It is perhaps fitting that on the day when my elder son celebrates his twenty-sixth birthday, the Gospel passage on which I am preaching is a story about a mother telling her first-born son what to do!  Today’s passage is one of several that remind us that Jesus was born into a very human family. And here we have Mary, the Jewish mother par excellence, encouraging her son to make the family proud, to sort out a little problem at the wedding they were attending. Her son may not have had an ‘ology’ but he could turn water into wine! He just needed a bit of pushing by his Mum.

But this story is not really about pushy mothers at all. Rather it is about Mary seeing a need and knowing that someone, her precious son, could sort it out. At a time when for most people life was difficult, with much hard work and poverty, a wedding was an opportunity for feasting and celebrating. Hospitality was very important and to run out of wine would have been a great embarrassment. It may be that Jesus was part of the problem – no doubt he had been invited as it seems that his mother was helping to run the reception, but were his five disciples, so recently acquired, on the guest list?! Depending on the size of the wedding party an extra five people could have made quite a difference. This passage also serves to remind us, so soon after St John’s Prologue, that the ‘Word made flesh’ really did ‘dwell among us’ as he joined in the normal and the special aspects of human life.

Once Mary had seen the need and asked her son to do the necessary, she told the servants to do what he told them. She was then able to stand back and trust Jesus. It is almost certainly true that we all show our ‘real selves’ to those we love, at home. We are known ‘warts and all.’ And so Mary knew Jesus, she had nurtured him, watched him grow up and seen him as he worked as a carpenter. She knew that not only was he God’s Son, but by his behaviour he showed her, and us, a lot about his Father. Mary knew that Jesus could solve the problem of the wine running out and she trusted him completely. She knew that she could let him provide the solution in his way. How often do we bargain with God when He asks us to do something? How much do we really trust Him? It is quite normal to feel inadequate in difficult situations but how often do we turn to God and ask Him to help us?

And do we really leave it to Him or are we tempted to meddle?

Mary did none of these things because she trusted Jesus implicitly. We know that in due time she would be travelling a very hard road as her son fulfilled his destiny at Calvary, but we also know that, unlike many of his followers, she didn’t run away, she stood at the foot of the Cross and trusted. These are all lessons that we can learn from Mary.

The water jars that feature in the Gospel account, would have been present at the wedding feast to enable the Jews to fulfil the purifying ceremonies required by the law. In a country with dusty or muddy roads, the feet would get very dirty and it was customary to wash them before entering someone’s home. Strict Jews also washed their hands before eating and between each course. The water jars that were provided should have been more than adequate for these tasks. When their water was turned into wine, which would then have been diluted with more water, there was an abundance in these jars – up to 180 gallons. That would have been enough wine to supply Cana and the surrounding villages for sometime. The whole thing was totally over the top.

The first of Jesus’ ‘signs’ took place amongst the ordinary, but amongst the ordinary was a sheer abundance of wine miraculously produced, a reminder of God’s bountiful grace freely given to us, not because we deserve it, or are special in any way, but because He loves us lavishly and extravagantly.

When Jesus was first asked by his mother to help with the crisis, he replied:

This response is not as rude as it sounds but it may have meant that Jesus still wanted to keep a low profile. He may have been worried that the hosts could have felt that he was interfering but for whatever reason he did what he was asked. But what did he mean when he said: "My hour is not yet come?” For the answer to that we need to turn to our reading from Revelation.

Revelation is a book that is full of imagery and symbolism, much of which needs to be explained. In the passage that we heard there is another wedding feast but it is rather different from the one described in the Gospel passage. Here it is Jesus himself who is the Bridegroom. He is however depicted as the Lamb, with a capital L. We are told that the guests at this wedding banquet were blessed indeed because the marriage supper of the Lamb is supremely important.

Throughout the Bible we are reminded that God loves us all much more than we can understand or believe. The nearest many of us can get to this relationship is the closeness of a bond with one particular person, such as a husband or wife. It is inevitable that this relationship will have flaws but in the best relationship we can get a glimpse of God’s love for us. There are times when knowing that God loves us is not quite enough – we need to have physical contact, a hug or a kiss to emphasise the love another has for us. And God will often show His love for us through another person in a very special way. So the Revelation passage is telling us – Jesus, the Lamb, the bridegroom is celebrating his marriage with his bride, the Church, that includes you and me, and it is extremely special.

Jesus is depicted as the Lamb because in Jewish tradition, the perfect lamb was given to atone for sins at Passover. It was given to restore the relationship of God’s chosen people to their God. However each year another lamb, or several lambs, needed to be sacrificed. But this Lamb, depicted in Revelation, is the supreme Lamb who has atoned for the sins of all, for ever. It was for this that Jesus came down to earth and when he spoke of ‘his hour’ this is what he meant. Back at the wedding of Cana, Jesus knew what was to come but he also knew that it was not yet. Presumably he mentioned it because he didn’t want to draw attention to who he was at this stage in his ministry. He wanted to get to know his disciples and set up his ministry. Throughout his ministry he made contact with many people, most of whom were drawn to him and to God, rather than condemning the way that he behaved. The ordinary people welcomed what he had to say, it was only the establishment whose authority he challenged who hated him and wanted him got rid of. It is important that we remember that.

Later on in this service we will be drinking the wine that represents Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. As we do so let us remember the abundance of wine that was produced by him at the wedding in Cana and let it remind us of God’s overwhelming, and ‘over the top’, grace towards us and let us join with the multitude:

Amen