I've always loved John's Gospel.
It's the Gospel that I was reading when I came to faith as a 22-year-old.
It's always had a special place in my heart.
One of the things I love about John's Gospel, which we just read from,
is that it was written later than the other Gospels.
So John's focus is a bit different.
He doesn't just tell us what happened,
but he focuses more on the meaning of what happened.
What does it mean that Jesus has come into the world?
And he has a very clear aim.
He lays his cards down on the table.
We see at the end of his Gospel in chapter 20, he says,
I have written all of this so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
So he's saying there's a kind of life that we were made to have,
a kind of life that we were made to experience,
that we're not experiencing it now,
and that the only way to experience that kind of life
is by putting our faith in the name of Jesus Christ.
And so throughout his book, he gives us a series of signs
that act like clues in a treasure hunt.
We're meant to follow these signs because each one of them points
to the true identity of Jesus,
and they're meant to convince us to believe in him.
So you would think that they should be pretty impressive signs
if they're meant to do that.
And John chapter 2 is the very first sign, we are told,
the first clue in the treasure hunt.
So we would expect, given all this,
that John would start his Gospel with a bang,
that it would be something really impressive,
that there would be lightning bolts or words written in the sky
or pillars of fire or earthquakes,
or at least maybe feed a few thousand people.
But no.
We look here.
John tells us a story about a catering mishap,
a social faux pas.
Here's the sign.
Jesus makes 150 gallons of the best wine you have ever tasted.
That's it.
And so we're going to look this morning at this sign,
and we're going to look first at what happened,
and then what it means,
and then what it means for us.
Why would John think it's so important
to tell us about this almost private miracle
that many people at the party had no idea had even occurred?
Let's pray, and then we'll open God's Word.
Lord, we thank you for your Word,
and we thank you that we're not left to our own efforts
to try to understand what this says,
that we're not just dealing with ink and paper,
but that we come here in the presence of the living God,
that you, through your Holy Spirit,
speak to us through your Word,
that you know what we need, what we need to hear.
You know the work that needs to be done in each one of us.
You know the reasons you brought us here this morning,
and we pray now that you would do your work
through your Word for your glory.
And we pray this in your Son, Jesus' holy name.
Amen.
So first of all, let's look at what happened.
Very familiar story, but it's worth looking at again,
because almost every time I look at this,
I pick up on things that I didn't pick up on before.
There's a wedding.
Jesus and his disciples have been invited,
along with Jesus' mother, Mary.
No mention of his father.
It could be that Joseph has passed away by this point.
In this culture, you need to understand,
weddings were a lot bigger deal than they are
even in our culture.
A wedding would usually last a full week.
It would be marked by multiple processions
through the street.
This is probably going to be the best experience
of this couple's life.
This is an opportunity for them to throw a lavish party
for the whole town.
And the feast was really the high point,
a multi-day feast.
And at the center of the feast was the wine.
The wine is what makes the feast a feast.
So running out of wine in the middle of the feast
is a very big deal.
You couldn't just run down to Costco
and buy more mega bottles.
This couple is about to be humiliated
because they live in an honor-shame culture.
They're going to be the laughing stock of the town.
People are going to be talking about this
behind their backs for the rest of their lives.
And in this culture, the groom and his family
were the ones that were responsible for paying
for all of the festivities.
So of course, what are people going to say?
They're going to say, well,
if he can't even afford his own wedding,
how would we expect him to provide
for his wife and family?
So this is going to be socially devastating for them.
Mary's immediate response
is to turn and ask Jesus for help.
It's not his wedding,
technically not his responsibility,
but she knows enough about Jesus
to know if anybody can do anything about this,
it's him.
But Jesus gives Mary a very unexpected,
seemingly brusque, almost rude response.
And we're going to come back to that
in a little while.
First, I want to note how Mary responds.
She doesn't say,
how dare you talk to me like that?
I am your mother.
You get up out of that chair right now.
Now that's how most Jewish mothers
would have responded to their sons
after getting a response like she got from Jesus.
And she would be perfectly justified in doing so.
But that's not how she responds.
She turns to the servants and she says,
do whatever he tells you.
And I think this is really interesting
because we can almost imagine her saying something like this,
kind of walking over to the servants and saying,
okay, listen,
he often says really strange things
and he does weird things.
