In Vino Veritas

AM Psalm 25 • PM Psalm 9, 15
Gen. 8:6-22 • Heb. 4:14-5:6 • John 2:23-3:15

My mother’s father, a newspaperman, sometimes hobnobbed with the rich and famous, but was never, himself, rich, nor even reasonably well off. My mother used to say that when she was a girl, she was never really deprived of anything, though sometimes toward the end of the month if she needed a new coat, say, when her mother was planning meals, the family would have to have a serious discussion.

Perhaps to compensate for this as an adult, when money was more available, my mother would give lots of parties. She would have enough bread, cheeses, salads, hot and cold meats, and fancy desserts to feed the Russian Army. “You never want to run out,” she would say. And she would stock plenty of beer, wine, and hard liquor, in case the Russian Army didn’t need feeding but was just dropping by for drinks. I asked my mother once, what with all these preparations for the Russian Army, whether there was any truth to the story, told by a cousin from southern Ohio, that my name at birth had originally been intended to be Sergei. At which point my mother told me to cut more bread for the party that night and then go do my homework.

In today’s passage from John, it is the mother of Jesus who points out, not just that there is no wine, but that they have no wine, They, here, could refer to the guests, but also to the hosts. What was wrong with these people. Didn’t anybody ever teach them “You never want to run out”?

Wine was important in this culture. A host for a celebration like a wedding was expected to furnish guests with enough wine for more than just lubricating the flow of social discourse. Water quality could be a little iffy.

The Wedding at Cana is the first of seven miracles that the John’s Gospel gives us. It is probably no accident that this story of wine and celebration comes shortly after we read that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Though some might take the miracle at Cana as a story about a man pulling a rabbit out of a hat, there is something more at work here. Maybe Jesus is showing the guests at the wedding—and we are all guests at the wedding—that he doesn’t have to turn water into wine. The wine is there all the time. And the wine is part of the Word. And the Word is with God. And the Word is God.

Here, as elsewhere, Jesus teaches us that the true miracle is getting people to pay attention.

Written by James Gamble

James is allergic to wine and spirits but is grateful for opportunities to gather and celebrate in the Lord’s name. For where two or three are gathered in His name, He is there among us.