, I will rebuild it in three days. No one understood that he was talking about what would happen when they finally destroyed him. But this last story helps us understand why John wrote the things he wrote.

We need to remember that John was writing to the Greeks and the Jewish community outside of Israel, who were being influenced by Greek culture. John’s clear schedule of what happened on the first day, and the second day, was written to show that the things happening were a part of a logical sequence, something that was planned, and that made sense because those were things that were important to his Greek-influenced readers. The Greeks believed in many gods, each one with its unique abilities, powers, and benefits. There was Dionysus, the god of wine and everlasting life. There was Zeus, Nike, Bia, and Zelos, the gods of power. There was Aletheia, the spirit of truth and truthfulness. And there were many more.

For example, Dionysus, the god of wine and everlasting life: followers of Dionysus’ cult told stories of times Dionysus had made wine flow from the ground or had made water smell like wine. What better way for John to show the superiority of the true Son of God than to not just make water smell like wine, but to actually turn that water into not just wine, but the best wine available. Who is the God worth following?

John wrote with a different goal and to a different audience than the other gospel writers. That is why he structured his writing around what he saw were the seven signs of Jesus’ divinity… the first of which was the sign of Jesus changing water into wine.

As John wrote his book, he presented three very different images of Jesus, each one intended to stand against the collection of gods recognized by the Greeks. As we read John’s words, we see those three images of Jesus:

There is the magician/servant who works miracles for us and gives us what we want.

There is the warrior who will lead us into battle against our enemies and make us victorious.

There is the chosen Son of God, the lamb that will be sacrificed to help others.

The Greeks understood that these were all images they had of their own gods and that John was showing them how Jesus was the one greater than them all. But as we look around today, we can see that we do not always understand what John was saying. We see groups who believe that faith in Christ means God is the Jesus in Cana of Galilee, a God of magic and miracles, a God who will do what we ask, and give us what we want, who will serve those who are true believers.

We see groups who believe that faith in Christ means God is the Jesus in Jerusalem, a God of power who will identify our enemies and lead us into battle to overcome and destroy those enemies.

We see groups who believe that faith in Christ means God asks us to give up our own needs to tend to the needs of others, and asks us to accept the role of the Lamb of God.

That is what I hear John asking us in the story of the wedding in Cana of Galilee. I hear John asking us how we choose to define Jesus.

Is God a magician-servant?

Is God a warrior leader for some righteous cause?

Is God the one showing us how to be the person God wants us to be?

John is asking us what we want Jesus to be. And since our choice will define who we are, what we do on our own and as a church, John is asking us what we want to be.

Do we want to be served?

Do we want to be led into battle?

Do we want to be brought closer to God?

It is our choice to make. Amen.