Second Sunday of Epiphany John 2:1-11 Isaiah 62:1-5

The wedding at Cana, the text says, is the first of Jesus’ signs, through which he revealed his glory. It was certainly spectacular, even though many of the guests didn’t have a clue. What they did notice, though, was the different – read, better – quality of the wine they were drinking! And that is the whole point. There are many strands we could take from this passage to focus on, but the point is that water was changed into wine. In other words, what was ‘commonplace’ as it were, had become special. We associate wine with a festive occasion, and water with everyday drink. We need water; there’s no doubt about that. It is so very basic to our existence. Our national beverage depends on it. It is the first thing that some cultures offer to a guest, so as to revive them in a hot climate. And it is even Jesus himself who refers to his own person as the Water of Life; not just like a liquid to avoid human bodies from being dehydrated, but as an essential ingredient to our existence in the spiritual sense for our souls, as we find for instance in the story of the encounter with a Samaritan woman at a well (John 4). So it is perfectly understood that we need both physical water and its spiritual counterpart in Jesus.

However, here, in chapter 2 of John’s Gospel, the ordinary water had changed into extraordinary wine. It’s interesting to read the passage anew, to ponder the words that Mary spoke to Jesus and his response. Her, ‘They have no wine’, is met by his, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and me?’. Nevertheless, she then says to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ Would she already know a thing or two about Jesus’ power to change a situation? Or did she think more in the line of Jesus organising a search party by his disciples, to go to the nearest wine cellar and buy more wine? We don’t know for sure. But we do know that Mary must have had a special bit of extra knowledge about her son anyway, what with the words of the angel Gabriel to her before Jesus was born, and other things that followed. And although Jesus doesn’t perform his ‘first sign’ straight away at his mother’s bidding, he does get on with it, and does something so different, so wonderful too, that the wedding is saved. What’s more, it says that the disciples believed in him through this.

The point that water was changed into wine, though, is more relevant and important than that. Yes, it led to a favourable outcome for the wedding couple as well as for the guests and the faith of the disciples. But the very change of water into wine is significant in another sense as well and it may be helpful to remind ourselves of it. For that, I turn to the passage from the prophet Isaiah for today. This is about a change of fortune, a new name for what was forsaken and desolate for the people of Israel. There is the reference to a wedding: ‘For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.’ The symbolism of marriage is used to describe the change of the situation, to say in effect that ‘the old has gone, the new has come’. This passage also says, ‘You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.’ A real change, in the process of vindication and restoration, just like the work of Jesus was going to make to the lives of all who put their trust in him. We can read this account in John’s Gospel like a simple story, saying that, yes, okay, water was changed into wine and the wedding party were happy. But we could also read it as a message and a gift for us: Water was changed into wine!! And you know why: because Jesus was there; he made the difference. And we can taste his goodness, just like the people at the wedding, and perhaps even more so, because we know who he is. Amen.