This coming Sunday we will be reading John’s account of the wedding in Cana of Galilee, a small village about half way between Nazareth and Capernaum, at which Jesus turns the water contained in six stone jars into wine. It is one of the more famous passages from the gospels, though it only appears in John. A reference to this passage is also found in our marriage rite in the Book of Common Prayer. In the address to the congregation in the marriage rite the celebrant says; “The covenant of marriage was established by God in creation, and our Lord Jesus Christ adorned this manner of life at a wedding in Cana of Galilee.” That to be sure is an exegetical (interpretive) stretch. I don’t believe the editors of John’s gospel were seeking to affirm the institution of marriage in this passage. The marriage just happens to be the setting, a setting in which hospitality is a key component to understanding the writer’s intent. This passage is entirely allegorical concerning the transformation of the people of Israel into the rich and abundant and celebrated life God intends for them; the way of Jesus being the way to such a life, and such a life has profound ramifications for our world. Israel’s transformation begets the world’s transformation according to Hebrew scripture and the New Testament literature, most passionately posited in the writings of Paul.
I recently read an article by Raymond Pickett, a Lutheran scholar who taught new Testament at the Seminary of the Southwest while I was there. He is now a senior professor at Wartburg Seminary in Chicago. I think this excerpt from his article applies to what John has in mind in the overall theme of that gospel: “A challenge in interpreting the New Testament with an emphasis on mission is the perception that its message is primarily religious. In contemporary cultural contexts in which religious, social, political and economic issues tend to be compartmentalized, mission tends to be conceived of in religious terms. But Jesus was the leader of a renewal movement within Judaism that dealt with religious, social, economic and political issues in an integrated fashion. Followers of Jesus were convinced that by raising Jesus from the dead God had initiated a thoroughgoing transformation of the world. This transformation would begin to occur in the present through communities empowered by the Spirit to embody the message and mission of Jesus throughout the cities of the Roman Empire.”
I mentioned in my sermon last Sunday that in our baptisms we enter our second life. In our first life, in early development we must live for ourselves, to acquire knowledge and nurture to learn what it means to be a human being. In our second life we learn to live for the other, for the transformation of our world. And it is essential to understand that this transformation takes place in community. The water of baptism becomes the luscious and delectable divine wine of new life. Later in John, Jesus will refer to this wine as the world’s life blood. We as the baptized, as the community of the faithful, as the ones living the second life, we who are the body of Christ, are that life blood; we are the water transformed into wine. The story of the wedding at Cana always reminds me of a poem I dearly love written by Richard Wilbur former poet laureate of the United States. The poem was written as a wedding toast for his son and soon to be daughter-in-law:
Wedding Toast
St. John tells how, at Cana’s wedding feast,
The water-pots poured wine in such amount
That by his sober count
There were a hundred gallons at the least.
It made no earthly sense, unless to show
How whatsoever love elects to bless
Brims to a sweet excess
That can without depletion overflow.
Which is to say that what love sees is true;
That this world’s fullness is not made but found.
Life hungers to abound
And pour its plenty out for such as you.
Now, if your loves will lend an ear to mine,
I toast you both, good son and dear new daughter.
May you not lack for water,
And may that water smack of Cana’s wine.
Through the waters of baptism may we live abundant lives for our world’s sake that smack of Cana’s wine.
The waters of baptism are the subject a few days before the wedding of Jn. 2. In Jn. 1:31-34 John the Baptist says that while he baptizes with water, the one on whom he sees the Spirit descend and remain will baptize with the Spirit. When 2:1 begins “on the third day,” the reader might think of Jesus’ future resurrection; when Jesus tells Mary his hour has not yet come, the reader might again think of Jesus’ future hour to depart and return to his Father. In Jn. 13-16 Jesus comforts his disciples with the good news that although it is his hour to leave them he will not leave them alone; he will give them the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth. Earlier, in 7:38-39 Jesus has spoken of this future gift in terms of living water, which he says portrays the Spirit (a metaphor used again in Jn. 4 and contrasted with the well water of the Samaritan woman). So already in Jn. 2, his first sign points to that last great gift, the new wine of his Spirit (that is also a contrast with the Jewish water of purification).
‘… by his presence at the wedding, Jesus personally sanctioned marriage as holy and honorable.’
How many times have you heard those words at a wedding (and sometimes even at an Episcopal wedding)?
And the fact that a wedding was used as the occasion for his first miracle, is also said to provide evidence for his blessing of that institution.
Is this passage entirely allegorical? Perhaps so, since allegory doesn’t neccesarily mean the event didn’t take place as described. Rather it can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, even a moral one.
Thank you, Jesus.
BTW who is Lucas Dawn? Any kin to Maggie Dawn, formerly chaplain at Kings College, University of Cambridge (UK) and now at Yale Divinity School?
I have seen the name Lucas Dawn around a bit on the internet. They seem to search for blogs to comment on, with a link pointing back to their own website. They also commented on one of our blog posts. More than likely this is being done to get traffic to their own site.