Jesus quotes Isaiah to define his mission: “He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”
In this spirit of compassion, Jesus’s first miracle in Mark is an exorcism at Capernaum. In Matthew, the healing of a leper.
In the later Luke and John, another sign, this one of community, sets the stage. There’s an air of humor about it.
Mary goes to a wedding. Jesus is there with his “plus 12.” They run out of wine. (The last two facts may or may not be related.)
The Jewish mother tells her adult son to do something. He vocally refuses, and then docilely complies.
Quicker than a Door Dash delivery, 120 gallons of a robust Cabernet appear. The Gospel of John tells us “his disciples began to believe in him.”
(The last two facts may or may not be related.)
Granted, this synopsis of the story takes a few liberties. Traditional interpretations have told the Wedding Feast of Cana in terms of obedience and glory, bride and bridegroom, the presence, provision and power of God.
Those have firm scriptural foundations. But sometimes, elevated theological language can overshadow a simple truth.
In Cana, Jesus was at a party — dancing, eating and drinking in celebration of a marriage. In changing water into wine, he kept the party going, kept the joy alive.
When you think about it, what Jesus did was very natural. Over time, water grows the grapes that are juiced and fermented into wine. Jesus simply compressed the time of that process.
A wedding is meant to be a celebration of love. It is the love of the couple marrying, the love of their families, the web of love of all their friends.
What is compressed into the moment is all the daily joys that these ties produce — gathered, remembered and celebrated at a feast of life. And Jesus provided for that festival joy.
Think of that wine-filled wedding in Cana like the scene in C.S. Lewis’ Prince Caspian:
“Thus Aslan feasted the Narnians till long after the sunset had died away, and the stars had come out ... And the best thing about this feast was that there was not breaking up or going away, but as the talk grew quieter and slower, one after another would begin to nod and finally drop off to sleep with feet towards the fire and good friends on either side.”
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