Running On Empty

A Sermon based upon John 2: 1-11

Dr. Charles J. Tomlin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

2^nd Sunday of Epiphany, January 17, 2010

Brent Younger, professor of preaching at Mercer Divinity School, says his Junior boy’s class Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Pope, did not care for the story of Jesus turning water into wine.   In fact, she hated this story and tried to get through it as fast as possible.  Still, being the polite and precise woman that she was, she would always stop after teaching the lesson and ask the boys if they had any questions. 

The junior boys, on the other hand, loved it when this story came up in the teaching cycle.   They would plan to have some questions to ask in attempt to get their teacher off track.  One of their questions was:  “Mrs. Pope, why did Jesus turn water into wine and not Coca-Cola?”   Mrs. Pope told the boys that this is one of the first questions she was going to ask God when she got to heaven.  (As told in a Sermon, “Cup of Wonder” in Lectionary Homiletics, 1. 17.2010)

Some of us may still struggle to understand why in the world the very first miracle Jesus performed was the miracle of turning 150 gallons of water into overflowing barrel-like jars of wine at the wedding in the town of Cana of Galilee?   Being Baptist, most of us grew up hearing powerful temperance or anti-drinking sermons.   If you or your family has had a bad experience with an alcoholic in the family and you have become sensitive to the negative impact that alcohol abuse, alcoholism, binge drinking or drunk driving has upon our society, then you too might be wondering how in the world wine-making became Jesus’ first miracle.  

In order to help us begin to understand this, there are two important matters we need to address right up front.   While it is true, that Jesus’ first miracle was to make 150 gallons of vintage rosè and this was about  enough to drown the entire wedding party,  there are two very important words of clarification we must grasp before we can understand this whole event.  (Helping you see this is part of the reason we still need  preachers).

The first matter of clarification is that this miracle takes place at a wedding, but the miracle is not about the wedding.   

When I first started performing weddings, I often used the traditional wedding vows.  These vows spoke of the fact that Jesus treated marriage as an “honorable” because he once attended a wedding in Cana of Galilee.  Though it is theologically true that Jesus blessed the rite of marriage, and even went on to denounce divorce in some very rigid terms, this story about Jesus in Cana is not about the wedding.    In fact, if it were about the wedding we probably know a few more details about the couple, the guest list, or the many traditions of the day.  But all our text does is tell us that there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, that Jesus’ mother was there, that Jesus and the disciples’

were also invited and probably were all in attendance.  But this is all we know because very little emphasis is placed upon the wedding itself.

In the New Testament, it is also true that the Jewish wedding ceremony and the big wedding feast is often used as a picture of what God is doing in the world.  Jesus used marriage as the picture of the great spiritual marriage of the Church as the Bride of Christ and Jesus as the Bridegroom.   You can’t get to the heart of the meaning of the New Testament without having some understanding of this important social event of the ancient world.   It was an event filled with important rituals, meaning, all based upon important vows of human faithfulness and hope for joy and fulfillment.  But even as important as the wedding was and marriage still is, this story is not about the wedding.   It is very important that we grasp this first of all.

The second important word of clarification is that, even though Jesus does convert very big jars of water into about 150 gallons of wine, the message of the miracle of the wine-making is not about making wine.  

Now, it might sound a little bit confusing, at least at first—for me to say that this miracle of making wine is really not about wine-making.  How weird is it to say that making wine is not about wine-making?    But let me also say that it is the same kind weird you find when you talk about baptism not being about water or getting wet or the fire of the Holy Spirit not being about heat or getting burned.   The Bible often uses very earthly images to speak of spiritual truth.  Here, in the first miracle we are to learn to see in very earthy, common, ordinary images of life, the very extraordinary work and purposes of God.  

The action of the story really starts when we read the words that “the wine ran out” (v. 3, New Jerusalem Bible).   Wine was an essential part of a Jewish wedding ceremony.   This part of old world culture was even carried over into the rest of Europe and in all Wedding ceremonies when I was a missionary there in Germany during the 90’s.  I’ll never forget how a very conservative, even tee-totaling leader in our Germany Baptist mission was orienting me and others as new missionaries.  He told us, “I know that by being a Baptist missionary you don’t drink and probably never have.  I also know that the mission board does not promote drinking” (at that time there was no signed vow of alcohol abstinence).  But then, he concluded, “when you are invited to a wedding and they come to toast the bride, you’d better put that glass up to your lips and look like you are taking a sip or you’ll look not only look stupid, you’ll insult the bride and you lose your ability to be a missionary here.  If you can’t do this, you’d better go home now.”

