Real Wine

Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine. Not a healing, not a resurrection, not an exorcism. Providing a few extra Coronas for the party.

In the midst of the wedding, Jesus' mom comes to him and lets him know they're all out of the good stuff. How does he respond? "So? My hour has not yet come" (Jn 2:4). What's his point? He does, after all, actually respond to his mom by providing more wine, so his point is not that it was not his time to do a miracle.

Edmund Clowney has shown me that in the midst of this wedding, Jesus was looking ahead to his own wedding, where real wine would be enjoyed. He was looking ahead to his death, and, through his death, to his ultimate union with his Bride, you and me, purchased by his death. That will be the party to end all parties. Here's one of the most striking sentences from any sermon I've ever heard--Clowney says, "Jesus sat amidst all the joy sipping the coming sorrow, so that you and I today can sit amidst all this world's sorrow, sipping the coming joy."