Supply Chain Issues

When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now” [John 2:9-10, NRSV, a portion of the Gospel reading for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, RCL, Year C].

A joke circulated during my Divinity School days. No doubt it was first repeated decades before my study there (1986-89), and no doubt the riddle is still chuckled over within those hallowed halls. It goes something like this: “Why did Jesus choose—as his first sign or miracle—to turn 180 gallons of water into wine?” And the answer: “To get under the skin of some 20th century Christians.”

Frivolities aside, one is left to wonder why indeed Jesus chose a wedding at Cana within which first to display his powers or, as the writer of the Fourth Gospel puts it, to “reveal his glory” [John 2:11b]. Consider the abundance of poverty, illness, and need around our Lord as he began his vital work of calling together a flock who would follow him. There were the blind and the lame who needed healing. There were demon-possessed folks who needed evil spirits cast out. There was water that needed to be walked upon, hungry crowds of followers who needed to be fed, disciples and apostles who needed to be taught His starkly different, counter-cultural message. With so much legitimate need around this Nazarene, a wedding seems like an odd place for our Lord to begin. As Jesus thought about all that, I wonder if he didn’t say to himself, “Exactly!”

Y’all know the essential story in the first 11 verses of John 2. There are some subtle points, however, that we can easily miss. For example, John doesn’t begin with something like “Once upon a time, there was a wedding in Cana.” Rather, he tells us that the wedding took place “on the third day” [John 2:1]. It wasn’t so much that Tuesday was the day everyone in first century Palestine got married. No, John is drawing a direct line between this first “sign” of Jesus and his last sign—his resurrection, also on the third day.

Choosing a wedding feast for Jesus’ first sign also makes sense for at least one additional reason: wedding and banquet imagery had long been used to symbolize the promised messianic era [see, e.g., Isaiah 54:4-8, 62:4-5].

Getting back to the story itself, we see that Mary is present, although in John’s Gospel, he never calls Jesus’ mother by name. She is apparently well acquainted with the family or families hosting the wedding. Jesus must know the parties as well for not only is he present, but so are his disciples. John carefully tells that they’re all invited guests. There are no party crashers here.

Alas, however, the wedding host and/or hostess have some supply chain issues: they’ve run out of wine. Barrels of ink have been spilled over the years in speculation as to what might have gone wrong. Was it that the wedding guests, including Jesus and his disciples, simply drank too much? Was this supposed to be a BYOB party and some of the guests neglected to bring their own? Or was it just that the host and hostess were humble people with limited resources and a modest supply of wine was all they could afford? I don’t think it matters. Such speculation takes our eyes away from Jesus; John the Gospel writer wants us to focus on our Lord.

For whatever reason, the longed for wine is still apparently sitting in container ships off the Palestinian coast, waiting to be unloaded. Or perhaps the wine delivery has been held up by some bureaucratic snafu at a warehouse in Jerusalem. We all know how tenuous the supply chain can be. In any event, Mary, who apparently senses the extreme embarrassment of the host and hostess, points out the supply chain problem to her son, expecting him to do something about it.

Countless sermons have addressed the dialogue between Mary and her son, particularly the fact that, at least to some erudite folks within our contemporary society, Jesus appears to utilize the language of the dominant patriarchal hierarchy, addressing the Theotokos as “Woman,” and not “Mother” [2:4]. Again, for some, that’s an interesting discussion, but one that takes our eye off what is actually happening at the wedding. Jesus is happening for all those who can see. What John seems to be emphasizing here is that no one—not even a loving mother—can dictate “the hour” for Jesus. As a friend of mine has said and written, “Jesus isn’t an ATM.” He chooses the moment for his actions. Others do not do so for him.

Again, we who are familiar with the story know what Jesus is getting ready to do. He has “the servants” fill six large stone jars with water “to the brim” [2:7]. Each jar holds as many as 30 gallons. He tells the servants to draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. That man is the first century version of an event planner. The master steward tastes the “water”—now turned to wine—and is moved by its wonderful bouquet, its subtle tannins, its balance and complexity. He says, “Wow!”

Assuming that the delightful vintage is the ingenious work of the bridegroom (more about that in a bit), the master steward gratuitously tells us that the usual custom is to serve the good wine first and then, after the guests are tipsy, serve the inferior stuff, but in this celebration says the steward, the bridegroom has inverted things, waiting until “now” to serve the best [2:10].

You want to see extravagance? How about a thousand bottles of fine wine for a rather humble, ordinary wedding taking place on a Tuesday. The master steward was certainly articulate, “Wow!” By the way, I come to that number of bottles by quick calculation: a gallon of wine could fill a bit more than five “modern” wine bottles; 180 gallons would, therefore, fill 900-1,000 bottles. Your mileage may vary, but no matter how you do the math, that’s a lot of wine!

Through this story, acted out by Jesus, and told so skillfully by John, we get a wonderful, first glimpse into the Kingdom. We see that its standards are inverted. As noted above, the master steward senses that the normal order of things has been reversed by the bridegroom. He’s correct, of course; he just has the wrong bridegroom in mind.

You see, Jesus Christ is the true bridegroom! A figure no less than John the Baptizer, will soon say so when Jesus approaches him at the Jordan. John will say:

I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him. The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mind, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less [John 3:28b-30].

Jesus is very much about reversing what society sees as the appropriate order of things. And so here, at a wedding where everything must be funneled through a master steward, that steward is oblivious to the origin of the newly created wine. Yet Jesus is ready and willing to share his sign—a sign that is not just a little mischievous in its over-the-top proportions—with the lowly servants who had labored to fill the stone jars with water.

Christ reverses things as well by showing us that when it comes to his power, there are no supply chain issues. The straightforward point that Jesus (and John) is making in this funny little story is this: where Christ is present, there is always an abundance of joy. It’s enough to make you believe. Indeed, we clearly see that through this first sign of Jesus, through this extravagant act of turning an enormous quantity of water into fine wine, “the disciples believed” [2:11].

Finally, through this, his first sign at Cana, Jesus Christ—the true Bridegroom—signals to the world that the Messiah is present NOW. There are no contingencies. There is no further delay. We need not wait for the container to be unloaded. Christ has already emptied Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. And what’s more, as shown by his last sign, also accomplished on the third day, He is risen. He is risen indeed!