Many of us have a hard time with a culture that uses alcohol as part of its feasting, especially if we know how it can be abused and misused, but what we need to understand it that in the ancient world, and especially in the middle east, wine was essential to one’s health and well being.   The Rabbi’s of Jesus day had a saying which went, “without wine, there is no joy.”   Now don’t misunderstand this to mean that people got drunk all the time.  Drunkenness was a great disgrace in the ancient world, as it is still a great social disgrace today.  And the truth is, says William Barclay, people actually did not drink their wine straight, but they drank it “two parts wine to three parts water.”  (See The Daily Study Bible, The Gospel of John, p. 97).  You practically had to drown in the wine before it got you intoxicated.   In a world without refrigerators, without sanitation and without any other way of preservation, wine was not only necessary, it was essential.

    

Making sure everyone had enough wine was the number one responsibility of what it meant to be a good host in that world.   It was even seen as a religious and sacred duty.   To fail to have wine would have been a great humiliation and insult to the guests and to the bride and the bridegroom.   And that brings us to the major problem presented in this story.   Mary comes to Jesus with the bad news:  “They have no more wine”  (vs. 3).    Weddings were supposed to be times of hospitality, happiness, joy, feasting and celebration.   It was one of the few times when people, especially those who were mostly poor, would pull out all the stops and share in the richness of life.   It was also a time when every guest was supposed to get what they came for, but unfortunately, the news is that “the wine ran out.”

Still, let me reiterate, the problem is the wine, but the story is still not about the wine.   THIS STORY IS ABOUT JESUS and about who he was and came to be.

Because the story is about Jesus, this is also why the story now gets a little tricky.  Mary comes to Jesus to inform him about the wine and Jesus appears to get a little sharp with his mother.  “Woman, what do you want from me?  My hour has not yet come?”    If Jesus sounds a little hesitant, a little frustrated, and even a little irritated, don’t be too hard on him.   To come out in public now means that Jesus has begun his way to the cross.   We need to understand that Jesus’ is not being rude to his mother, but he is preparing her and us for what is about to happen next.    Jesus is about to take care of this problem in a way that changes everything.  We all need to prepare for what will happen next.

What happens next in this story is that Jesus’ mother informs the servants to obey whatever Jesus commands.  Obey Jesus.  Get the message?   Is it starting to come through?   Read on.  In front of Jesus are 6 stone jars used for the Jewish rite of purification.  Whenever you entered a Jewish house in the ancient world, because of the dusty and dirty conditions and out of respect for the host, you would go through a ritual of cleansing before you entered their house.   This cleansing was both a sanitary and sacred ritual which said you were physically and spiritually prepared to enter a home.   Jesus instructed that these purification jars of preparation now be filled with water all the way to the brim.    Jesus was preparing to introduce himself to the world.   Now, after each of the jars were filled with water,  Jesus then instructed the person in charge, who was also the person worrying most about having no wine, to come and draw some out to drink.   This is when it is discovered that the water had suddenly been turned into wine. 

After the miracle took place, we read that the wine Jesus made is even better than the previous batch.   Normally, the wine best wine was used first, so that it would make a good impression.  Then later, the lesser wine was used, because when people were a little tipsy, it wouldn’t matter as much.   But Jesus, in this miracle not only helps the host look better, he also brings excitement when the bridegroom says, “You have kept the good wine until now” (2:10).

So now, we have a complete picture of the event.  The Wedding host runs out of wine.  Jesus is asked by his mother to intervene.   Jesus is reluctant, but his “time” has come.   The servants are told to obey whatever Jesus says.  They fill up the jars with water.  When the contents are tasted, the six jars of water used for purification and preparation has become wine.  And its not just any wine, but it is the best wine because the best has been saved for last.     

In review of these events, we are ready to ask, what is this all about?  And it had better be good, right?   If Jesus makes 150 gallons of wine, we can all wonder:  what in the world was he thinking?  In order to answer, direct your attention to one word of explanation in verse 11.   John tells us that Jesus did this as, “the first of his signs”.  Signs of what?   It says with this ‘sign’ Jesus began to reveal his “glory” and his disciples came to “believed in him.”    Do you see what is happening?  It’s not about the wedding and its not about the wine, but it’s about Jesus.   It is about seeing his “glory” and becoming “disciples” who also follow and “believe in him.”

Isn’t this one of the most pressing questions many are ask both inside and outside the church?   Who is Jesus?   Was Jesus simply a miracle worker or a holy man of a particular religion at a particular time and place, or was Jesus something more.   Is there something revealed in Jesus that has been revealed in no one else?   And if Jesus is more than just another person, just another preacher or another religious guru, then how should we respond to him today?

