FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF SANTA MONICA

Jesus: The Miracle That Wasn’t

Sermon preached by the Reverend Patricia Farris

January 18, 2004

Scripture:  I Corinthians 12: 1-11 and John 2:1-11

Over the course of a few weeks just prior to Christmas, the popular media was full of stories on religion.  They seem to get the urge about that time each year—and it sells.  It’s the only time of year when Jesus, Mary, his mother, and Mary Magdalene make the cover of Time, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report.  Several of you brought in these articles for me and I appreciate that very much.  And you didn’t just bring them to me—you’d read them yourselves first and you were asking questions.

The articles, of course, were inspired by a couple of popular books, one by Elaine Pagels called Beyond Belief, which is about the Gospel of Thomas, and which we will read in my Book Study series as soon as it’s out in paperback.   The other, 42 weeks as number 1 on the NY Times Best seller list:  The Da Vinci Code.  I’ve probably had more questions about the Da Vinci code and what is or isn’t true in it than any other subject just lately, aside from, “Why is it always so cold in our sanctuary?”  We have had some problems with our old furnace and I think we’ve got that problem solved.

The questions about Jesus—and what is and isn’t true are out there.  I encountered this waiting in the office of my periodontist for what was to be one of those conversation starting with:  “Now, Patricia, as we get older…” and you know that what follows is nothing you want to hear.  But my doctor is good at what he does and he’s smart, and he’s a practicing and observant Jew who loves to talk about theology, which is never too easy when my mouth is open and full of his instruments of torture.  He did manage to make it clear on my last visit that whatever we read in the popular media is likely to be inaccurate and sensationalized and that he preferred to get his theology from his learned rabbi.  God bless him.

As our worship planning team met a couple weeks ago, we decided to use this season of Sundays after Epiphany to get at some of the questions that are out there about who Jesus really is.  This fits well with the purpose of the Scripture readings in this season, which are about just that:  revealing to the entire world the true nature of this messiah, this Savior who has been born among us.   These Sundays will recall to us the signs and the teachings and the wonders he performed in his earthly ministry, so that we might behold his glory in what he said and did.  Because when we see that, we will know who he is and see how the living Christ continues that work in what is said and done through us in this time and place.

The story we hear today about the Wedding at Cana has been read in the church on this Sunday in Epiphany for a long, long time.  The Gospel of John launches Jesus’ public ministry with this wedding story of celebration and joy.  We have leapt rapidly from his birth to his baptism as an adult and now to the inauguration of his ministry at this wedding celebration.  Changing water into wine is the first time he gives his disciples a real sign of who he his and what he has come to earth to do.  The power of God, divine power, is in him, and he needs his disciples to know and come to trust that this astonishing news is true.

In this story, Jesus has come of age, and he has selected six of his disciples and they, together with his mother, Mary, have all gone to a wedding in Cana.  The details are sketchy as to why they were there, just who was getting married, but then details are not John’s main concern in writing this story.   John was more wanting to give us a sneak preview of all that is to come, of Jesus and his ministry and more grandly, of God’s intent for the redemption of the whole of creation.

A funny thing happens at this wedding.  Mary, who we may recall, has since her son’s birth, been pondering all kinds of things in her heart through the years of his growing up, and now she seems to sense before he does that it’s time to begin.  She provokes him to ministry, as one preacher puts it, observing wryly:  “They have no wine.”

Now, we could stay on the level of how awful it is to be a bad host and not provide appropriately for one’s guests.  We could speak of a young couple disappointed that their first real party seems destined to flop.  We could conclude that Jesus is just basically the kind and thoughtful sort of friend who comes to the rescue in a pinch, someone we’d love to know, and someone handy to have around to bail us out when we’re in a tight spot.

