The Best For Last (John 2:9-10)

 


Monday, December 30, 2024


Psalms 148; 149

Isaiah 30:29-31:9

John 2:1-12


Observance: Josephine Butler, social reformer (d. 1905)


The Best For Last (John 2:9-10)


This story, about Jesus turning water to wine, is a real head-scratcher. It is brilliant for people who write commentaries: every step of the story is loaded with meaning and symbolic references to the Old Testament. But for those of us who like to ask God “Why?”, it can really stump us.


The conversation between Jesus and his mother is a reference to Easter: Jesus must go through his death on the cross before he can rise again and bring about the general resurrection and eternal life for his people. The jars of water for purification number six, one short of the perfect seven, reinforcing the fact that what is about to happen is only a precursor, not the main event itself. Then we have another reference to whispers of the good news before the event itself in the words of the master of the feast, “but you have kept the good wine until now”. As I said, it is brilliant for filling out a word count if we want the background information. But why, of all things, is this the first of Jesus’ signs, the first of Jesus’ manifestation of his glory?


Perhaps it has something to do with the theme that St John used to open this gospel: “in the beginning”. We are not meeting Jesus in a vacuum; he has not popped out of the sky all of a sudden. Rather, there has been an entire 4,000 years of human history, from Genesis until now, preparing the human race for the appearance of Christ and his salvation of his people. The more we learn about that, the more the “why” question of this story about the wine is answered.


But for now, we can take away this over-arching lesson: that, no matter how good things may get, God is saying “you ain’t seen nothing yet”. Christ’s glory has been manifested, over and over again, first here at the wedding at Cana, which comes after an entire Old Testament’s worth of the glory of Christ revealed in a different way; and our lives are filled with yet more of the glory of Christ even today. And there is still yet more and better to come: the day when the new life which the wine points to will be in abundance in the new creation, when all the saints feast at the table of the wedding feast of Jesus and the church, and when the manifestation of Christ’s glory will no longer need to be searched for in the scriptures, but will be plain for us all to see.


What was the best day of your life? How did you feel? Jesus is telling you that you have an even better one coming: how will that shape your life?


Glorious Jesus, you promise us such wonderful things for our future: help us manage our way through this life so that we may enter into the joy of your kingdom when you return in greater glory.

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