WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Some books in the Bible are difficult to outline and some books are not. 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:10.000 And John is one of the books of the Bible that is not hard to outline. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:15.000 Because John gave a pretty intricate way of doing it. 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:19.000 There are six I am statements in the book of John. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:23.000 These are the statements that Jesus offers something of his identity. 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:28.000 I am the bread of life. I am the door. I am the vine. I am the way, the truth in the life. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:31.000 And you can look at the book of John and see six separate divisions. 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:37.000 But you can also outline the book of John through seven signs. 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:43.000 So there are six I am statements and there are seven what John calls signs. 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:45.000 And we just read the first one. 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:51.000 And John says it in verse 11 that this was the first sign that Jesus ever performed. 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:56.000 And for John all he means by sign is miracle. 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:03.000 Seven signs or seven miracles that mark the major points of the book of John. 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:09.000 But the reason John calls them signs is because they are miracles and they happened in history, 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:11.000 but they are not just that. 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:14.000 They are more than simple mirror displays of power. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:18.000 The reason he calls them signs is because they signify something. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:25.000 So while it is a display of Christ's power it also points away to something else. 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:27.000 To a deeper reality. 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:30.000 In other words signs are symbols. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:36.000 And what John is trying to do is get us to see through these miracles to something else. 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:39.000 To something even bigger than the miracle. 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:42.000 And so there are three signs I want to look at with you this morning 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:48.000 within this first sign that Jesus did that helped make sense of it. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:57.000 And the three signs in the sign are the wedding, the jars, and the bridegroom's wine. 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:03.000 And as we look at this I just want you to remember that this is Jesus' first sign, 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:05.000 his first miracle that he ever performed. 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:09.000 And the miracles, the signs, they tell us something about his identity, 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:12.000 who he is and who he is trying to convey, 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:15.000 what he is trying to convey to us about himself. 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:18.000 And what was his first one? 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:23.000 It wasn't controlling the chaotic forces of nature. 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:26.000 It wasn't healing the sick. 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:29.000 It wasn't giving food to poor people. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:34.000 It was making a lame party cool again. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:36.000 That was his first sign. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:38.000 And you know what it says? 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:42.000 It says that tells us something in verse 11 about his glory. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:45.000 So what does it tell us about his glory? 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:50.000 And I think you'll see that it tells us something very important as well about the Lord's Supper. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:53.000 So first the wedding, the first sign is the wedding. 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:59.000 If you look at verse 1 to 2, the third day there's a wedding at Cana in Galilee 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:03.000 and Jesus and his mother Mary are invited. 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:06.000 Now the context, it's a wedding. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:10.000 And this is not the main point of the passage, but don't miss this. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:15.000 Jesus Christ was invited to a wedding and he went to it. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:18.000 And that's important. 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:21.000 In the first century weddings are a big deal. 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:25.000 Weddings are a big deal today, but they're not as big a deal today as they were then. 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:29.000 They didn't have receptions after weddings in the first century. 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:30.000 They had feasts. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:37.000 And the feast lasted a minimum of four days, but typically six, all the way up to the Sabbath. 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:41.000 It was a week-long celebration and it was a huge deal. 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:44.000 This is the social center of the whole society. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:47.000 This is what your year kind of revolves around. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:54.000 And your Jewish feast days, wine must be provided daily. 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:56.000 That was the rule. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:01.000 It was intricate, it was elaborate, it was important, it was serious. 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:06.000 And this is a community that's built on a culture of honor and shame. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:10.000 And it's very different from our modern individualistic culture. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:20.000 And so it's hard to kind of grasp how important this was for your honor for the rest of your life as a bride and groom, throwing an appropriate feast. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:22.000 It was a big deal. 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:27.000 And if you were invited to the party, you would typically spend the whole week with the family. 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:30.000 And that's more than likely what Jesus did. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:33.000 That would have been the custom. 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:40.000 Jesus goes and he goes to this party for a week with his mother and his friends. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:42.000 And you know what that means? 