And sometimes you ask him something
and he does the opposite.
And sometimes you say something to him
and then he responds
and it's a total non sequitur.
And I know it seems really weird,
but here's the thing.
Take it from me,
he's amazing.
There's no one like him.
You can trust him.
Do whatever he tells you.
And you see right there in Mary,
one of many ways
that Mary shows us a beautiful example to follow.
Even when God doesn't seem to make sense,
even when we are asking and pleading and begging God
to do things that we know God loves.
And God does the opposite.
God seems to not respond.
God does something that we don't want.
He brings something into our lives
that we've prayed against.
And God makes no sense.
Mary's response is to say,
I know that often he does things that don't make sense,
but you can trust him.
And this is the thing that we see with God
again and again and again and again.
Even when we don't understand God's motives,
we can always understand
or we can always trust God's character.
Even when we don't understand his motives,
which we rarely do,
we can always trust his character.
Do whatever he tells you.
It's one of the best pieces of advice
we could possibly get
of what it means to live our lives
participating in the life of Christ.
And so Jesus says,
okay, see those stone jars over there?
I want you to fill those with water.
Now, no doubt there were plenty
of empty wineskins lying around,
but Jesus specifically requests the stone jars.
When the master of the feast
thinks there's no wine,
he's on the verge of panicking, right?
Word is starting to spread.
I think the wine's run out.
Jesus says, fill those stone jars.
And then he says,
take some of that to the master of the feast.
He was sort of like the MC.
He was kind of responsible
for keeping the party going.
And so just before word gets out
and just before this big humiliation happens,
the servants bring some of this liquid
to the master of the feast
and the master tastes it.
And to his great relief and astonishment,
he's drinking wine.
And he doesn't know where the wine came from.
And so he assumes that
it has been provided by the groom.
And so he calls out to the groom
and he says,
everyone else serves the best wine first.
And then when people have drunk freely,
you know,
when their palates are not quite as refined,
then the poor wine comes out.
And he says,
but you have kept the best wine until now.
And so the groom ends up being honored.
And from this day forward,
I guarantee you,
everybody at the party
talked about how amazing that wine was
and how amazing it was
that the groom kept it
until the end of the party.
So this is what happened.
But John is interested in more than this.
He wants us to understand the meaning
behind this series of events.
And in order to understand that,
we need to go back to the way
Jesus responds to Mary's request.
He says,
woman,
what does this have to do with me?
And I would love to be able to say
that if you look at it in the original Greek,
it's not quite as rude
as it seems to be.
But that's actually not true.
It is as rude as it seems to be.
It's brusque.
It's a bit cold.
It's a bit distant.
I wouldn't say it's overtly rude
or disrespectful,
but there's a certain kind of distance
that Jesus is placing
between himself and his mother.
And that's because something else
is on his mind.
And he goes on to tell us
what he's thinking about.
He says,
woman,
what does this have to do with me?
My hour has not yet come.
Now,
in the book of John,
every single time we see this phrase,
my hour has not yet come,
it's always referring to the same thing.
It's referring to Jesus' death,
his crucifixion.
So this raises a very interesting question.
Why is Jesus sitting at a wedding
surrounded by people
who are drinking and dancing
and he's thinking about dying?
And somebody once said to me,
you know,
when you're single
and in your 30s
and you go to a wedding,
it sort of makes you feel
like you want to die sometimes.
But I don't think
that that is the explanation
that makes sense.
There's a lot more going on here.
Jesus is sitting here.
He's thinking about his death.
And the reason is
because Jesus knows
the Old Testament Scriptures
by heart.
And when you look
at the Old Testament Scriptures,
all throughout,
God refers to himself
as a bridegroom.
And he refers to his people
as his bride.
And we see that this is
the kind of relationship
that God desires to have
with us,
with his people.
That God didn't just make us
to merely be subjects
or followers.
That God created us
to be the object
of his love and delight.
And he made us
to love and delight in God.
But no matter how much
God pursues his people,
all through the Old Testament,
the story is the same.
God is pursuing his people,
loving his people,
chasing after his people,
and they are continually
unfaithful to him.
