From the Daily Lectionary for Monday in the First Week of Lent
John 2:1-12
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.
After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they remained there for a few days.
This is an odd story. It only appears in John’s Gospel. Other than Eucharistic implications, it doesn’t really fit with John’s narrative. There are scholars who think that this Gospel had more than one writer, and that what we now know as The Gospel of John underwent many editorial changes before it became official in the New Testament canon, which was much later than the three Synoptic Gospels.
But still, we are beholden to the prologue of John in order to interpret what this enigmatic Gospel has to say. The prologue tells us that Jesus is the ordering principle of the universe, the Logos. Jesus, his life, ministry, his death, and resurrection… the meaning of the movement he founded, is the light of the world, that is to say, the truth of our existence. John’s extended metaphor for this way of life is “befriending,” “laying down one’s life for one’s friend.
Karl Rahner, a twentieth-century Roman Catholic theologian, refers to John’s Jesus as representing the “Divine Life;” that at the heart of God’s life is sacrifice. God is ever pouring out Godself for the good of those God loves. And the stunning claim in this Gospel is that followers of Jesus participate in this divine life as well. As Jesus, the true human, represents the divine life, so do we.
The story of the Wedding at Cana is a story of the divine life. It is a story about transformation. The writer obliquely tells us that the wedding happened on the “third day.” That of course would evoke Jesus’s resurrection. The divine life is resurrection life that turns the mundane elements of existence into ecstatic beauty, fine wine the metaphor. Water to wine. And resurrection, worth, and dignity happen amid the community gathered in hospitality.
Jesus will later call the wine shared between himself and his disciples his very blood, blood that gives life and life abundant. Perhaps the sacrifice of a meal with friends is the lifeblood of our humanity. Perhaps it is that simple. In that regard, every day is the third day. We are meant to live the resurrection in our daily lives… welcome sacrifice. Such mere and mundane acts will transform our world, as miraculous as turning water into wine.
A Prayer of Thanksgiving for the Eucharist (BCP p. 365)
Eternal God, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of his body and blood. Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart, through Christ our Savior. Amen.
