JOHN 2:1-11 FILLING FULL

1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

4 “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”

5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

11 This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

The wedding liturgy in the Book of Common Prayer begins with the celebrant reciting the meaning of marriage. The text includes these words: “The bond and covenant of marriage was established by God in creation, and our Lord Jesus Christ adorned this manner of life by his presence and first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee” (p. 423). The connection is then made between the marriage of a man and a woman and the relationship between Christ and the Church. In short, this episode honors marriage but also has a greater meaning for God’s people.

The fact that the stone jars described were those used to provide water for ritual cleansing turns our thoughts to pre-Christian Jewish practices. Jesus had these jars completely filled and then changed the water into fine wine. This is the miracle of transformation. The time of fulfillment had come and a new age was beginning. There are overtones of the great heavenly banquet, but the direct message is that the external and symbolic was being transformed into the internal and essential. Both the symbols and the promises were being fulfilled.

In the baptism service in the Episcopal Church, the celebrant prays a prayer over the water that includes these words: “We thank you, Father, for the water of Baptism. In it we are buried with Christ in his death. By it we share in his resurrection. Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit” (BCP, p. 306). Symbolically the person being baptized is wash clean by the water, and in immersion is certainly rinsed clean on the outside, but there must also be an inner transformation. As Jesus changed the water into wine at the wedding feast, he transforms repentant believers into children of God through the Spirit. Through repentance we are emptied, so that we can be filled full with the Spirit and transformed, that is, be fulfilled.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for entering my life and transforming me into God’s child. Amen.