Again and again,
they reject his love,
they spurn his love,
and they give themselves away
to other substitute gods.
And that really, friends,
is what is wrong
with the world deep down.
If you want to know
the core problem,
why the world is so broken,
why there's so much
injustice and conflict,
this is why.
It's because instead
of loving God above all else,
human beings set our hearts
on other things
again and again and again.
We take things like comfort
or safety or status
or financial security,
and we set our hearts
on those things.
In other words,
we give into the idea
that if I could just have
this thing and keep this thing,
then I'll be okay,
then my life will be okay,
then I'll be satisfied,
then I'll be happy,
I'll finally have what I need.
And what we find over time
is that again and again and again,
those things let us down.
They never last.
It's never enough.
And so human beings go
from one substitute God
to another,
giving our hearts away
again and again and again.
This is what's wrong
with the world.
And so God is a God
who desires this kind
of relationship with His people,
but His people are
like a wayward bride.
And so it raises the question
at the end of the Old Testament,
there really is no answer.
How does God deal
with people like this?
Now there is no answer,
but there are clues
in the Old Testament
about what God intends to do.
In the book of Isaiah,
God says something astounding.
In chapter 61,
He begins to speak
of an anointed one.
And it's very clear
the more you read
about this anointed one
that He's far more
than just a human being,
that we're dealing
with someone who is divine,
who's able to do things
that no mere human could do.
And in chapter 62,
which is our Old Testament reading
for this morning,
this anointed one
appears as a bridegroom
who has come
to make His bride ready.
And He says,
for the sake of my people,
for the sake of my bride,
I will not stop
until your righteousness
blazes like the sun.
I will not stop
until your righteousness
blazes like the sun.
And then in Isaiah,
there's this great transformation.
And God's people
are transformed.
And they are no longer desolate.
They're no longer forsaken.
They're transformed
into a radiant bride.
The object of God's
eternal delight.
And then it describes
a great wedding celebration
that spans the earth
and people everywhere
celebrate as God
is finally joined
to His people
like a bride
to a bridegroom.
But of course,
this raises
a very important question.
What makes
this transformation possible?
How do they go
from desolation
and perpetual
unfaithfulness
to shining like the sun?
And if we go back
to Isaiah 53,
we find the answer
that before
this wedding
can happen,
before the transformation
can occur,
before the bride
can make herself ready,
the bridegroom
is going to have to suffer.
And He's going to have
to suffer
for the sake
of His bride.
And it says there
that His body
is going to be crushed
like grapes
in a wine press,
that His life
is going to be poured out
like wine.
And verse 11
tells us why.
Why is He suffering?
Why?
out of the anguish
of His soul,
many will be counted
righteous,
for He shall
bear their iniquities.
So why does Jesus
respond to Mary
the way He does
in this seemingly
brusque way?
It's because Jesus
is thinking about
His own wedding.
And He knows
that in order
to make His bride ready,
He's going to have
to be crushed.
See, on the cross,
Jesus took all
of the shame
and the guilt
and the iniquity.
All of the shame
and the iniquity
of the world,
He took on to Himself.
And yet,
the Gospel tells us this,
that out of the anguish
of His soul,
all who come to Him
in faith and repentance
are counted righteous.
So this is why Jesus
used the purification
jars instead of
the wineskins.
He's saying,
I have come to give you
what these jars
and that water
and the religion
that you have been following
never could have given you.
No amount of water
can ever make you clean.
You can clean the outside,
but you can't clean the inside.
And you need something
that can clean you
on the inside.
And He's saying,
this is why I have to shed
my blood for you,
why I have to be crushed.
Only that can make you
clean on the inside.
Only then will your righteousness
shine like the sun.
And that's why,
before Jesus was betrayed
and taken away
to be crucified,
He shared one last meal
with His disciples,
where He took a cup of wine
and He handed it to them.
And He said,
this cup is the new covenant
in my blood.
And He commands them
to drink it.
And the reason is clear
if we understand this story
that it's because
He's saying,
you will be purified
ultimately by what I provide.
Only the wine that I provide
can do that.
And it's the wine of my blood.
It's my blood for your souls.
Now we begin to understand
why John would put this
at the beginning of His gospel
because this miracle prefigures
Jesus' entire ministry,
the whole reason He came,
which is to turn the water
of religion
into the wine of the gospel.
