From the Daily Lectionary for January 7 in the First Week after the Epiphany
John 2:1-11
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
More wisdom for the mythy mind of John the Evangelist. This is perhaps Jesus’ most famous miracle. So famous, the reference of it made it into the Marriage Rite of the Church: “Our Lord Jesus Christ adorned this manner of life by his presence and first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee.” Of course, this passage has nothing to do with marriage, but it does provide a familiar backdrop to a theological point the writer wishes to make. So what’s this about?
The story begins, “on the third day.” The third day of what? This is the clue to the passage, a reference to the three days between Jesus’ crucifixion, and his resurrection. To be exact, it foreshadows John’s latter proclamation in this Gospel: I will raise him up “on the third day.” So this passage is about resurrection, and John has chosen an unlikely metaphor of water turned to wine. Remember, we are baptized in water; we are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus, into a life that is all about transformation, a life in which divinity is found in the most rudimentary elements of earth, like water… like in a human being whose heart bears the capacity to love.
From the common things of earth, even from death itself, the divine life flows like the finest of wines, soothing our souls, inspiring our vision. Look not to heaven for this life, it comes from the ordinariness of our world, enabling a praiseworthy feast, not unlike a wedding. A feast. A wedding… images of transformation.
Our lives are forever changing, transforming. The old is forever giving way to the new. May the water that sustains us in this life smack of Cana’s wine.
The Proper Preface for Epiphany (BCP p, 378)
Because is the mystery of the Word made flesh, you have caused a new light to shine in our hearts, to give the knowledge of your glory in the face of your Son Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
