Wine Is Bottled Poetry

Unlike many men, I like going to weddings. For one thing, it’s fun to see just how ugly a bridesmaid dress can get, it’s fun to see how the ring bearer and flower girl screw things up. I also enjoy watching the wedding because it reminds me of my own. I know a lot of people don’t see any point to weddings and marriage itself has taken quite a hit in the past forty years or so, but I still like the institution. It’s kind of nice to stand there before a group of people, friends and family, and publicly announce your commitment to another person. I realize it doesn’t mean much for some people, but you get out of things what you put into them. The wedding Becky and I planned was certainly a little different from most. But then, I imagine that doesn’t surprise you.

Becky and I decided we wanted our wedding to be different. So, we went down to México and purchased white cotton embroidered dresses down there for the bridesmaids. I purchased guayaveras (Méxican wedding shirts) in various colors for the groomsmen. There would be no tuxedos at this wedding, no formal gowns. We purchased Becky’s wedding dress from a little shop down there. It was a beautiful traditional Méxican wedding dress. Instead of a veil, she wore a crown of spring flowers. It was just beautiful, and very colorful. Half of the Bible readings were in Spanish. We designed the whole ceremony to be bi-cultural.

Our party was nice, too. There were scads of people there. Our wedding was the social event of the year at work, and among all the members of my kung fu club, let alone our families. A friend loaned us the use of their condominium recreation center. One of my kung fu brothers-friends offered his services (but mostly the services of his wife) to do the catering. The food was good, a little odd, but good. We had Black Forest ham sandwiches and pasta, as I recall. She also served this traditional Italian treat made from communion wafers (unconsecrated, of course) that consisted of a wafer topped with marzipan and an almond. The cake could have been better. My wife still teases me about it. Something amiss had happened during the baking of the cake, so it came out looking more like Ayres’s Rock in Australia. On top of this somewhat lopsided lump of cake sat seven peach halves, right on top of the white frosting. I still refer to it as our seven-breasted fertility goddess cake. But more importantly, we had lots and lots and lots of champagne. We purchased several cases from Trader Joes. And it was good stuff, too. You just can’t have a good wedding party without a lot of wine.

Today, the church celebrates the third event in the Epiphany (thought you were getting out of it today, didn’t you?). The church likes to do things in threes, and multiples thereof. Three is one of those symbolic numbers I have mentioned before, standing for the divine. Those wise guys from the east were only the first part of the Epiphany. The baptism of Jesus was the second. And today marks the third, the wedding feast at Cana. Just as the presence of the Magi, (those kings from the east) only occurs in the gospel of Matthew, the wedding feast is only mentioned in the gospel of John. John’s is the odd man out gospel. It was the latest written, and very different from the other three. The gospel of John is very theological in nature, and much less an attempt at a biography of Jesus. Poetically, it is the most beautiful of the four, but that’s just my opinion.

Scholars like to say that this gospel alone may have actually been written by the person in the title, John. John did live to be a very old man, so there is a possibility that he did, indeed write it. It is the only gospel that DOESN’T mention the name of Jesus’ favorite disciple. All the other books say that Jesus liked John the best. John just says “the disciple Jesus loved…”

According to John, Jesus goes to where John the Baptist is baptizing people, which is what you do when you’re called “the baptist”, and he begins to collect his entourage. If you were to believe John’s gospel, he gathered three that day, and two the next, in Galilee. Then three days later (three days, get it?) he is invited to a wedding. Well, his mom is, anyway. All we know from the story is that there is this wedding in Cana, and Jesus’ mom is there. John is the only gospel that never refers to Mary by name. She is always referred to as the mother of Jesus. You might think that was because John didn’t know her name, but supposedly, it is John to whom Jesus hands over care of his mother from the cross. Anyway, Jesus is also invited, so he is there with his buddies (I’ll bet the bride and groom were happy about that). We can probably assume that this wedding is for a family member. What follows is a very interesting exchange between Mary and Jesus.

Mary discovers that the wedding party is short on wine, so she goes to Jesus and says (quite understandably), “They’re running out of wine.”

