The Wedding at Cana – John 2: 1-11
I look forward every year to that time in Epiphany when the church returns to John chapter 2 and reads the account of the miracle at the wedding at Cana.
This week is the week of prayers for church unity so we can pause to reflect that it is not only the Church of England that reads this passage at this time of year. Our brothers and sisters in Christ at St Pius and the Methodist church and St Mary’s and all over the world will also be thinking and wondering about this story.
Jesus says ‘my time is not yet come’. But his mother insists. And he turns the water into wine.
Six twenty gallon stone jars filled to the brim with water for purification. Jesus turns the water into wine. Our imaginations immediately leap to the wine that is for us the blood of Christ. It is the blood that washes clean and purifies the whole world, washing away our sins and the sins of many.
When I prepare the Eucharistic table I tend to pour too much wine into the chalice. I have a fear that there will not be enough. So at the end of the Eucharist there is quite a lot to finish up.
I sometimes wonder whether the servers think that I do this because I have a problem.
My fear that the wine will run out is groundless. There is enough wine. The water jars were large and many and they were filled to the brim. The victory on the cross over sin and death was complete. God’s mercy is without end. His faithfulness will endure for ever. We can live our lives knowing that we are all washed clean.
Amen