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:46.000 D.A. Carson, one commentator on this passage, puts it this way. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:48.000 And just listen carefully. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:57.000 The fact that Jesus' first miracle takes place at a wedding and that he prevents serious social embarrassment to the groom, and we'll come to that, 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:05.000 means that Jesus is far removed from the monastic asceticism of hermetic communities. 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:07.000 Translation. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:11.000 Jesus went to a wedding and he was not a social killjoy. 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:15.000 And that's important. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:23.000 It's not as if Jesus walked into the room at this wedding, at this feast, and all of a sudden the band stopped. 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:27.000 And people put their drinks down and slowly walked away. 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:31.000 That's what happens to ministers, typically, when they go to places. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:34.000 But that's not what happened to Jesus. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:37.000 He's a human. 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:39.000 He's human. 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:40.000 And he had fun. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:42.000 And he laughed. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:45.000 And he was a man of sorrows and deep joy. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:47.000 And he enjoyed people. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:50.000 And humans enjoy wedding parties. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:54.000 And friends and good food and feasts. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:56.000 And he enjoyed the wine. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:57.000 And you know how we know that? 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:03.000 Because he made 120 gallons of it at the end of this miracle. 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:05.000 He's human. 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:08.000 And he is God. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:12.000 And God invented the feast. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:15.000 Parties exist because God made them. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:17.000 He created them. 00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:21.000 And so Christians, like every other human being that's made in the image of God, 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:24.000 has a deep desire for the feast. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:26.000 For the feast. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:28.000 It's built into who we are. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:32.000 And it's important to know that Jesus had that desire. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:34.000 He loved being there. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:36.000 Verse 3 to 4. 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:40.000 This is something of the situation in verse 3 to 4. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:42.000 The situation is this. 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:46.000 It's venturing on public shame for the bride and the groom. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:52.000 If you look down at verse 3 and 4, the wine runs out. 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:56.000 And the mother of Jesus says to him, they don't have any wine. 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:59.000 And he said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me? 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:01.000 My hour has not yet come. 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:08.000 Now we'll come back to the really puzzling statement that Jesus makes there in just a minute. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:12.000 But the important thing to see here is what Mary says. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:13.000 They've run out of wine. 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:21.000 And what you should hear when she says that is the groom is about to be publicly shamed for this. 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:24.000 He is going to lose all honor in our culture. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:26.000 That's what she's saying. 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:33.000 And there's evidence now that in inter-testamental texts, these are Jewish, typically Jewish texts, 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:37.000 that are written between the time of the Old Testament and the New Testament, 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:42.000 that you could be sued for running out of wine at your feast. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:49.000 And in some places there's evidence that you could get a criminal charge for this. 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:52.000 Now this is hard for us to understand for sure. 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:55.000 But in an honor and shame culture, things are very different. 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:57.000 And it was your duty. 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:01.000 And that duty was required of you, that you not run out of wine. 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:04.000 It was a big deal. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:08.000 But there's something more here. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:13.000 And the something more is that you have to understand a little bit about the Old Testament context 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:18.000 surrounding the concept of wine and why wine is so important. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:21.000 The story of this wedding is that the wine runs out. 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:28.000 But the story of the wine running out is, according to the Old Testament, the story of humanity. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:31.000 And let me just give you three texts to show you what I mean. 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:40.000 Isaiah 24, God is pronouncing judgment upon the nations, and particularly upon Israel. 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:42.000 And it's a very desolate passage. 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:48.000 It begins by saying, the Lord will lay waste upon the earth because of its sins. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:55.000 And then in verse, but this is how it, this is the climax of the description of what it means to be in desolation. 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:58.000 Under the judgment of God, this is what he says, verse 10, 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:06.000 the city has become desolate and in the streets, the people are always crying out for wine. 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:10.000 The joyful harp has now become silent. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:16.000 In other words, wine in the Old Testament, and this makes sense, is the drink of joy. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:19.000 It's the drink, it's the drink of, it's the festival drink. 