Jesus saves the best for last

At the Wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11), they had butchered the fattened calf and purchased the best wine they could for their many guests. But they had miscalculated. Mary says that they were running low on wine. And that’s a surefire way to ruin a party. But Mary knew someone who could help. Jesus was in attendance, and she had confidence that He could do something about this, though we can’t know exactly what she expected Him to do. “My Son, they’re running out of wine,” she said. And in His response it sounds like Jesus is snapping at her: “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” At first blush it seems that Jesus is being rude to His mother, brushing her off. And He was being very direct with her, telling her that He wasn’t ready to act. It wasn’t yet His time to address the situation because He was saving the best for last.

At the wedding at Cana we’re not told how long Jesus waited before acting. But when He did finally act, His work was greater than anyone could have expected. He went and saved the best for last. All Mary wanted was enough wine to last for the rest of the party. And what does Jesus give? Between 120-180 gallons of the finest vintage ever made, which is between 600-900 regular sized bottles. He provides an extravagant amount and quality of wine.

The surprised master of the banquet thought the groom had been the one who had broken out this wine so he went to him and said, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” And that is how our Lord deals with us. He always saves the best for last even while giving us choice wine right now. At the wedding at Cana, we can assume that the groom had provided the best wine he could at the beginning. He had brought out the choice wine but he didn’t have any in reserve. And so the guests were enjoying good wine until they ran out. And this points to part of the meaning of this miracle today, that the Old Testament was good, but God was saving the best for the New Testament, for the last.

God promised Israel that a great Messiah (also known as Christ, the King) would come to save them. And He told the people which signs to look for to indicate when the Messiah finally arrived. The miracle at Cana demonstrated that the Messianic age had finally come because of the amazing quality and abundance of the wine Jesus made out of water. The Old Testament predicted that one characteristic of the Messianic age would be a great abundance of fine wine. Isaiah 25:6 says that the Lord will make for all peoples (Jews and Gentiles!) “A feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine.” Amos 9:13 says that when the Messiah comes, “the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.” When Jesus changed the water in those giant Old Testament purification jars into wine, He signaled that He was the Messiah and that the old was giving way to the new. He was giving His disciples who knew the Old Testament a sign that He was the one they were waiting for to redeem Israel and bring in a new era of feasting in the Kingdom of God. As wonderful as God’s service to the Old Testament saints had been, the New Testament would be greater. The New Testament was promised to be a time when God would forgive the sins of not only His people Israel, but also the Gentiles; He would forgive sins and remember them no more; their sins would be sent as far away as east is from west because the Lord Himself would carry them away by the death of the Suffering Servant. After the Messiah’s resurrection, God would expand His kingdom out to include not just the Jews but the Gentiles too, all peoples, including you and me. And God promised that He would dwell with His people as “Immanuel,” which means “God with us.” All of this became a reality and the New Testament came in the person of Jesus Christ. In His perfect life, saving death, and glorious resurrection Jesus brought about the New Testament, the best wine that God had saved for last. This was demonstrated in today’s miracle at Cana, and what did His disciples do? When Jesus revealed His glory, His disciples put their faith in Him.

This is your God, my friends — the Man Jesus Christ who comes into the world to dwell with sinners and to make peace between God and you. Your sins were placed on His back so that they no longer hang around your necks to drag you to hell. He suffered for all of your sins on the cross and rose to declare you holy and righteous. And now He works through the church to deliver His salvation to you. He takes water and adds His Word to it so that He can claim you as one of His own in Baptism. He takes wine and adds His Word to it so that He can give you the blood that He shed to take away your sins. And just as Jesus was able to miraculously turn water into wine, so also can He make the words, water, bread, and wine into eternal- life-giving gifts in Baptism, Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper. Amen.