One thing this miracle of wine-making tells us is that we know Jesus best, not by what we think about him, but we know him best through experiencing what Jesus came to do.  Do you see what is being unleashed in this miracle?   Another part of John’s gospel might help, when Jesus says, “I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.”   Abundance is written all over this story.   Though the wine, Jesus is ready to show how he came to bring fullness, joy, fulfillment, and spiritual abundance into to our lives.   Jesus came to rescue us from the fear or the feeling that our lives might come up empty. 

Have you ever found yourself “running on empty?”  My wife has this kind of problem.  While she does very well at being joyful in life and bringing joy to me and others, she sometimes lets the gas hand get low on the car.   Literally. Once she ran out of gas going up a hill on the way to the gas station.  I told her it was going to happen.   She said, “Oh, I can make it.”  She didn’t make it.  Another time it happened when I was in the vehicle with her.  Who do you think had to walk?   I’ve been worried about her ever since and I’m always complaining to her when I find the tank below three quarters empty.  I don’t want her to get stranded.   I even tell her she’ll  get better gas mileage running the car with a full tank.

While it’s one thing to run out of gas in your car, it’s worse to run out of energy for life.   When I became pastor of the Pleasant Grove Church in Shelby, N.C., on my first Sunday as Pastor, someone came quickly to the church after the evening service and asked me to rush to a church member’s home.  A young, beautiful, 18 year old daughter of one of our members had just taken her own life.  I thought to myself, well, this is not any way to start a new pastorate.  Upon my visit in the home, I discovered that the young girl felt that her sister was “Miss Perfect” and she was a complete failure.   It wasn’t true, but she felt this way and she lost all her energy for life.   That is not supposed to happen, especially, when you are 18 years old.

All of us look at life differently and most of us find the reason and joy for our lives in different ways.  But let me just suggest something that might shock you as much as the “wine” does.   Jesus did not come to force you to be a Christian.   He did not come to make you into a Baptist.  He didn’t even come simply to tell you how to get to heaven.  Jesus says that he came that you might have life, and have “life” in abundance.   Do you know what this means---to have life in fullness and abundance?

Bette Midler the singer and actress can give us some insight.  She is a talented person who sings, dances, does acting in dramas and comedy.  What many don’t know is that Bette Midler also writes.   In 1983, Bette Midler wrote a book for children, called The Saga of Baby Divine.  It’s a celebration of new life from start to finish.   The book is exuberant, joyful and very funny.  One detail of the book is worth remembering more than the rest.   Baby Divine is born, and grows like most babies.  Then, the book says she learns to talk.   Do you remember your children’s first words?  Did your parents tell you what it was?  Most children say “mama” or “da-da”, but Baby Divine said something else.  Her first word was “more!”  And it wasn’t the “more” of selfishness or indulgence, but it was the “more” of hopefulness, adventure, joy, celebration, and excitement.

What ever you think or believe about Jesus, John’s gospel wants us to know that Jesus came to give us “more.”   He came to help us make “more” of our lives than we have been able to make on our own.  He came to call us to more joy, more love, more peace, and more adventure.   He came to bring us more hope, more purpose, more fulfillment and more grace and more mercy.  And when you discover the  “more” Jesus came to give you is when you begin to really grasp who Jesus is what he came to do.   Discovering Jesus isn’t something you learn in a book, class, or through some theory or even through this sermon.  To find this “more” he offers, you’ve got to fill up your glass and drink.  

The French philosopher Blaise Pascal once said we human’s are designed as a God-shaped vacuum—and we are restless until that void is filled and we can say, filled with God’s “more”.  The essence of the “more” Jesus came to give takes us right to the very nature of God and the purpose for being human.  God’s nature is the pure more of grace—generous, abundant, excessive, surprising grace—grace overflowing to the brim, in times and places when we least expect it.  To be human is to hunger and to thirst for this grace, this joy, this abundance—and to thirst for God until we are finally satisfied.  Another writer describes this human longing in this way:   “Our thirst for God will never be satisfied by taking an eye-dropper-ful of divine love and dribbling it onto our tongues…  We want to swing out on a rope over the river, and let go, and splash naked into the deep, delightful pool…that is our thirst for God.”  (David Rensberger, “Thirst for God” in Weavings, July 2000, p. 23 as told by Susan Andrews.).

The God of “more” is the God Jesus came to reveal and this why he came to live and die…to give us this “more” which is now offered to us.   You see, the miracle of Cana is not really about the water turning into to wine, but it is more about “Jesus” himself becoming the purifying ‘water’ of our lives which can change everything and even quench our deepest thirst we have for life.   Now, today, through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus himself,  Jesus offers us God’s more---more  when our lives run out of joy, just as he offered “more” to the Wedding party in Cana of Galilee.  But the final question is this: how do we define this “more” in our lives and how does it come to us?

