Traditionally referred to as the “Wedding Feast at Cana”, this early story of Jesus has been consistently misunderstood. It has been the reference for funny jokes about wine, and surface observation that Jesus loved parties and wanted everyone to have a good time. Neither is it a story about how Jesus can entertain the guests with magic tricks.

If, however, that is all we come away with in reading this story we miss the depth of what John is saying about Jesus. This is a story about how Jesus is the magnificent picture of who God is and what he desperately desires for us.

Through the first paragraphs of John’s treatise on Jesus, he has laid down the foundation that Jesus was God’s total disclosure of himself.  In a portrait of divine health, God has become completely transparent with us. God became flesh in Jesus and pitched his tent with us. We begin to see God’s face and God’s heart in The One who was filled with grace and truth.

This story of water into wine is a continuation and fleshing out of that theme. Whatever we say about this passage must be rooted in God’s willful and complete revelation of himself so that we could understand Him; so that we could know the truth about him.

As well, however, he came to open the curtains on what God’s heart longs for us. This is the story that could easily picture God coming in the front door at Stuermer’s with a huge smile across his face and with hefty resonance loudly exclaim, “Let the party begin”.