Saturday, January 7, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Of weddings and wine
There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee.
Jewish weddings hold nothing back. Dancing and drinking go on for several days, not hours. Wedding days are the best of days.
The mother of Jesus was there.
I imagine Mary has many friends. Not because of her social position, but her personality. She thinks of others and helps them with much more than words. Mary leads with encouragement and deeds. She helps, not just those who are hurting, but also those who celebrate. Her friend’s child is getting married!
Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
Well, Jesus is one man, but his disciples? How many of them will there be? Are they cautious and austere, or are they wild and crazy? In other words – how much wine will they drink? Should we get one more jar, just to be safe?
When the wine ran short …
U-oh. I guess they didn’t get that extra jar. Mary’s friend whispered to Jesus’ mother, “We have no more wine.” Mary’s eyes grew wide. She worried with her friend. Then … then! She thought she might be able to help. “Leave it to me,” she told her friend.
The mother of Jesus said to her son, “They have no wine.”
But Jesus did not listen. He was preoccupied with his plans, thinking about his timetable for revealing himself as the Son of God. He ignored his mother and spoke only to her as “woman.” Mary looked at him perplexed, disappointed, and not a little angry, and had another idea.
His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.”
OK. That was it for the Son of Man. The Son of God would never have talked to his mother that way in the first place, and now Jesus realized he needed to fix this. He looked at his mother. His mother stared straight into his eyes, not angry exactly, but certainly not willing to be called “Woman” by her son, no, not even one more time. She did not blink. So Jesus looked away, looked at the servers, looked up to heaven, and apparently got permission to move his “time” up a little.
Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” They filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Draw some out now and take it to the Master of the feast.” So they took it.
More than just Jesus and Mary now, more than just the two of them. The servers are looking at each other like this guy is crazy. The water is not going to impress the master; he’s a winophile. Water and wine have nothing in common except liquidity. But though they don’t like looking like fools, they too are unwilling to disobey either Jesus or, even more, his mother. And she is motioning to them with her whole body, arms folded, leaning forward to the courtyard. Go ahead. Get out there!
Do whatever he tells you!
So they did, and the Master of the feast tasted the wine, which was exquisite, and exclaimed to the bridegroom, “Never in all my born days!”
Everyone serves the good wine first and the poor wine later, when people have drunk freely. But you have kept the good wine until now.
Mary watched with great joy. She looked at Jesus, who looked back at her, then at the ground, then. up at the sky. He looked at her again. She came to him, and he put his arms around her. And he whispered. She listened.
I wonder what he said. Don’t know. But I know he said it with love. Because she looked up at him, and smiled.
(1 John 5, Psalm 149, Luke 7, John 2)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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