I went to a wedding over 50 years ago and there was no food. There had been food, we could smell delicious aromas wafting from the kitchen, but nothing came to our tables. Apparently an altercation had broken out between the father of the bride and the catering company so the catering company packed up and left. Several hours later things were hastily arranged and we did receive something to eat but it had been an embarrassing and unforgettable ordeal for the father of the bride.
The same thing happened when Jesus went to a wedding at Cana, only this time they had run out of wine (John 2:1-11). The father of the bride would have been very embarrassed which explains why Jesus’ mother appealed to Jesus to do something!
Wine is frequently associated with joy in the Bible – indeed, we are told that God is responsible for the “wine (that) makes glad the heart of man” (Psalm 104:15). However, if chasing the joy that the things of this earth can bring is our goal, then inevitably we are going to be disappointed. “No matter who you are, no matter what wines you have tasted, there comes a time when the exhilarations and excitements of life wear out… Every one of us will find that if the exhilarations of life are our focus, failure is inevitable.” *
Jesus changed water into wine, a wine so perfect that the MC at the wedding exclaimed that the bridegroom had kept the best wine until last. But Jesus has offered us something better yet than wine, something better than the old law that demanded obedience for acceptance. Jesus has given us HIS obedience, HIS acceptability to God and HIS new life. We can have a deep and lasting joy, now and for eternity.
Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to make that joy real. Until the gift of the Holy Spirit was available, all we could do was try and keep the written word. The Holy Spirit, however, washes us with infinite love and grace: “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5).
The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, judgment and righteousness (John 16:8) and allows us to live in union with God as we were created to do so that we are being continually transformed from one glory to another (2 Cor. 3:18).
Dear Lord, I pray that I may learn to meditate more and more on You and to be continually transformed into Your likeness until that day when my joy will be complete when I am made perfect and sit down with You at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
* R. Kent Hughes, John (ESV Edition): That You May Believe, p62.