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:20.000 It's the drink of the feast. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:22.000 It's the drink of joy. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:26.000 In the absence of wine at numerous places, I could give you passage after passage. 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:31.000 When wine goes down to the dregs, it's humanity's plight. 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:40.000 It's absence from God symbolically, and it ultimately points to death, the absence of wine at the feast. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:42.000 Genesis 14, the reverse happens. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:49.000 Abraham defeats his enemies right after the covenant has been made, and he conquers his enemies. 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:59.000 And Melchizedek, the priest king of Jerusalem, comes out to him and only brings him two gifts, the bread and the wine. 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:01.000 Why? Because of his victories. 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:06.000 Because wine, bread and wine are the symbols of the feast. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:10.000 They're the ultimate symbols of joy in the Old Testament, the symbols of the feast. 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:13.000 Thirdly and finally, Psalm 104. 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:19.000 Psalm 104 is a description of the world and its created perfections as God created it. 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:25.000 And it says that God gave three gifts to human beings in Psalm 104, and this is what the text says. 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:37.000 God brought forth first wine to gliden the human heart, oil to make the human face shine and bread that sustains the human heart. 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:42.000 The three gifts of perfect joy, feasting, peace. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:46.000 God's presence, these are all part of the concept of wine. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:51.000 And so what that means is that wine runs out at this wedding. 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:58.000 In history, it happened, but it also runs out at this wedding because the wine always runs out. 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:02.000 The wine always runs out for human beings. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:10.000 In other words, we humans chase after ultimate, festal joy in this life. 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:14.000 And we can never quite capture it. 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:23.000 We are people who want the next thing in life, and we want the next thing to bring us that final bit of happiness. 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:26.000 And it's always coming short. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:30.000 It's always coming short. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:35.000 We talked about this two weeks ago in the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 14. 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:43.000 Happiness always becomes sorrow because every feast has to end. 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:45.000 Every feast has to end. Why? 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:56.000 Because in the order of sin and guilt and death, these feasts are shadows of a wine and bread that will never cease. 00:11:56.000 --> 00:11:58.000 They're shadows. 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:08.000 And so for that reason, we have to look at the jars, point to the importance of the jars, the second sign within the sign. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:13.000 So to get what's happening here, you have to come back to Mary's interaction with Jesus. 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:23.000 Mary tells the servants, she says to Jesus, they've run out of wine, and then Jesus says, what does it have to do with me? 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:28.000 And she turns to the servants and says, just do whatever he tells you to do. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:35.000 Now, it's probably the case that Mary did not understand exactly what Jesus was saying to her at that moment. 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:38.000 And so it's a pretty good rule to follow what she did there. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:47.000 She just says, I don't know, just do whatever he tells you to do, which is a pretty good rule for us because you probably read the Gospel sometimes and have no idea what he's talking about. 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:49.000 Just do whatever he tells you to do. 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:50.000 That was Mary's rule. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:53.000 And it's a good rule to follow. He is God. 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:57.000 And she knew that there was something different about her son. 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:01.000 In verse six, Jesus decides to act. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:07.000 And he decides to rescue the bride and the groom from their shame. 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:08.000 He decides to rescue them. 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:10.000 And the question is, how does he do it? 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:21.000 And he does it by telling the servants to fill up six jars, stone jars with water, and that these are the jars of the purification rite. 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:24.000 So what's going on here? 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:36.000 These stone jars are jars that would have typically been used according to the Old Testament law for cleansing from the loss of cleanliness. 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:41.000 So in the Old Testament law, you could either be clean or unclean. 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:42.000 And these are symbolic. 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:46.000 You can be symbolically clean, symbolically unclean. 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:53.000 And what that means is, if you're unclean, you cannot enter into the temple, into the presence of God as a place of purity. 00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:59.000 And so if you symbolically become impure through all sorts of things, then you have to be cleansed. 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:04.000 And there are all sorts of ways to be cleansed, but these jars were one of the parts of that process. 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:14.000 You filled them with water, you wash off with them, and it is a symbol of being washed of your impurities, of becoming clean again. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:16.000 And that's what they would have always been used for. 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:33.000 And they would have been at this wedding because typically at a wedding, they would have washed things like the utensils and the cups and all that kind of thing to make sure that they were clean, that they were ceremonially clean so that when it came time for the Sabbath day, people could enter the synagogues in the temple. 