This Sunday I will be talking about the story of the wedding in Cana. I thought what I might do here is share some of the scraps that are hitting the cutting room floor.
Here’s the thing: when writing a sermon you come to many forks in the road. You have to make a decision which road you want to go down. Sometimes you have to abandon a thought or idea that you would like to explore–but if you did it would either make the sermon far too long (you’re welcome) or not tie in to the rest of the message…
We have heard the story of Jesus turning water into wine. It has been the punchline of many a joke. However, Jesus didn’t turn a glass, chalice or goblet of water into wine. It was a big endeavor. Jesus turned 6, 20-30 gallons of water into wine. There were 6 jars that could contain anywhere between 20 to 30 gallons. Think about that!!!
You know what a gallon looks like. You know what a gallon feels like. A milk crate holds four gallons. A standard keg holds 15.5 gallons. For a college graduation party recently we ordered a “pony” keg (a half keg). It took two people to move that, and several more to not finish it. My math may be off- but Jesus produced close to 12 kegs of wine. 12 kegs!
This isn’t a blog to indicate that Jesus wanted a big party- because the overlooked piece of this is the water. We get so focused on the wine, that we forget what the water was for. The water was used for the Jewish rite of purification. They formerly had 120 gallons of water for a Jewish rite–and now all they have is 12 kegs of wine! I imagine the religious leaders of the day went out of their minds.
It was heresy. It was irreverent. It was unorthodox. It was so far out of the box, but it was a miracle (which means that God gave it a giant anthropomorphic thumbs up) and it was clearly a moment of divine grace.
So, how did all of the guests react? There were probably two reactions. Some were happy, and some were apoplectic. Some had a spirited reaction while other found it sobering.
What would be the equivalent of that act today? What if Jesus said “Sell your church building and give the money to the poor,” or “Let’s get rid of all the church pews and bring in a Christian rock band”? For some folks it may be something else which may seem very small and insignificant to us (changing the worship service, using “trespasses” instead of “debts”, singing from a different hymnal)–but it means the world to them.
The story could be that Jesus took something that was essential to the worship of his religion of his day and radically changed it. Some appreciated it. Some did not. However, 2000 years later we’re still talking about it. So whatever side of the issue you are on, you can say, “I told you so.”