The sweet wine of Christ

Tonight I went to a local church that my brother and his girlfriend have been going to. It is reformed, but not in any particular denomination. It is called Kaleo and meets saturday nights in a baptist church. Anyway, I really enjoyed the sermon and wanted to share it with you.

The pastor talked about Jesus' first miracle at the wedding in Cana.(Found in John 2:1-12) I found it so good because he explained it in such a different way than I have ever heard before. At the wedding, they run out of wine before the party is over. Back in that day it was a BIG deal to not have enough wine. It would have brought shame on the groom for not providing for enough wine for the entire party. Mary, Jesus' mother, comes to him for help in solving this problem. Jesus replies "Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come" (John 2:4). The pastor of Kaleo explained that the "hour" that Christ is talking about is His final hour on the cross. Before His death, Jesus prays "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you" (John 17:1b). His hour was going to be His ultimate victory on the cross. Jesus knew that by showing His power through this first miracle that it would not only display God's heart, but it woul lead Him down the path to the cross. His final goal is the cross and He knows that this miracle of turning the water into wine will lead Him down that path.

Another point the pastor said was about the jugs that Jesus had the servants fill with water. These large jugs were the jugs used in the Jewish ceremonial cleansing tradition. When the jugs are filled with water, they have not become wine yet. The problem itself of needing more wine cannot be fixed through the Jewish traditions. Jesus is showing the inadequacies of this cleansing ritual. In Jeremiah 2:22 it speaks about this cleansing ritual, but that it will never truly clean a person of their sin. Without Christ we cannot be cleaned of our sins. Without Christ, the water does not turn to wine. Christ is neccessary to fulfill and complete what is lacking in the Jewish purification.

Also, the fact that Jesus was the actual one who brought out the best wine and not the bridegroom shows that Jesus is ultimately the true bridegroom. He will be the bridegroom, and we the Church are His bride. At this wedding, in which He was a guest, Jesus supplies the wedding with more wine than anyone can ever use. It is such a huge amount of wine it amounts to almost 150 gallons of wine. That is what He provides while a guest, what more will He give His bride at the wedding when He is the groom?

There are two types of wine: good wine, and sour wine. Good wine for the Jews represented joy. It was that which made them glad. As Jesus' first miracle of creating wine, He was in a sense making His people happy/joyful/glad. God enjoys to make His people joyful, to make better something that was already good. He makes us better.
The bad/sour wine represents God's wrath and punishment that we deserve for being sinners. We deserve the wrath of God to be upon us, we do not deserve His sweet wine that is full of joy. Romans 6:23 says, 'For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Christ paid the penatly for our sins so that we might have this gift of the bountiful wine. He bore our sins on the cross and tasted the sour wine of God's wrath. He was literally given sour wine while on the cross (John 19:29) and also experienced the wrath of God through His death on the cross. And because of His one sacrifice, it is able to cover all other sacrifices and save us from our sins.

Because of God's great gift of His Son, and because of His love for us we are able to experience and taste His sweet wine. Oh the deep deep love of Jesus that He would die for us so we would not endure the pain He suffered for us.
Thank you Lord. None can comprehend how great is your love!