At the Edge of the
Ages[i]
(John 2:1-11)
Rob Tennant, HillSong
Church, Chapel Hill, NC
Sunday, January 24,
2015
“In the beginning …” – that’s how the
Bible starts, the first book, Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1.
“In the beginning when God created the heavens
and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of
the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2). We find
ourselves at a turning point. At this
point, the first verse of the Bible, whatever existed before has changed. One age has given to another – the age of our
universe. Whatever came before is beyond
what we can observe or describe in any words or images that make any sense to
us.
Here’s the beginning of the Gospel
of John. “In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). By the Word, he refers to the second person
of the trinity, the Son. The Son was
before that change from one age to another – from pre-creation, to the universe
as we know it.
The Son preceded the
transition. The coming of the Son in
human form in Jesus of Nazareth heralded the end of our current age and the
dawning of the final age. The story
before us, the action of turning water into wine at the wedding in the village
of Cana points to the end and the beginning.
How so? Can a seemingly small miracle be the
harbinger of a move from this eon to the next?
This is a small village wedding for poor people who cannot afford enough
wine. He helps them save face. There is no more here, is there?
It begins “on the third day.” Unfortunately, a few normally reliable Bible
version, The Message, The Good News Bible,
and The New Living Translation translate
this poorly, neglecting this theological essential phrase. I like each of these translations, but in
this instance each disappoints because the Greek is pretty straight forward and
not in need of any cleaning up. It says,
“On third day.”
Remember John’s method in telling
the story of Jesus. Some guess this
gospel was written in the 60’s. More
scholars think it was in the mid to late 90’s.
Either way, John came decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection. At the end of chapter 20, John tells us this
Gospel was written, so that we, the readers, “may come to believe that Jesus is
the Messiah, the son of God, and that through believing have life in his name.”
The carefully crafted story uses
symbolism. Every word is intentionally chosen. Every word has purpose. Opening chapter 2 “on the third day,” John is
not giving Jesus’ schedule. This Gospel
is organized theologically not chronologically.
The third day? Resurrection.
The community that first heard John read in church, probably in Ephesus,
was already a Christian community. They
already knew that Jesus rose on the third day.
“Third day,” signals that what comes next is about the era after the
resurrection.
John is about to tell us about life in the age
to come. But, we know it has not
come yet. In this time and place we lean
into the Kingdom by embodying what we learn about, the worth of people, the
power of love, and the presence of God.
But this time and place is still a world fallen in sin.
Jesus’ resurrection summons us into the
Kingdom.
We take a step when we open our hearts,
confess our sins, receive forgiveness, and receive the Holy Spirit into our
hearts.
We take another step when we commit to live
as Jesus’ disciples so that we no longer live by the values and expectation of
21st century America or any other contemporary culture. We come from our culture but as his
disciples, our worldview is transformed.
In Christ, we see everything
differently. We see as he sees.
We take another step into the Kingdom when we
begin living as Jesus lives. His Spirit
lives through us and the fruit that is produced blesses those around us: love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control. This is the outpouring of
God in us.
John’s first readers heard “on the third
day,” and immediately thought life in the Kingdom of God. They knew that they stood at the threshold
where this day and time, history as we know it gives way to God’s Kingdom. We are in that threshold between “the then”
(resurrection), and “the not yet” (the Second Coming of Christ).
In the Cana wedding, we glimpse life in the
Kingdom. It is like wedding where the
bride and groom are poor. How do we know
that? Cana was a small, unspectacular
village. Peasants lived there. Families saved up for years for the lavish wedding
celebrations.
The joy was continuous and all-consuming …
unless the family was so poor that they ran out of food and drink. Then, the party would thud to halt. The bride and groom and their families would
lose face. In a culture where shame was
a heavy burden and saving face was valuable currency, an already poor family
would be humiliated.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a poor family
wedding in a small village, and horror of horrors, the wine runs out. What do we do?
The mother of Jesus approaches him. Highlight that. In the Kingdom, Jesus is present and
approachable. Right now, at the
threshold, we go to God by way the third person of the trinity, the Holy
Spirit. I don’t know if it is better to
approach God by Son, in person, than by the Spirit. I am pretty sure “better” is the wrong word
to use. I am also pretty sure that when
Jesus returns, whatever our relationship with Him will be, it will be different
than it is now. In the Kingdom we
approach God in a way that is unlike our approach now.