Well, look once again at the miracle itself.   The miracle of “more” comes through a miracle of transformation and change which can happen in our own lives when follow Jesus, as Mary says, "Do whatever he says."   By following Jesus we too can gain the power to change our empty, tasteless, and watered-down lives into the full, richness of living that which brings our souls what we need the most.

Currently I’m reading a controversial, but stunning book from a philosopher and Christian preacher from Oklahoma, named Robin Meyers.   The title of his book got my attention: “Saving Jesus from the Church.”  Then, I opened the book and read the title of a chapter that also go my attention again, entitled, “Jesus is not Savior, but Teacher.”   When I first read those lines, it made me think I’m just reading another liberal idea, but then I read on in the chapter.   Meyers says that the real problem is that the church has worshipped a Christ of our traditions which we can admire at a distance, but at the same time we overlook the Jesus we are suppose to be following and who can change our very lives.   He is not saying that Jesus doesn’t save, but he says we miss the very salvation he came to give, when we only believe the truth about Jesus but fail to follow Jesus and trust Jesus with our very lives. The first Christians were not just known as people who were “saved”, but they were “followers” of Jesus, who learned by following Jesus how they could be changed into people who lived “the way”---the same way--- by following his way.  

I think Robin Meyers is on to something.   This last weekend, I took a working Sunday off to visit a congregation doing some interesting ministry in hope of getting some inspiration and ideas.  We visited the Cove Church in Mooresville.  When we arrived, it was suddenly clear this was not your regular church service.  You could hear the music already in process as you arrive, even 5 minutes early.  You also saw why most churches don’t have many young 20 something’s.  They were all at this church.  When you entered the foyer, there was a café, flat screen tvs everywhere, a warm fireplace,  people conversing with each other, and all kinds of people standing around to direct you or offer a ministry to become involved in,  a mission to go on, or a study group to join.   When we went in and listened to the music, as it came to a close, after a couple of announcements, the pastor came and started preaching.  But his preaching was more teaching about life than anything else.  He was teaching about how we all need a home to come to and sometime in our lives we all need to come back to this home.   He was using the prodigal son as his text.  But the core of his message was about finding more… more than what the son found… more than the money we squandered… more than the home he left so easily.   It was only when the son lost everything and became hungry and thirsty for home, did he finally realize what he had lost.

It was a great message and a message right on target for his congregation, most of which had left their own homes to come to find jobs and live near Charlotte.  But the one thing I noticed about the sermon which disturbed me was that seldom did he mention Jesus as the way home.   He spoke about the ways to lose your way home, but he did not say very much about the way to come home.  It was the first sermon in a series, but I’m sure there was more he was going to say.

Preacher’s call this “life situation” preaching.  You hear a lot of it from the very popular Joel Osteen, who preaches so you can have the best life you can have.   Nothing wrong with that, except that it doesn’t always address “how”  how you move toward the miracle of having God's presence in your life.   Doing what Jesus says is the way to the more which only Jesus can give.

Let me give you one more example.  Since we are talking about a wedding, in a couple of weeks, I’m going to start a seminar for married couples who want to enhance their marriage by living closer to Jesus.  It is interesting that there are all kinds of marriage guru’s and all kinds of sophisticated techniques you can learn to help you marriage.   But the real help for a marriage is now what you can do to change your spouse or change your situation.  No, the best thing you and your spouse can do to help your marriage is to really learn how to follow Jesus.  When you have the “more” Jesus gives and when you are “changed” by Jesus yourself, now don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s amazing who you can live with and what you can live for.   I’m not suggesting that with Jesus you can fix everything wrong in your marriage, but I’m suggesting that with Jesus, you can be changed into a new person, and when you are  a new person, it’s amazing how that affects everything in your marriage.

So, let me close by asking you; “what is the “more” you need in your life?   Do you find yourselves running on empty?   Have you taken this need to Jesus and have you asked what you yourself can do to bring his “more” into your life.   Let me give you a final hint about this “more”.  This “more” is not the same for everybody.  We are all needy in different ways.  We all have differing ways that we hunger and thirst for righteousness and peace.   We all have different ways that we come to Jesus with our empty jars and empty lives.   So, today, I can’t tell you what Jesus can do for you.  I can only point you to the one who turned the water into wine, so that you can come to him in full expectation, that if you want it, he can change you into something much better than you are now.   You can be more, but first you must “do whatever he says.”    Amen.


© 2010 All rights reserved Charles J. Tomlin, B.A., M.Div. D.Min.