Jesus responds, “Woman, was has that got to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

Mary ignores what Jesus says and simply turns to the servants and says, “Do whatever he tells you.”

So Jesus tells the servants to gather together these six stone jars, jars that were meant for ceremonial washing, and tells them to fill them with water. The servants do this, and then Jesus tells them to take some of the water out and take it to the guy in charge of the banquet. He tastes the water, and announces his surprise that the wedding party saved the best wine for last. The usual practice was to serve the good wine first, and then after everybody’s drunk, you serve the cheap crap. This is the very first of the miracles performed by Jesus. It is the third manifestation of his divine nature (first to the Magi, second at the baptism, and now this miracle), rounding out the Epiphany. Remember, the word Epiphany comes from the Greek word for appearance.

The exchange between Mary and Jesus shows both her incredible faith in his abilities, and in their relationship. In spite of what Jesus says, she knows that he will not let her down in request, and he doesn’t. So in spite of it not yet being “his hour”, he is compelled to help her out. Whenever I’ve read this little exchange I’ve always thought Jesus comes off a little harsh to his mom. It’s not quite so bad in the original Greek. In Greek, it’s more like, “Woman, between you and me, what of it?” The word, “woman” was a common way to speak to any married woman at that time and place, kind of like the Spanish word, “señora”. In any case, Mary knew that if she asked, Jesus would come through, and he did.

The story is also a foreshadowing of the theology behind the entire mission.  John baptized with water.  Jesus changes water into wine, wine that is, he will later say, his blood.   Notice that Jesus instructs the servants to use stone jars that were used for ceremonial washing. Then the water is changed into wine. Later on, at the Last Supper, Jesus would tell us that the wine he was holding was his blood. The church would later tell the people that it was the shedding of this blood that washed away the sins of the world. As I always say, these books were not concerned with facts; they were concerned with truth. The ceremonial washing, the wedding, it all ties in with the relationship of the Divine spirit and humankind. Israel is often referred to as a bride. Even today, within the Catholic belief, the church is the bride of Christ.

And for all those evangelical born against who say that drinking is a sin, I like to point out that the very first miracle was changing water into wine. He didn’t change it into grape juice. Some of the tight-assed anti-liquor people try to tell us that the wine back then wasn’t fermented, but were that the case, this story would make no sense. You serve the good wine first, so people won’t notice the cheap stuff once they’re drunk. Moreover, the reason the disciples keep falling asleep later on, when Jesus is arrested, is because they had been drinking wine at dinner. They were a little drunk and sleepy. No, it was real wine all right. And obviously God has nothing against it. Moreover, this first miracle happened at a wedding, which shows that God has nothing against sex and human activities. This was a party. We are not supposed to be miserable all the time. We are supposed to enjoy life and each other. God wants us to be happy. Moreover, this is a wedding.

You don’t go seeking out a wedding party; you are invited to it. The wedding feast at Cana is trying to show us our relationship with the divine. We are family. We are invited to be part of the celebration. Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven is within us. God is not some far off thing for which you need go off and search. That name in the prophecy, Emmanuel, means God is with us. That’s the message. We are not disconnected to God. God is all around us, in the face of every person we see, and in ourselves. That is the message of the Epiphany. First, Christ is revealed to the world, not just the Jews, but to the non-Jews as well, in the story of the wise men. Then Christ is revealed to the Jews and unites them with the divine through the baptism in the river Jordan. Finally, we are all invited to the marriage of Christ to humanity in the wedding feast at Cana.

And if these explanations of these books are starting to sound redundant, then good! That’s the whole point. These stories all teach the same message. Once you read all these stories and start to see that they just teach the same message over and over and over again, you start to see the truth behind the message. Then you find out that the Bible isn’t inconsistent at all, because the message never changes. And it’s not about any set list of rules and regulations. It’s not about not doing this or not doing that. Those things are all symbolic and only have whatever meaning we choose to give them. It’s all about being connected to the divine through our love and service to one another. This is the key to real happiness. This is the meaning of life. We’ve all been invited to the wedding, so let’s have a good time. And be sure to drink the wine. It’s good stuff.