John 2:1-11
“The Proof Is in God’s Presence”

       It is interesting to note how some Christians view miracles as litmus tests for the existence of God.
     
      For example, a young man returns home on break from college.  His father is deeply concerned about the possible erosion of his son’s faith as a result of so-called liberal professors.  And no sooner does the young man step over the threshold than the father challenges him with a question.
     
      “So, what kind of religious teaching are you getting at school?” he asks with trepidation and suspicion.
     
      “Lots of things, Dad,” the son replies.
     
      “Like what?” the father presses.
     
      And then they are off, jousting about matters of faith, with the dialogues escalating to a hundred decibels until the father finally blurts out, “Well, tell me, do you still believe in miracles?”
     
      For the father, belief in miracles is the true test of faith orthodoxy.  Why?  It is because he views them as God-proofs, demonstrations of power that endorse, beyond reasonable doubt, the existence of God.
     
      This father’s attitude is not unlike that of many persons in Jesus’ day.  John the gospel writer offers some perspective on their attitude when he writes about the crowd’s response after the raising of Lazarus, “It was … because they heard that he had preformed this sign that the crowd went to meet him” (John 12:18).  Safe to say, they were not interested in who Jesus was so much as what Jesus could do.  To them he was an intriguing miracle worker who dazzled the masses with amazing demonstrations of godly power.
     
      Miraculous “signs,” while making a case for God, do not necessarily translate into faith.  Perhaps this is why Jesus often played his miracles down.  I suspect that for him miracles were noteworthy, now so much for their demonstrations of power as for their clarification of perspective.  They were, as John calls them, signs of what life is like in a realm where Jesus has total authority.
     
      We attended the wedding of our granddaughter on our recent vacation.  It was lovely and we were privileged to bless Holland’s wedding at the reception.  Now we know that weddings can take one’s breath away, especially when the father of the bride receives the bill.  According to some information I read recently it is estimated that some couples spend between $14,500 and $36,000 for their weddings, and that does not include the cost for a honeymoon or engagement and wedding rings.  We have no idea of the cost of the wedding at Cana, although we know that Jesus may have eased the bar tab considerably.   But we do know that this wedding in Cana was graced by the presence of Jesus, who is all too often excluded from wedding guest lists these days.
     
      Consider with me the first miraculous sign in John’s gospel, the transformation of water into wine.  John saw this miracle as an indication that a new day, the day of grace, had dawned.  This is how John recounts the story.
     
      Jesus, his mother, and a few of his discicples attended a wedding in Cana of Galilee, a little village about nine miles north of Nazareth, the place where Jesus was raised.  Like weddings of today, weddings in Jesus’ time were gala occasions; times when everyone held their breath and prayed that nothing would go wrong.  But on this occasion something did go wrong.  The wine ran out, a dreadful faux pas that would, if not remedied, embarrass the married couple throughout their lives.  {Interruption: others discussed and told stories about embarrassing moments at weddings.}
     
      Enter Mary, Jesus’ mother.  Confident that her son could and would save the day, she ordered the servants to do whatever Jesus told them to do.  Jesus, in turn, instructed them to fill the six nearby water jugs, the large jars used for ceremonial washing.  They obeyed by filling them to the brim as asked.  Then, much to everyone’s astonishment, particularly that of the headwaiter, the jars no longer contained water.  They contained wine, in fact the choicest of wine.
     
      I believe that is an impressive miracle, for sure.  In a general sense this miracle speaks to us about the dawn of the gospel of grace through Jesus Christ.  Note that there were six stone water pots.  In ancient Hebrew, six was the number that stood for something unfinished and imperfect.  Is it a stretch to think that the writer of the Gospel of John saw in the six stone water pots filled with water a representation of the old Jewish law – the Law of Moses?  Writing several decades later after the actual event, I believe that John the writer had time to think through this miracle and its significance in light of the whole of Jesus’ ministry.  It is quite possible that he selected this particular miracle to herald the start of Jesus’ earthly ministry because he saw in it something of general overreaching significance – the incompleteness of the Law of Moses.  Perhaps he thought that, like the ceremonial water that cleansed only the outside of the body, the Law of Moses addressed only the outward appearances of righteousness.
     
      Jesus cares about the heart.  His is a gospel of inner cleansing, a gospel of grace.  Compared to the old Law, what Jesus offers in the way of righteousness is like comparing water to fine wine.  And note again the jars were filled to the brim.  What Jesus provides is the fullness of righteousness.  He fills us to the top, so to speak, with the grace of God’s goodness.  Seen in this light is it any wonder why John’s gospel uses a wedding miracle as the signature even of Jesus’ earthly ministry?
     
      I believe that this miracle also has a specific meaning, one that illuminates this grand truth: whatever Jesus touches he transforms: our marriages, our friendships, our business decisions, whatever.  When Jesus places his hand on our lives, the “water becomes wine.”  Jesus is the creator.  Perhaps the apostle Paul was thinking along these lines when he wrote about Christ to the Colossians, “in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17).
     
      So where does all the leave us?  Searching for miracles to prove God’s existence? Let us hope not, because what Jesus gives us is far better.  Not proofs, but his presence.  Once we experience Jesus’ presence, we soon realize that Jesus alone is sufficient proof of God.  We discover that through him and in him life becomes like a wedding, a celebration in which the water of ordinary existence is transformed into the fine wine of grace-filled living.  Amen.
     
      PRAYER:  Our Father, the wedding guests at Cana celebrated with wine that had aged, and rejoiced in its fine quality.  Jesus surprised them all with new wine, a better wine, something unexpectedly magnificent.  Could it be that we have become so enamored with our own success that we have missed what you have to offer us?  Could it be that what we think is good pales in the light of your unchanging love?  O changeless God, enable us to embrace all of life – rejoicing in the present and engaging the future – knowing that the best is yet to come because we know that it is in your hands.  Amen.