Jesus, the Life of the Party?

John 2:1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." 4 And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." 5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." 6 Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. 8 He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it. 9 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 10 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." 11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. (NRSV)

As a teenager, I used to love this passage because of Jesus' reply to His mother as I saw it. "Mother! I can do this by myself!" Or so I thought. I had a streak for independence, but I've been cured now. The place is Cana of Galilee, forever marked as the place of "the wedding." ("Ahora si es boda"/Now, this is a wedding!). We don't know the couple's name. We suspect it was a large, typical Galilean wedding; what we do know is that Mary and her family, Jesus included, were invited and were known by the people. (Although a fun part of wedding receptions is to hear people ask, "Who's that or What are they doing at this wedding?") The setting of this being a wedding and a wedding feast is right on target to what we have been reading all week in the prophets and the psalmist's writings; a wedding feast where God's grace and salvation would be found. Jesus' very presence here is significant. John places this event early in the ministry. Jesus has been introduced and witnessed to by John the Baptist as "the Lamb of God." Jesus called His first disciples, including Philip and Nathanael; and these accompany Jesus to this wedding. As was the custom, the presence of wine was important. In the book of Joel 3:17-18 the presence of wine was considered the presence of God. And we know that it was Mary, Jesus' mother, who shared with her son that there was no more wine. Her concern is the embarrassment of the family for having run out of wine. The party would end sooner than perhaps was tradition and this was a concern to her. But she knew something about Jesus and so she approaches Him. His reaction is that it was not yet His hour or time. Yet, Mary goes and tells the servants to do whatever it is that Jesus asks of them. She was sure of Jesus' power and her influence on her son.

The story continues that Jesus sees six stone water jars for the rite of purification that could hold twenty or thirty gallons of water and Jesus orders them filled with water. As soon as they were filled, Jesus tells them to draw from jars and to take to the head steward. The steward is overjoyed upon the first taste of what was once water and is now wine and celebrates this with the bridegroom; "Everybody serves the good wine first and the inferior wine later; but you have kept this good wine until now."

It is considered the first of Jesus' many miracles. John writes that this revealed Jesus' glory and that this miracle also allowed for this young disciples to believe in Jesus. What impact did this have on the wedding couple, we don't know. It affirmed Mary's faith in her son, and it helped set the stage of Jesus' ministry being that which the prophets foretold. In Jesus we have the Messiah, the Anointed One of God come to set things right, and to turn the people's hearts back to God. Jesus was not just "the life of the party;" Jesus was the life of life, not the wine nor the food.

Jesus continues to be present where invited. It is important that Jesus be invited to our celebrations as well as our times of worry and hurt. It is best to live a life where we have invited Jesus to be present as our Lord and our Savior.

PRAYER: Living Lord, come into my heart. Come in to stay, come in today, come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!

Eradio Valverde