Jesus responds to his mother, “Woman, what
concern is that to you and me? My hour
has not yet come.” Why does he say
that? This events of this story happen first
century Cana. In deed Jesus did not come
to rescue weddings. He came to give
glory to God and to show people that by following him they would become
children of God.
We straddle the generations so that God
speaks at a couple of levels of experience.
God is present in our daily lives through the Holy Spirit. Also, God has planned eternity and through
Jesus invites us to be part of that eternity.
We are headed for a time when the supplies never run out and the party
never ends. In Christ both are extended to the disciple – relationship with God
now, salvation now, and eternal promise.
Mary is not cowed by Jesus’ response. She tells the servants to do what Jesus says
to do. It is the essence of
discipleship. We die to ourselves and
live in Christ. Our view of the world is
shaped by the Holy Spirit. We approach all people in the love that Jesus give
us in abundance. He models this love and
fills us with it. The end of verse 5 is
the disciple life captured in a simple sentence. Do whatever Jesus tells you to do.
Jesus tells the servants to fills the
purification jars with water. This is
180 gallons and we know what Jesus does next.
The water becomes wine – the equivalent of 1000 bottles of wine, the
best wine. It is better than any wine
the steward, a wine expert, has tasted.
Jesus’ gift to the poor couple was to pick up the bill for the wine –
over $100,000.
This is what it is like in the Kingdom of
Heaven. All who are in Christ are invited. The
party does not end. No one is
embarrassed. Jesus picks up the
check. And the longer we are there, the
better it gets.
God’s tendency to give special attention to
poor and disadvantaged people is another key aspect of life in the Kingdom that
comes up the wedding of Cana story. For
some background, think back to when Mary was first told she would be Jesus’
mother. She sings a praise, now titled
the Magnificat. In this song, found in Luke
1, Mary sings, “The Lord has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and
lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the
rich away empty” (Lk. 1:52-53).
Why does Mary include this in her praise of
God? The Cana wedding shows us. The water Jesus changed became not only wine,
but the best wine. Who knew the
source? The servants. The steward, the one with the highest social
standing there, was confused. He was not
sent away empty in the sense that he didn’t get to imbibe the new wine. He was the one who tasted it. He was the one shocked by how much better
this party was with this new wine.
To go away empty is to receive a blessing
apart from the relationship with the blessing-giver. He went away empty because while he enjoyed
some incredible wine, he did not have the connection with Jesus that goes with
it. The disciples did. The passages ends
with the narrator telling us “his disciples believed in him.”
So we can say, the kingdom of heaven is like
a wedding in a small village where they run out of wine, but then Jesus turns
water into new wine that flows with abundance.
In turning the water into wine Jesus gives exaggerated grace,
extravagant grace, excessive grace.[ii]
God continues to give this grace today. He gives it in the word – the Bible. We receive God’s grace as he speaks through
the church, through revelation of himself in his created world – nature, and
through the Holy Spirit.
It is not that God loves wealthy people less
than poor people. Poor find it easier to
receive all that God gives because they know how desperately they need
him. The wealthy, and this would include
middle class Americans, rely on themselves, their own resources, insurance,
savings, the best health care money can buy, home security systems, and
retirement plans. None of those things
are evil, but each of those things adds to our sense that we don’t have need. We are self-sufficient.
This is why in Luke 18 when the rich man asked
Jesus what he needs to do to enter eternal life, Jesus tells him he must give
up his wealth. Jesus doesn’t tell other
rich people he meets this requirement, but he says it to this guy because he
can see the riches are preventing the man from seeing his need for God. The guys does not decide to follow
Jesus. He goes away “sad,” writes
Luke. He knows Jesus is more valuable
than his riches but he will not allow himself to give the riches up.
We live in 2016 America, not 90AD Ephesus. That’s why this first miracle of Jesus is so
surprising. In a simple act in an out of
the way village in a pre-enlightenment society Jesus shows what the Kingdom of
God is like. Can we see it? Can we describe it to others?
We stand at the edge of the ages. Soon our universe will end, and the age of
the Eternal Kingdom will begin. In Christ, we will be with God in that
Kingdom, drinking new wine.
We can share that new wine with people who
don’t know Jesus but only if we truly ignore the influences of the fallen world
around us and walk in unobstructed faith.
That happens when we keep out attention on the ways God is revealed in
Jesus – at his birth; at his baptism; at this wedding; and in ways we will
discuss in upcoming weeks. We keep our
attention on Christ and the Holy Spirit opens our eyes.
This week, seek examples of his grace that
come into your life and put the taste of new wine on your tongue.
AMEN
No comments:
Post a Comment