People who enjoy a glass of wine will probably also enjoy Jesus’ first recorded miracle. It takes place at a wedding in Cana The groom has arrived, the feast is under way and suddenly the wine runs out. Jewish hospitality is legendary and so here we have an embarrassment of immense proportions that is until Jesus steps in. We all know the story and the marvellous outcome as the Master of the banquet exclaims with great surprise and joy, "You have kept the best until last!"
What was Jesus announcing to people? Not, I am sure, as one wag put it, "Make sure you send Jesus a wedding invitation, and don't worry about the caterers"!
Let's look a little more closely at the incident. Jesus did something quite unusual. He asked that water be taken from the purification jars. These were used for the purpose of ritual washing. Jesus used the water whose purpose was symbolic and which had actually become a great burden to the Jewish people. (The largest section of Jewish law was devoted to purification*.) Jesus took this symbol of the impotent Jewish law and turned it into …… into wine! Not just any new wine but an extremely fine wine that received great praise.
Jesus was announcing something new, just as he did with another illustration. Perhaps he had been watching or even joining in the pressing of the grape harvest when he reminded those around him that new wine requires new wine skins. There is a distinct danger that the "life" in the "new wine" will be too much for old, dried out wine skins to withstand. (Matthew, IX, 17)
Jesus offers us the opportunity to turn from old ways. Old ways that do not provide life but are locked in ritual and legalism. Jesus offers us His way, which, like the wine in the first miracle, can transform our life.
There may have been some at the wedding who thought the Master of the banquet had had one glass too many. After all, no host would be so foolish as to serve the best wine at the end when it was least likely to be properly appreciated. No doubt their logic would be faultless, their arguments sound. Maybe you can imagine the conversation on Table 14:
"Old Eliza must have picked up the wrong glass. Anyway, it can't be all the wine: it's just his jug"
"Look. Table 8 are playing along with it. No, it can't be right. It just doesn't happen this way."
If the Table 14 guests do not taste the new wine, they will never know how good it is! If we close our minds to the new things that God is doing, we, too, may miss out on the "best which has been kept until last".
When did we last taste of the "new wine" that God has for us? Are we clutching to some "old skins" which are familiar and comfortable? Are we perhaps only prepared for God to bless us in the way he did many years ago? Has the medium in which our faith is presented to us or expressed by us perhaps become more important than the message? Have we perhaps allowed ourselves to become spiritually dry?
If so, what should we do? The writer of the Psalms has excellent advice: "Taste and see that the Lord is good! "(Psalm XXXIV, 8)
Cheers!
Peter Crawley
* For example, holding a canonical book rendered the hands unclean but a non-canonical book did not and, yes, that is the right way round!
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