It's to turn the water
of self-made righteousness
into the wine of righteousness
that comes as a gift
by faith in Jesus Christ.
I mean, think about
how this story plays out.
Who gets credit for the wine?
It's the groom.
Right?
Jesus did all the work,
provides all the wine,
but the groom is the one
who gets the credit.
That's the gospel.
So let's ask just
with a few minutes remaining here,
what does this actually mean for us?
If this is what the gospel
of John is trying to tell us,
the meaning of this wonderful story
about a wedding,
what does it mean for us?
I'll just make a few suggestions.
First of all,
I believe this story,
if we understand it,
if we believe it,
it transforms the way
we deal with our failures
and our shortcomings.
We live in a culture,
and especially if you live in D.C.
or somewhere like D.C.,
that praises competence,
we praise accomplishment,
we praise self-sufficiency,
we praise resumes
and CVs and accolades.
Most of us live in dire fear
of anyone seeing our failures
or our shortcomings
or our weaknesses.
But notice what happens
at this wedding.
Although no one knew it,
the bridegroom did run out of wine.
Right?
He did fall short.
This was on his watch,
and he,
something fell apart.
Something got overlooked.
But that in this story
is precisely where
the glory of Jesus shines through.
Right?
It's through the deficit.
It's through the failures
and the shortcomings
of this bridegroom,
the glory of Jesus is revealed.
And what we see here
is that where this man
would otherwise have found
failure and shame,
Jesus supplies
more richly and abundantly
than this man ever could have done
on his own.
This is exactly what
the Apostle Paul discovered
in his own ministry.
when he's endeavoring
to love and to serve
the people of the church
at Corinth.
But he's weak.
He's not a great public speaker.
He's made mistakes,
and the false teachers
are exploiting that,
and they're mocking him,
and they're ridiculing him
for his weaknesses.
And his response
is not to say,
here's all of my justifications
and all of my defenses
for why I'm so great.
No, he actually does
the opposite.
He says, listen,
I've learned,
I've learned actually
that Jesus' power
is made perfect in weakness.
I've learned that his power
is made perfect in my weakness.
And he says,
that is where I most powerfully
experience the love
and the grace of Jesus Christ.
It's when I fail,
and I have no other option
but to turn to him
and cry out to him.
And he says,
so not only will I admit
my weaknesses,
I'll boast in my weaknesses.
So imagine the next time
someone criticizes you
or calls you out
instead of defending yourself
or justifying yourself.
Your response would be to say,
you think that's my worst problem?
You think that's as bad
as it gets?
That's just the tip
of the iceberg.
It is so much worse
than you possibly could imagine.
Right?
That's what Paul's response is
because he knows
the more he leans into his failures
and his shortcomings,
the more he experiences
the abundance of Christ.
Right?
We freely admit our weaknesses
because those are the places
where we find Christ.
Number two,
this, I believe,
reminds us
how God sees us
in Christ.
I say this from time to time.
I like to ask people
when I meet with them
for prayer or other things,
I like to at some point ask,
how do you think
that God feels
when you come into his mind?
You know,
when God is thinking about you,
how does he feel
when you come into his mind?
And in my experience,
most people,
when they're honest,
say they assume God
is probably vaguely
disappointed in them.
They know they should
be doing more.
They know they should do
a better job coming to church.
They know they should
be praying more.
They know they should
be serving more.
They know they should
be giving more
and that God's given
them a lot of chances.
They know that that thing
that they keep doing,
that sin that they keep committing,
that they know that God
has given them a thousand chances
and they figure that
probably by this point
God is just kind of
ready to give up.
And that's what most people
say when they're honest.
And if that is you,
if that's what you believe,
then I want you to memorize
Isaiah chapter 61,
verse 5.
As the bridegroom
rejoices over the bride,
so shall your God
rejoice over you.
Let me say it again.
As the bridegroom
rejoices over the bride,
so shall your God
rejoice over you.
I've been to a lot of weddings.
I've been to a lot of weddings
as a priest.
I've been to a lot of weddings
as a friend.
I've been to one wedding
as a groom.
And then before that,
I did a stint
as a wedding photographer.
By far the hardest of all.
