When Life Isn’t Going as Planned
John 2:1-11
January 20, 2019 anno Domini – Redeemer
The wedding at Cana doesn’t go according to plan. Marriage doesn’t always go according to plan. And when marriage or birth or death or life don’t go according to your plan you face an age old temptation – to be god, taking power into your hands to make your plan happen. Today we learn the better way, God’s way, the way of faith in Jesus.
Weddings are filled with details – details like 200 wooden coasters for the guests, 25 wood slabs for the centerpieces, chair covers, ribbons, suits, dresses, hotels, catering, open bar or cash bar. And so it was in Cana of Galilee that one of the details came undone.
It is very likely that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was the wedding coordinator for this couple. If they were relatives then likely they were poor as well. Perhaps that is why the wine ran out. People don’t need an excuse to drink too much. Free booze removes the last excuse. Mary was the first to know because she was in charge of the reception. We’re down to our last bottle. The Cabs and Chardonnay are long gone. Now people are even drinking Moscato.
Jesus and his disciples were there. Again, probably because it was relatives. We should not miss that Jesus’ first miracle occurs at a wedding – the marriage of one man and one woman. All of the world’s trouble, every problem we face began in marriage. That’s not because marriage is bad. It was the first earthly gift given to Adam and Eve. It is the highest gift to be male or female. Family forms the basis of every good structure and civilization.
But within that first marriage, by falling into the Devil’s trap, Adam and Eve brought pain and selfishness and financial worries and sickness and death to all of us. So, Jesus’ first miracle, the first evidence that He has come to gladden our lives, happens in the first place where sin came – in marriage. Jesus is in favor of weddings. He is in favor of dressing up, feasting, drinking, and celebrating the lifelong union of one man to one woman.
But what happens when the wine runs out? We probably do not understand the significance of this – although if you’ve been to a wedding where the food ran out or the venue wasn’t nice, you know how the guests will respond – even though it was free and they are guests they’ll complain. In Cana of Galilee, in the first century, hospitality was the maker or breaker of your reputation. There was an obligation to take in the stranger, to feed and house a guest, to give of your best even if you had nothing for those who came to your house. Even if this couple was poor, their reputation and that of their families was on the line.
So Mary tells her son Jesus. “They are out of wine.” Every man here knows what Mary meant. When your wife says, “My van is making a noise” that is not a point of information. That means – stop watching the playoffs. Get off the couch now. Take my van for a drive, and see if you can find out what that noise is. Please. “ They are out of wine, Jesus. I’m your mother. I believe in you. You can fix this. They are out of wine.
And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” (John 2:4, ESV) Men and boys, do not try this at home – you are not Jesus. To all appearances Jesus told His mom she wasn’t in charge. Even though He could easily fix the problem it sounds like He doesn’t want to and isn’t going to. He heard what she said, but He’s going to continue visiting with His friends.
Then Mary reveals to us the mystery of faith in Jesus. To our ears He has said no. To our eyes it appears He doesn’t care. Mother Mary ought to give Him “What for” when they get home. But that is not how Mary sees it, hears it, or responds to it. She turns toward the waiters from Short Stop Catering and says, “Do whatever He tells you.”
The wedding didn’t go as planned. Your marriage didn’t go as planned. You never got married even though you wanted to. You were married but couldn’t have children. You weren’t married and you had children. You lost a child before it was born. One of your children was born with a serious disease. You were only married ten years when your husband had an affair. You are in a hard and troubling marriage. The wedding didn’t go as planned.
Let me go down the list of what we do when life doesn’t go as planned. We divorce. We have sex before marriage, after marriage, outside of marriage, while we are married with someone other than our spouse. Girls think they can become boys and boys girls. In an effort to have children we have created hundreds of thousands of unborn children stored as frozen embryos. When a child interrupts life and would change our plans we abort the child – over 50 million American children since 1973. In order to find a cure for every disease we are modifying genetics, experimenting on embryos. There is talk of cloning humans for spare parts. We try to use knowledge God has given us to take God’s place (sounds like Adam and Eve all over again). But instead of order we have brought chaos. Instead of life we have brought death. In serving ourselves we have robbed our neighbors and stolen from God.
Sometimes it appears that God doesn’t care. Sometimes it sounds like He is against us. Sometimes you wonder if God even knows you are there or if he has heard you – you prayed for a spouse, a child, for healing, for life, and you remain alone, dying, helpless.
Learn from Mary. This is what Martin Luther says of her, “However harsh his words sound, however unkind [Jesus] appears, she does not in her heart interpret this as anger, or as the opposite of kindness, but adheres firmly to the conviction that he is kind, refusing to give up this opinion because of the thrust she received, and unwilling to dishonor him in her heart by thinking him to be otherwise than kind and gracious.
All of that is in her words to the waiters, “Do whatever he tells you.” Mary’s faith is proven when Jesus does more than Mary could have imagined. He turns six stone water jars into wine (and none of that Moscato stuff). 150-180 gallons of priceless wine, perfect wine, wine from the hand of the Creator. Do you know where Mary’s words are really proven? At the cross. That is where your faith should not only rest, but where your faith is proven. Christ does not do the least for you. He doesn’t just forgive the sins you did by accident, or the ones for which you are a really sorry, or the ones you can control every now and then. He takes all your sin, the ones you don’t even think are bad. Jesus doesn’t just take your normal mid-Minnesota sins He takes your sin of rape when you lusted, your murder when you hated, your child molestation when your pleasures were more important than your child’s faith and life, that abortion you had in your 20s. He bears God’s anger over every sin ever committed by every person. Your every sin is gone. Finished. Forgiven. That’s where Jesus is going when Mary trusts Him with a wine shortage. That’s where Jesus has gone for you. That’s why you can believe He’ll get you through life if you’re single, or childless, or suffering Parkinsons, or in a tough marriage, or weeping over a lost child, or bearing with a husband or wife with Alzheimers.
Running out of wine doesn’t seem like a big deal. Most of us could understand Jesus saying, “What does this have to do with me?” Really, you’re going to bother God over wine. Yet Mary does, with faith. Maybe Jesus cuts everybody off. Maybe He sends the disciples out to Westside liquor. Or maybe He blesses the wedding with 180 gallons of heavenly wine. Mary probably didn’t imagine that. Just as you could never imagine the love and forgiveness God has for you in Christ. Faith trusts, even when life is messy, even when death has visited, even when you’re short on everything you wanted, faith trusts that God will deliver you. He has. He will. You can be certain, as Mary was certain. You can believe, as Mary believed in the name of Jesus. Amen.