But all of that would miss the point and power of this story.  Because what Jesus does is way beyond all that.  Five or six hundred liters of water become wine, the finest wine.  What an extravagance!  This revelation is intended to lead us to into great joy.  What happens at Cana is an enactment of the good news of great joy for all the people of which the angels sang at Jesus’ birth, a sign that what God has in mind for us, indeed for the whole creation, is a restoration of the bountiful goodness that existed from the beginning of creation.  Through Jesus Christ, God wants us to know that indeed we have life and have it abundantly.

Notice that I’ve been saying that this was a sign rather than a miracle.  Now to those wedding guests and to the potentially embarrassed host, what happened must have seemed pretty miraculous.  However the point is, Jesus was not doing tricks.  He was not a magician.  He was, and is, the Incarnation, the power of God manifest on earth.

I know that many of you have been to shows at the Magic Castle.  I knew a man who performed there as a magician.  He was good and it was fun to watch his act and try to figure how he did it.  How did that Queen of Hearts playing card get behind his ear or that coin into his hand?  Where did that rabbit come from that he pulled out of the hat?  Doing magic is an art.  It’s great entertainment, and it requires skill, and practice, and it depends on the audience falling again and again into the trap of thinking that we already know what we’re seeing.

What happened at that wedding was something else all together.  It was sign pointing beyond itself to a greater truth, a deeper reality.  In this way we can say that it was miraculous, but the point is that Jesus did it not to wow his audience but rather to lead them into faith.  He did it to help them believe that he was God’s Messiah, the one sent to inaugurate God’s new kingdom of justice and joy.

John is signaling us here that everything about Jesus; everything he will do and say reveals something for us about his true identity and his mission.

So, what can we learn from all this about who Jesus really was and get at some of the questions that are flying around on our newsstands?  First of all, this might be just the moment to address the question many of you have read about and asked me:  “Was Jesus himself married to Mary Magdalene?”  After all, if a wedding is so important to his ministry, does it follow that he himself might have been married?

Well, there’s nothing in the Bible that says he was or wasn’t, and the ambiguity about that leaves the door open for writers and filmmakers to speculate and fantasize about what might have been.  But most scholars conclude that he most likely was not married, because something this significant about his life would surely have been recorded in the gospels or referred to in one of the many letters of Paul. 

Second question:  “Were the miracles of Jesus real or were they a metaphor?”  A lot of Christians out there get very upset at the suggestion that they were not “real” and see that claim as an attempt to deny Jesus’ authority and power.  But I hope you can see that the details of whatever happened that day are not the point of John’s Gospel.  A sign is a window through which God is revealed.   The intent through this story is to make sure that disciples all through the ages know that God is in Jesus.  The power of God can and will be manifest through him and that his ministry will bring healing and joy to God’s people.

I guess finally, it comes down to this.  If you go to a magic show, what are people talking about as they leave?  “Did you see that?  How’d he do it?  Well I think he…pulled the curtain around and had that rabbit under the stage and pulled it up through a trap door and then put it back down there when he was done.”  There are folks who go to those shows over and over again to try and figure it out.

That’s fun, it’s great, but it’s not faith.  Now think about a wedding you’ve been to.  Think about how people are feeling and acting as they leave.  They’re joyful and happy.  They’re convinced again that love conquers all.  They celebrate how beautiful life can be and all the promise of new beginnings.

That’s what the wedding at Cana shows us, this story of celebration and extravagance, this story of generosity and abundance, this story of love overflowing and lives transformed from mere water into wine.

The love and power of Christ Jesus can transform our lives according to God’s holy purpose.  It can turn what is bitter into something sweet.  It can make Scrooge into a generous man.  The power and love of Christ Jesus can turn hatred into understanding and brokenness into reconciliation.  It can take the myth of scarcity and transform it into the ripeness of abundance.  It can turn hurt into joy and disappointment into celebration.  The power of God in Christ Jesus can make all things new and beautiful.

Even us.  Even this church.  And even this crazy world.  And if that isn’t a miracle, I don’t know what is.

Alleluia!  Amen.