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:36.000 And so that's what they're used for. 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:50.000 Jesus says, fill these things up with water and then verse 8, when the master of the feast, the master, he's like the master of ceremonies or the head waiter, taste it, it has now become wine. 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:57.000 It is no longer ceremonial cleansing water, it has now become wine. 00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:01.000 Now there are two levels at play with what this means. 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:06.000 At level one, the most basic historical fact of this miracle. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:13.000 In this very moment, this miracle is one of deep compassion. 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:28.000 In other words, the head waiter, the master of ceremonies at the end of the passage, he goes to the groom and he says, normally people serve all the good wine at the beginning of the feast. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:35.000 And then when everybody's drunk a bit too much, they bring out the poor wine because it's cheap. 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:37.000 But you have not done that. 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:42.000 You have brought out the choicest of wine at the end. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:56.000 The groom, the man of shame, the one who has, who all the servants know, who the people behind the scenes know, is facing public dishonor for what is happening in that moment. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:02.000 Is the one publicly that gets the accolade entirely for what has happened. 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:05.000 Jesus gets no credit for this. 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:10.000 You see, nobody knows that Jesus is the one that's done this. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:15.000 Jesus' very first miracle is one that he got no credit for. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:16.000 No one knew. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:18.000 Everybody thought it was the groom. 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:20.000 The groom did it. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:28.000 The man of shame status was instantly reversed into public honor and he didn't do anything. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:30.000 He didn't work a bit for it. 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:32.000 Jesus had done it all. 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:33.000 And you know what that means? 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:39.000 That means at the most basic level simply Jesus is meek and he's mild. 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:44.000 He does not seek attention for himself. 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:46.000 Only a handful of servants know the truth. 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:48.000 The six people that filled up the jars. 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:50.000 They did it. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:52.000 There's no public notice. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:54.000 Why? 00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:58.000 Because he cared for the bride and groom. 00:16:58.000 --> 00:16:59.000 Because he loved them. 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:00.000 That's all. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:01.000 He loved them. 00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:03.000 They were his friends. 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:11.000 And so at the basic level this is simply a miracle of deep compassion for people that he came to love on during the wedding. 00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:13.000 But there's another level. 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:15.000 A deeper level. 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.000 The sign signifying a broader reality. 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:21.000 There's more going on here. 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:26.000 Why does he use the ceremonial purification jars? 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:34.000 For centuries, centuries, these jars had been used to hold water. 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:36.000 Not wine. 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:37.000 Just water. 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:39.000 Never wine. 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:46.000 And that water was used to be washed ceremonially from your sins. 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:49.000 The water was an agent of cleansing. 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:51.000 That was the ceremony. 00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:53.000 It was temporary. 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:58.000 Now the carpenter from Nazareth is saying this. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:06.000 The law gave you water to ceremonially wash away your impurities for a moment. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:09.000 I'm bringing something better. 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:15.000 Not just water, but the drink of festal joy. 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:18.000 The drink of wine. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:20.000 The drink of the feast. 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:22.000 The feast has come. 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:24.000 That's what he's saying. 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:28.000 Jesus is declaring these are no longer ceremonial washing jars. 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:29.000 Why? 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:32.000 Because the true feast is at your doorstep. 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:35.000 It's not a time for water anymore. 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:38.000 The wine maker has come. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:40.000 And it's time to drink wine. 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:42.000 The feast is upon you. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:47.000 So that brings us third and finally to ask this question. 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:49.000 What does the wine mean? 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:53.000 What does the wine signify? 00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:57.000 The third sign is the Bridegroom and his wine. 00:18:57.000 --> 00:18:59.000 What is the wine all about? 00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:04.000 And once more, to get this, you have to go back to Mary's interaction with Jesus 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:09.000 and understand the full picture of what's happening in this passage. 00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:18.000 When she comes to him and says they don't have any wine, his response, first word, woman. 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:24.000 And this has been, let me just say, a text of contention historically, 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:29.000 and especially in the 20th century, because many have come to this and said, 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:34.000 it seems to be rude here in the way he speaks to his mother. