On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out… John 2:1-3
We don’t know the name of the bride and the groom, but we do know that they invited Jesus to their wedding. Everyone was having a marvelous time, but then the wine ran out!
John describes what Jesus did for this couple as a sign (2:11). And a sign points to something beyond itself, so surely we are to see here something that is familiar to all of us today.
There will be some couples who start out with genuine love, but now the wine of your love seems to be running out. What once brought you joy and gladness seems to no longer be present.
You find yourself saying, “But we’re Christians! How can this be? We invited Christ into this marriage. We’ve made Christ the Lord of our home. How can the wine be running out for us?” Being a Christian does not insulate you from the realities of life in this world.
This story reminds us that a marriage can be in trouble even when Jesus is present. And where Christ is present there is hope. This surely is the point of the story. Christ turns water into wine, and this is a sign of who he is and of what he has come into the world to do.
He comes into a world where things are not going as we had planned. Here’s this wedding and it’s all been organized, but it’s not going as planned. He is able to bring gladness and blessing where the joy that we once knew is running out.
Are you experiencing trouble in some area of your life, even though you’ve invited Jesus to be present?
