"On the third day"-A Sermon for Epiphany 2, John 2:1-11
So, as I was preparing for this sermon, it really caught my attention for the first time that our gospel reading today, from the beginning of the second chapter of John, starts out with the prepositional phrase, “On the third day”. So, I began to wonder what this chronological note might mean. Perhaps it meant that Jesus was late to the wedding…showing up on the third day of the festivities. Jewish weddings in those days were usually a week-long affair. Or perhaps Jesus wasn’t late, instead, the note is simply setting up the miracle of changing water into wine…for it makes more sense to run out of wine on the third day of a week-long party rather than the first. Other biblical commentators suggest that it is simply connecting this story with the previous story. John chapter 1 ends with Jesus calling Phillip as one of his disciples in the town of Bethsaida. And, Bethsaida is about 30 to 40 miles from Cana in Galilee, where the wedding was to take place, and 3 days is a reasonable amount of time for Jesus to make the trip by foot from Bethsaida to Cana. Others suggest that “on the third day” simply means that it was the third day of the week on a first century Jewish calendar, which, if interested, would mean that this is story takes place on what would be a Monday evening for us. And still other scholars suggest that the point of setting this event at a particular time or on a particular day, is simply to say it really happened. The story is not legend or myth, but that it actually happened in time and space…on the third day. And I also found other more convoluted theories that require high level math…using various methods of numerology and Jewish mysticism to connect this story to Old Testament prophesies, the second coming of Jesus, and even Armageddon. Really a bit wacky…a rabbit hole of epic proportions…but, even if not for me, I do appreciate people’s passion for unlocking the mysteries of the bible.
And though all of these possibilities are interesting in their own way, when I hear “on the third day” something immediately jumps to mind…one very obvious connection to another important moment in the life and ministry of Jesus. Any guesses of what that moment might be? Easter…Jesus was raised from the dead, as scripture tells us, on the third day, if, or course, you begin counting, as we typically do, on the day that Jesus dies on the hard wood of the cross…Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and then Easter Sunday…the third day. So perhaps, just perhaps, this miracle of Jesus turning water into wine…Jesus’ first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee…is setting the stage for what is to come…pointing us to where Jesus’ entire ministry is heading…pointing us all the way to the empty tomb.
So to go a bit further with this connection, I just called the transformation of water into wine a miracle. But that is not what John calls it. In fact, the word miracle, perhaps surprisingly, is never used by John in his Gospel, despite the fact that it is commonly agreed that the gospel includes Jesus performing 7 miracles. Instead, John says, “Jesus did this [turned water into wine], the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” John uses the word sign to describe Jesus’ miraculous activity, which suggests, like all signs, the miracle itself was intended to point to something other than itself. Which is not to call into question the validity of the miracle as John records it, but to suggest that, through the miracle, Jesus is trying to teach us something…point something out to us…point to a meaning even deeper…more profound…than the transformation itself…perhaps, again, a sign pointing us all the way to Easter.
Further, this is Jesus’ very first miraculous sign. Just a simple reading of the text might suggest that Jesus was not even really ready for it…that is if not nudged along by, of all people, his mom. John writes, “When the wine gave out, [Jesus’ mother] said to him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." And that is really a pretty hilarious exchange. If my mother said to me…we are out of wine. I would know better than to say…what concern is that to us. Instead, I would understand that it was a sign to get into my car and drive to HEB for a bottle of chardonnay. But I digress. My point is whether Jesus was ready to begin his great journey of healing and loving and teaching and dying and living again…the time had come…as his mother knew…to begin…to begin to be God’s ultimate sign…pointing all the world, in high definition clarity, to the God of love…the great lover of our souls…our creator and redeemer and sanctifier. And so, following a mother’s wisdom, it begins. Jesus begins his miraculous, world-changing work, with this seemingly mundane miracle…water into wine…surely good for revelers enjoying a week-long party…but perhaps not much more. Maybe it’s okay for even Jesus to start out small. Or maybe I am underselling the transformation…the meaning of this sign. Maybe first impressions are among the most important…maybe Jesus’ first sign, as I already suggested, is setting the stage not just for all that will come…but for his crowning achievement…the miracle of Jesus’ glorious resurrection from the dead…and the end of sin and death for all people and for all time…on the third day.
And so now to the sign itself…and the wonder of it all is found in the details. For if you pay attention to both the size of the jars of water that Jesus turns into wine…and you notice the reaction of the chief steward of the wedding who first tastes the wine…what we might call the wedding coordinator…you see that Jesus did not just make some wine. Jesus made a whole lot of really great wine. If you do the math, you see that Jesus made 950 bottles to be exact of Caymus Estate Grown Grand Reserve Cabernet…or some such. And let’s not forget the fact that this all happens at a wedding…at the forging of a life-long relationship rooted in love and faithfulness between two people. Thus, I would suggest that what this sign is pointing us to is that Jesus’ whole trajectory of ministry, from this first sign on…on this third day, and that finds its dramatic culmination at Easter, on that third day, is all about the restoration, the resurrection, the forging of relationships, eternal relationships, between God and God’s people and between God’s people themselves…like between us…relationships that are full to overflowing…that make hearts glad…that bring great flavor and complexity to our lives…that are rooted in faithfulness…and spilling over with love…like at the beginning of a marriage are full of hope…relationships that bring joy to our lives…that feel like we are celebrating with each other…relationships overflowing with grace upon grace.
This is the point and promise of Jesus’ first sign at a wedding in Cana of Galilee…that Easter is coming. And, by it, through the defeat of sin and death, we are graciously given the power and possibility…both in this life and the life to come…the power and possibility…the grace to experience with God and each other the sorts of relationships we were made for…rich and rare…complex and full of flavor…overflowing with love and generosity…spilling over with kindness and joy and intimacy…pointed to at a wedding in Cana of Galilee…made fully real at the empty tomb of Easter…each on the third day. Amen.