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:39.000 Many interpreters have come and said, from the perspective of the modern mind, 00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:47.000 that he sounds almost sexist in the way he speaks to his mom by calling her the generic woman. 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:51.000 And it's a way we wouldn't speak today, right? 00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:55.000 But let me just say this. 00:19:55.000 --> 00:20:00.000 This is the exact same thing he says to her when he's being crucified. 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.000 At the moment of his crucifixion, he looks down and says, woman. 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:13.000 And then he commends her to love John and John to take care of her for the rest of her life. 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:20.000 You see, in a moment of deep compassion and love for his mother, it's the exact same phrase that he uses. 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:26.000 And so I think in modern idiom, it would be better, and this is a more literal way to look at it, 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:30.000 to say this, dear woman. 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:37.000 He literally says, what is this to you and to me, or what does this have to do with us? Dear woman. 00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:43.000 More puzzling than that phrase, though, is the next thing that he says, his response to her. 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:52.000 He says, woman, what does this have to do with us? And then he says, my hour has not yet come. 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:59.000 Now, every time in the book of John that the word hour appears, and you can see this as you read through the book of John more and more, 00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:04.000 it always refers to the moment of the crucifixion. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:10.000 The hour means the hour of his death, and he knows that. That's what it means for him, the hour. 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:19.000 So let me just give you the logic of this conversation. It goes something like this, Jesus, they've run out of wine. 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:24.000 And then he says, but it's not time for me to die. 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:32.000 You see, that's what he's saying. That's what he means by hour. They've run out of wine. It's not time for me to die. 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:39.000 What does this have to do with me? What in the world? I mean, why does he say that? 00:21:39.000 --> 00:21:50.000 What's happening here? Let me just offer you a consistent interpretation that's not original to me at all, but that many, many people have gone for. 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:59.000 I think what's happening here in Jesus' mind while he says this is the exact same thing that happens to all of us, most of us at least, when we go to a wedding. 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:04.000 When we go to weddings, we think about our own weddings. 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:12.000 When you go to a wedding, you can't help but think about your own wedding. Either you think about your wedding that might happen in the future, 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:20.000 and you ladies, you look at the flowers, you look at the dress, you look at the tables that have been set out, and everything. 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:27.000 You look at the details, and you ponder, what would I do? What will I do? Or what did I do if you're married? 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:35.000 Or what might I do if I get married someday? And the men do it too, believe it or not, even if they don't want to say. They do it too. 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:43.000 They think more about the band and the reception and the honeymoon and all that kind of stuff, but it makes you think about your own wedding. 00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:56.000 Everybody does this. And while Jesus is sitting at this wedding, it's making him think about his own wedding. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:05.000 The wine is running out at this wedding, and that makes him think of the wine running out at his own wedding. 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:13.000 And you say, Jesus was never married, but oh, the gospel say he was. 00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:23.000 In Matthew chapter 9, John the Baptist's followers and the Pharisees come to Jesus, and they say, why is it that we fast, 00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:31.000 and we look weak, and we're starving, and you're disciples, and you don't fast? 00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:41.000 And he says this, can the wedding guests be in mourning while the bridegroom is with them? 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:53.000 And what he's saying in that moment is metaphorically, I see my whole life as a wedding, working up to a wedding. 00:23:53.000 --> 00:24:00.000 I am the bridegroom, and I've come to this earth to get married. That's what he's saying in that moment. 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:05.000 My life is working up to a wedding feast. 00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:12.000 And this is the very beginning of his ministry, and Edmund Clowney, one commentator, puts it like this. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:23.000 In Jesus' mind at this point, at the beginning of his ministry, he is starting to sip the cup of wine that is sorrow and bitter, 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:31.000 so that his wedding guests can one day drink from the festival cup of joy. 00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:41.000 This wedding makes him think, in other words, of what he's going to have to do to grasp hold of his own bride. 00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:52.000 What must he do to get his bride? He must drink wine, he must drip wine, and he must give wine. 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:58.000 In the Garden of Gethsemane, he knew the cross was coming, he knew it was right before him, 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:02.000 and he was sweating and he was dripping blood from his pores. 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:08.000 And what did he pray to his father? Let this cup pass from me. 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:14.000 And in the first century, you do not drink wine in a glass, you do something that we would not do today, 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:19.000 you drink wine in a cup, in a wooden cup. 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:27.000 And so what he prays before his father, metaphorically, figuratively, is let this particular cup of wine, the bitter cup, 00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:32.000 pass from me, it's the cup of wrath. 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:36.000 He's saying, I don't want to drink it, it's bitter. 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:42.000 And because he knew he was about to drink from that cup only moments before this, 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:49.000 he could sit at a table, at a feast with his friends and offer them a different cup. 00:25:49.000 --> 00:26:00.000 Not the cup of wrath, not the bitter cup of wine, but the wine of festival joy. 