WEDDINGS - An article by Gill Newham, missionary in Mongolia
We’ve had a few wedding invitations recently, although I’m sad to say that we haven’t been able to attend them all. I love weddings, there’s some wonderful about seeing a man and woman commit their lives to one another. Undoubtedly the celebrations are filled with joy and hope for the future of this new family. But watching a new couple take their vows there’s also a moving sense of mystery and solemnity as the union is announced.
After thirty years of marriage I still find myself marvelling at the mysteries of my relationship with my husband and such wonderings remind me of the uncertainties I feel as I seek to understand the miracle that Jesus performed at the wedding in Cana of GaIilee. I know the story well but as my mind reaches forward to grasp the truth clearly, a shadowy vagueness descends leaving clarity sitting just beyond my grasp.
When the Canaan wedding celebrations faltered because the wine had run dry, Jesus’ mother, Mary, turned to her son for help. Interesting! Although Jesus’s reply is equally interesting, “What does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come?” Despite his seemingly caustic reply his mother must have known her son well enough to recognise something special in him, as unperturbed, she tells the servants to do whatever he says.
“My hour has not yet come.” Was Jesus thinking of his death? Was he, like any young single person at a wedding, thinking, perhaps, of his own wedding? Certainly in the Old Testament there are references to the Messiah as the bridegroom, references which Jesus himself endorses in the gospel. But for Jesus to attend his own wedding feast he must endure the death of the Cross first.
Indicating empty jars that the Jews used for purification purposes, Jesus told the wedding servants to fill the jars to the brim with water and then draw out the liquid and present it to the master of ceremonies. Miraculously, the water had become wine; but not just any wine; it was the very best wine.
A line from an old chorus flows into my mind, “…Wine to make my heart rejoice.” There’s a sense in which sipping wine can bring us joy, although of course this earthly joy is temporary. Jesus is the real wine which, when sipped, brings real, eternity-lasting joy to our whole beings.
But for us to be able to drink that wine Jesus had to drink from our accursed cup of sin.
Jesus is the bridegroom, who delights in covering the imperfections of his church. Giving up all for us our bridegroom enabled us to enter into a relationship with him that fulfils the deepest longings of our heart with a joy beyond the world’s best wine.
It is amazing to be so adored, and it’s still a marvellous mystery I do not, yet, fully understand.