And much respect
for wedding photographers.
High stress job.
But because of that,
I've often gotten
a unique vantage point.
I get to see things
from an angle
that most people don't get.
There's this moment
in every wedding
where the doors open
and the bride is revealed.
And everybody stands
and they turn
and they look at the bride
as they should.
But I always like
to kind of sneak a peek
at the groom's face.
Because normally
I'm standing right next
to the groom.
And I've seen this look
again and again and again.
I've seen this look
where the groom
in that moment
is utterly transfixed
by the sight of his bride.
It is a look of pure joy.
It is a look of pure delight.
And at that moment,
even though the room
may be filled
with hundreds of people,
it is as though
there is no one in the room.
It is as though
the bride is the only one there.
And what we need
to understand
is that that is how God feels
when he looks at you.
That is how God feels.
That's the look on his face
when he sees you.
Right?
As the bridegroom
rejoices over the bride,
so shall your God
rejoice over you.
Memorize that verse.
And then finally,
I believe this gives us
a vision and a reason
for Christian hospitality.
You know, we worship a God.
I mean, if this makes
anything clear,
it's that we worship a God
of lavish hospitality.
It's no coincidence
that Jesus reveals himself
by providing wine
to keep the party going.
His entire earthly ministry
is marked by table fellowship
and often with the most
unlikely people.
He's accused again and again
by the religious leaders
of being a glutton
and a drunkard
because he stays up
late into the night
eating and drinking
with the dregs of society,
with the outcasts,
with the people
that you wouldn't even talk to
lest you become unclean.
And these are some
of Jesus' best friends.
And he stays up
late into the night
laughing and talking
and drinking and eating
and feasting with them.
And when people
accuse him of that,
at one point he says,
why wouldn't we feast?
The bridegroom is here.
Right?
Of course this is
what he's talking about.
And the sacrament
that Jesus gave us
that enables us
to experience our union
with him
is also a feast.
Christ.
Right?
He welcomes us
to a feast
of bread and wine,
of his body and blood.
Right?
So if you look
at all of these things,
it is undeniable
that God is a God
of lavish hospitality.
And when we practice
hospitality,
we are walking
in the footsteps
of Christ.
In other words,
just to put it plainly,
I believe Christians
should throw
the best parties.
I think that Christians
should be known
for throwing
some of the best parties
out there.
Because what better way
to introduce people
to the God
of lavish hospitality
than to show them
lavish hospitality.
To love them
the way God
has loved us.
You know,
many of you know
about the
For the City campaign.
We're raising finances
to renovate
our future church home
and God willing
we'll move in
later this year.
And one of the main
things we're excited
about,
about having
our own space,
is to be able
to show hospitality
to the neighborhood.
To be a place
of hospitality
for Shaw,
for the surrounding
communities,
for the city.
To have the ability
to welcome people in
every day.
To love them
by welcoming them
into our space
and providing
for their needs.
And every time
we gather around
this table,
which we're going
to do in just
a little while,
we're reminded
that this is
God's vision
for the culmination
of all human history.
Right?
In the book
of Revelation,
at the end of time
when Jesus makes
all things new,
there will be
a great wedding feast.
The supper of the Lamb.
And I love to think
that the wine
they tasted
at the wedding
at Cana
is the same wine
that we will all
one day drink
at that great feast.
Let's pray.
Our Lord,
we thank you
for your love
for us.
We thank you
that as the bridegroom
rejoices over the bride,
so you look upon
your people
and you rejoice.
We thank you
for this boundless,
limitless love
that has pursued us
over the centuries,
that pursues us still.
Lord,
we thank you
that our hope
does not rest
in our faithfulness,
but our hope
rests in your faithfulness.
That our hope
rests in the fact
that even when we
turn away from you,
even when we give up
on you,
you never turn away
from us.
You never give up
on us.
Lord,
I pray that those
of us who need
to hear this
most would receive it,
that your deep love
and delight is here,
that we need only
receive it,
Lord.
Lord,
I pray that you
would give us
the grace to respond
to your invitation
into this kind
of relationship
that you made us for,
and I pray that you
would make this
all the more real
as we come to receive
the bread and the wine
later this morning.
We pray all this
in Jesus' name.
Amen.