Water into wine

Address 24th February 08

I was looking on the internet for commentaries about the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee. It seems strange that the Gospel of John should begin with this particular miracle - that the mother of Jesus and all the disciples are present at this wedding. It seems strange that if they are there as guests why the family of Jesus should be consulted about the wine running out. I hadn’t thought that maybe they were the ones who had drunk it all.

On the internet there were quite a few articles suggesting that the water couldn’t possible have been changed into wine because Christianity did not condone the consumption of alcohol - because of the social problems it caused. There were all sorts of quotations to prove that the water must really have been turned into grape juice.

There were no reasons given as to why the wedding party should need 180 gallons of wine to keep them going.

The only explanation that I could find was that this miracle was done so that Jesus could reveal his glory to the world.

According to the account in this Gospel, this happened on the third day. The third day after John the Baptist had proclaimed him to be the Messiah and the disciples had gathered around him. John had seen the spirit of God descending like a dove upon Jesus and had told everyone about it. Wasn’t that sign enough of glory? And why say that it was the third day? Why is that important? Is there some connection with the resurrection which occurred on the third day?

I suppose it all depends on what we are looking for when we read the Gospels - and what the writer was intending the readers to see.

John’s Gospel is so different from the others. Some say it was written sometime between 85 and 95 ad. It might have been written by a single disciple or a group who agreed to that John would be written as the main author.

It is said to have been written in Ephesus in Asia Minor and is said to have been written in a different way to the other three gospels because it was intended to appeal more to the Greeks than the Jews - though the quality of the Greek used is said to be poor.

Ephesus was the seat of many mystery religions and there is an assumption that this too was written in the style of a mystery religion - or even that it was presenting a new type of mystery religion based on the myth of Jesus. That John’s Gospel is the account not of a prophet - or even a Messiah but that Jesus was the personification of Wisdom. Historically Jesus might not have been real at all - in the physical sense.

We have to wonder if that makes a difference to the message of that Gospel. Did Jesus have to be a real live person who actually died to make Christianity a credible religion?

It is a matter of personal choice. To many people, Christianity would not be Christianity if Jesus had not been a real live person. To many Christians the suffering of Jesus on the cross has to be real and his purpose was not as God of wisdom but as a forgiver of sin.

The symbolism of the crucifixion still has an enormous impact whether it is seen as the story of mans inhumanity to man; an act of self sacrifice for the benefit of the world or simply a totally mystical and religious experience.

There is a choice. To look at the Gospels as an historic account of the life of a man who was the personification of God’s love and sent to earth to heal anyone who would listen and to teach about God’s love for every individual.

Or to read the gospel of John as a parable itself - a mystery or a puzzle that had to be worked through as a means of achieving personal enlightenment. To go through its seven discourses and study the seven miracles and keep asking what they are really about. What they are really saying.

Do you need to have a good stock of wine in before you tackle it - about 180 gallons.

There are some writers who say that everyone of us can go through the process of baptism by the holy spirit - they go further - writers such as Tom Harpur, the Canadian author who says that every person has been baptised by the Holy Spirit - what we have to do is use our rational and emotional skills to change a life of simple existence from water into wine.

And I would have added that the water in the jars doesn’t actually have to be physically changed into wine. It is all to do with how we perceive water - for water itself is life - you cannot have one without the other.

The challenge is to change the everyday mundane into something spiritual and enriching. To make the water of life different because it has been transformed and filled with a dimension that is spiritual.

Has the water or life been physically changed or simply become different in taste and quality - could life become so wonderful that you would describe it as being like the best kind of wine?

A clue to this might be that the six stone water jars were used for the Jewish rites of purification. They would be used for washing hands and feet etc just as in Islam believers cannot go to prayer without first washing. In the Catholic church the worshippers do a symbolic cleansing with a touch of water and the sign of the cross as they enter the church.

And in all the miracles of John’s Gospel there is a subtle sub text. Jesus always has the power to do greater things than what is normally done. There is one miracle where he heals a crippled man who cannot reach the water of a pool where every year an angel descends and churns up the water - whoever can get into the pool then is cured.

Jesus heals the man without him having to enter the water or wait for the angel - thus making himself superior both to angels and auspicious dates.

So with these water jars. He makes the traditional act of purification greater by changing the nature of the water that purifies.

In such interpretations of this Gospel, Jesus becomes not only a role model to follow, with instructions to follow but he is also wisdom - a deity or cosmic entity that connects the divine to the human.

It is argued by the writers who follow this view of the Gospel that it provides a means for every individual to become more integrated into the sacred and divine mystery of being.

By taking time to study the sacred texts; by taking time for meditation or prayer that opens the higher levels of the mind; by taking time for prayer that makes a connection to the divine real, Prayer become a dialogue with someone on the other end.

The result of this activity is a changing awareness of the world and a changing attitude to the people in it and to the world itself.

Some versions of christianity teach that Jesus came as a gift to the world but this more mystical version says that yes, the teachings of Jesus are a gift - but a gift that has to be unwrapped before it can be understood and used.

That the book itself is a teaching not a story - that life itself is a teaching not just a series of events. To be spiritual beings we have to see the events of life as challenges. Realise too that life itself is a feast - do we enjoy it with water just as water or with water that is like wine?





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