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:05.000 The cup where he said, this is my blood for you. 00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.000 The sweet wine, the choice wine. 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:14.000 And so at this wedding, at the very beginning of his ministry, 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:21.000 his mind goes to the cup of wrath that he's going to have to drink the hour 00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:31.000 so that the wedding guests can one day drink from the festival wine of blessing, his bride. 00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:38.000 The blood of the covenant, it had to drip from his veins, the wine of the covenant on the cross. 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:44.000 It's the only ticket to an ultimate wedding feast. 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:46.000 It's the only way. 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:51.000 It's the point of the wine that we're going to drink today. 00:26:51.000 --> 00:26:57.000 Now, let me just ask in closing, why did he do it? 00:26:57.000 --> 00:26:59.000 Why did he do it? 00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:05.000 And one way to get at why he did this, why he's sitting at this feast, 00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:11.000 and instead of being happy, he immediately becomes sorrowful thinking about the own cup of wrath he's going to have to drink. 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:13.000 Why did he do it? 00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:19.000 And one way to think about it is to take your mind back to the wedding that you've been to. 00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:21.000 Or maybe your wedding. 00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:30.000 When you go to a wedding and the back doors open and it's time for the bride to walk down the aisle, 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.000 there's only one place that everybody in the room is looking. 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:36.000 And that's at her, right? 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:39.000 You stand up, you turn, you look at her. 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:45.000 And no matter what she's looked like in the past, no matter the blemishes or whatever, 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:50.000 today she is wearing the white robe, the white gown of righteousness. 00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:53.000 That's why we wear white. 00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:56.000 And she is as beautiful as she'll ever be, right? 00:27:56.000 --> 00:27:59.000 In that moment, walking down the aisle. 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:03.000 But the happiest face, the most joyful face in the room, 00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:05.000 where is it? 00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:10.000 And it's the man, the groom, standing up at the front looking at her. 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:12.000 And that's a great place to look at a wedding. 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:15.000 Don't look at her, look at the groom's face. 00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:18.000 He's the most joyful man in the room. 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:20.000 Why? 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:27.000 Because his bride is coming and he would do anything for her to get her in that moment. 00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:34.000 And so Hebrews 2 puts it this way about our groom, 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:37.000 for the joy that was set before him, 00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:41.000 looking down the aisle at his bride, walking towards him, 00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:45.000 he endured the cross, he despised the shame. 00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:52.000 He dripped the blood of the covenant from his very veins, you see. 00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:58.000 For us, for you. 00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:04.000 So, you know, the end of the world, did you know that the end of the world, 00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:07.000 the end of all of history will be a wedding feast, 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:12.000 the marriage supper of the Lamb in Revelation 19 and 21, 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:15.000 the beginning of the new heavens and the new earth. 00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:17.000 It's the feast of bread and wine. 00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:21.000 That is the culmination and climax of all of history. 00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:27.000 And that means that Jesus Christ is better than the groom in this passage. 00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:30.000 He's better than the master of the ceremonies in this passage. 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:33.000 He's more. He's the ultimate bridegroom. 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:36.000 He is the Lord of the feast. 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:38.000 He's the Lord of the feast. 00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:45.000 And the Lord's supper that we're about to celebrate is a feast. 00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:51.000 It certainly looks back and remembers the cross and Jesus' death. 00:29:51.000 --> 00:29:54.000 Yes. 00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:57.000 But Jesus is not dead. 00:29:57.000 --> 00:29:59.000 Jesus is not dead. 00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:02.000 And that's important for remembering when we come to the Lord's table. 00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:04.000 He's not dead. 00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:09.000 And we don't simply come today to participate in a funeral, 00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:14.000 but to look through the death of Christ to the resurrection 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:19.000 and to the coming, festival joy of the new heavens and the new earth. 00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:25.000 And that means that the Lord's supper is primarily celebratory 00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.000 because Jesus isn't dead. He's alive. 00:30:29.000 --> 00:30:32.000 He drank the bitter wine of the wrath of God 00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:36.000 so that we could drink the festival wine of joy and gladness and hope. 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:39.000 And that's what we're going to do this morning right now. 00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:40.000 Let's pray. 00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:43.000 Father, we thank you for the gospel, 00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:47.000 for the covenant wine, the blood that dripped from Jesus' veins, 00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:55.000 for us, for the promise of drinking and eating with Him one day 00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.000 in a place without tears. 00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:14.000 With your thanks, in the name of Christ, amen.