I just love a good story and the more outrageous the better. This gospel was the last of the four gospels to be written and it nearly didn’t make it into the biblical cannon because the religious powers cited all sorts of problems with this particular portrait of Jesus. Not the least of which are all the signs and wonders that Jesus commands in this gospel. Let me say that I don’t believe that this particular story happened exactly the way it was written. I do believe that getting hung up on whether or not Jesus could actually work miracles is to miss the point of this story all together.
I wonder what it might have been like for the people who actually encountered the man Jesus of Nazareth. On the surface of it this story is about a kind of intoxication that happened to people who come into the presence of this strange man from Nazareth.
Many see the story about the wedding at Cana as a miracle story; a story that proves Jesus is who people say he is. You either believe in Jesus or you don’t. You either believe in the fact that Jesus turned actual water into wine, or you don’t. You either believe in miracles or you don’t. Well, I believe the story of the wedding at Cana, but I do not believe in miracles; at least not the kind of miracles that defy reality. I don’t believe that any water actually turned into wine. I believe the story, but I don’t believe that Jesus was some sort of super-natural being who instantaneously changed water into wine. I believe the story, because the story points to the truth.
This story is not about Jesus being a miracle worker. As it says in the text itself, this is a story about signs; a sign is something that points to something else. This is not a story about a miracle. If we stop there we are not getting past the sign, the sign is not doing its job, we are not getting to what the sign is pointing to. The miracle in this story functions as a sign. This is a story about what the miracle points to. This is about something beyond the story itself. This is about Love. This is a story about abundance, about extravagance, and about transformation. 150 gallons of wine for people who have been feasting for three days and have already exhausted an ample supply of wine? They are already drunk. 150 gallons of wine is an abundance of wine! This story is a sign that points to us to the reality of overflowing, abundant, extravagant Love, that has the power to transform our traditions, our way of being in the world, and our very selves. This story is believable precisely because it points beyond the story itself to a deeper truth.
The Gospel according to the anonymous storyteller we call John, was written some 70 to 90 years after the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The storyteller we call John was a Jewish mystic. He uses symbols, metaphors, mythological, and mystic language to create an image of who Jesus was and is and more importantly, this master, mystical storyteller creates for us an image of divinity that is Love; Love beyond our ability to comprehend.
In his book “The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic”, John Shelby Spong sees the characters in this story as symbols of entities much bigger than they first appear. I have begun to see that just as the early followers of Jesus found themselves in a time of transition that gave birth to new practices, we 21st century followers of Jesus find ourselves in the midst of transitions that have the potential to give birth to new ways of being in the world.
Spong point put that the Jewish mystic John uses the characters in all of his stories as symbols that point beyond themselves.
The character of John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, follows Jesus all the way to the cross. This character points beyond himself and functions as the archetype of ideal follower of Jesus, the one who follows Jesus to the very place where crucifixions happen.
The mystical gospel-story-teller has Jesus call his mother, “Woman.” But her name was Mary, why call her woman? This “Woman” functions as a symbol, a sign of something much bigger than the unnamed mother of Jesus.
The clay jars in this story are the repositories of all that the people revere; the traditions, the beliefs, the way of doing things that have nourished the Jewish people for generations.
The mother of Jesus stands between the waters used for the Jewish rites of purification and the wine of the Christian Eucharist. Remember these stories were written in the second century and distributed to these new Christian communities who were at odds with the Jewish neighbours.
The “Woman” the mother of Jesus is a transition figure who becomes the mother of a new way of being.
This “Woman”, the mother of Jesus, is the symbol of Judaism; for Judaism is the mother of Christianity. The waters of Jewish purification have been turned into the free-flowing wine of the emerging community of the followers of the way. This is the miracle. The miracle of free-flowing, abundant, extravagant Love’s ability to transform lives, this I believe.
At the cross, these two signs, these symbols will appear again. At the foot of the cross, the beloved disciple, and the “Woman” meet.
The story teller creates for us a picture of a radical new way of being in the world. That radical new way of being is intimately connected to all that his audiences hold sacred. The traditions that have held the Jewish people together in community with one another, the traditions that nurture ground and sustained their ancestors, are transformed by abundant, extravagant, free flowing Love. A whole new way of being is revealed.
This story is so much greater than the words we use to communicate the story. At the heart of reality is an abundant Love; a Love that flows beyond the boundaries of race or clan, country or religion. I don’t believe in miracles that defy reality, but I do believe the miracle that is Love. The miracle of Love is the way to life that has the power to transform everything.
I believe Jesus when he points to Love as a way of being in the world. I believe Jesus when he talks about the One who is Love. I do believe Jesus’ non-violent resistance to injustice is the way to peace. I believe that crucifixions continue to happen and the way to heal from those crucifixions lies in the power of free-flowing, abundant, extravagant Love. I believe Jesus. May the Love that Jesus revealed, and continues to reveal, flow freely, abundantly, extravagantly, in all our lives. May that Love transform our traditions, our ways of being in the world, into free-flowing, abundant, extravagant, loving ways of being in the world; ways of being, that embody the Love that Jesus taught and lived.
At the recent wedding of my niece Irene in an ancient church in Belfast, no miracles happened, water did not turn to wine. Irish tradition dictated that we drank grape juice. But wait, there was a miracle this mystery called love. Which transcended cultural, religious, ethnic, prejudicial and geographical boundaries. Two people bounded together by the mystery called love. That is a miracle in itself.
Acknowledgment
The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic by John Shelby Spong