Turning Water Into Wine: God loves a party!

In the Gospel of John, chapter 2, Jesus attends a wedding in Cana, about 8 miles from Nazareth. Jesus' mother is already there, and as with all weddings at that time in Israel, they lasted seven days and the hosts invited as many friends and family as possible. To run out of wine at a wedding was a major social disgrace. The host was supposed to have enough wine for all seven days.

When Renee and I were married at the Brockport Presbyterian Church in Western NY in 1979, our wedding did not last seven days and we had no alcohol at our wedding. ZERO, unless you count the alcohol that some of our guests discretely brought in undercover. We should have invited Jesus to do something similar, since he was at our wedding. He could have made it special just like he did here in Cana. Many of our guests (not from our local church) felt awkward and ill at ease because of no alcohol.

In retrospect, I believe we did a disservice to many of our guests by not serving alcohol; we didn't even serve champagne for the toast. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not pushing alcohol. At this point in time, I seldom drink, but if I'm at a wedding, I'd probably have some champagne or a glass of wine. The issue for me is those who try to make the Bible say something that it doesn't say. The issue for me is those who paint God's character as one who is a celestial killjoy. Some of the Christians who abstain from alcohol and everything else look like they've been baptized in lemon juice. They are not fun people--in fact, some of them don't even know how to have fun or to enjoy a wedding or a party.

Here at this wedding in Cana, Jesus' mother asks  him to do something. There were six stone jars there which were used for purification rites and held 20-30 gallons of water each. Jesus commands that each jar be filled with water and then he tells the servants to draw out the water and take it to the master of ceremonies. In John 2:9-10, we read

"The person in charge tasted the water that had become wine. He didn't know where it had come from, although the servers who had poured the water knew. The person in charge called the groom and said to him, “Everyone serves the best wine first. When people are drunk, the host serves cheap wine. But you have saved the best wine for now.” 

I want you to notice what the MC (host) said to the bridegroom. He says that usually at weddings, they serve the best wine first and then after people are drunk (did you notice that--Jesus is at a wedding where people were drunk, and he created wine for people to drink who were already drunk?) the host would serve the cheap Red Mountain wine which no one would even notice because they taste buds and senses were dulled. But now the host is astounded because he says they've saved the best wine for last. This is the wine that Jesus had just created in his first miracle.

Here's what I want you to see in Jesus' first miracle: God is no killjoy! He loves weddings and parties and does not have a problem with people drinking alcohol.

In Matthew 11:19, we see that Jesus did NOT abstain and he was considered a drunkard by his critics. God made everything and everything is good, including wine. Paul tells us that nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. The problem with those who argue for abstaining because alcohol is being used wrongly is that it's not a consistent argument. Sex is abused and misused and we don't tell married couples to abstain because there is sexual perversion. We don't get rid of sex, but instead we use it rightly. When we see people engaging in gluttony and overeating to the point of obesity, we don't forbid eating food and we don't abstain from eating food including desserts.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:31 that "whatever you do, do it to the glory of God." Men have abused all kinds of things including children and women and we don't get rid of them, do we?

Proverbs 3:9-10 (GW) 

⁹ Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the first and best part of all your income. ¹⁰ Then your barns will be full, and your vats will overflow with fresh wine.

Here's what God tells his people to do after they've worked hard, paid their bills, paid their tithe, taken care of the poor--in Deuteronomy 14:25-26 (GW)

²⁵ If so, exchange the tenth part of your income for silver. Take the silver with you, and go to the place the LORD your God will choose. ²⁶ Use the silver to buy whatever you want: cattle, sheep, goats, wine, liquor—whatever you choose. Then you and your family will eat and enjoy yourselves there in the presence of the LORD your God. 

Here's the problem in some Christian circles today, especially here in the Bible Belt, we selectively take different issues which are debatable and turn them into "forbidden sins." We don't like cigarettes and smoking so that's a sin because it harms your body--never mind that these same legalists usually carry more weight than is healthy for their "temple." We don't like certain music and it's sinful unless you can buy it at your local Christian bookstore. We don't go to movies because they are evil and sinful, but if the movie is "Christian" or made by some church in Alabama, then we can give ourselves permission to darken the doors of our local cinema complex.

There are two gospels at work in the Christian church today: One is a gospel of works where we achieve a degree of righteousness based on what we do or don't do. We are "good Christians" if we don't drink, smoke, chew, go to movies, watch TV, etc. The other gospel which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ says that we cannot attain His righteousness by any of these legalistic "dos and don'ts." Only the blood of Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross can make us righteous and holy.

If you don't drink, be blessed but don't look down on those who drink--don't fall into the trap of classifying them as "lost sinners" because they frequent a bar or drink wine with their meals.Otherwise, you become like the Pharisees who called Jesus and his disciples drunkards.

I live next door to a dry county where "lips that touch liquor...."

I live next door to a dry county (Marshall County, KY). For those of you who live in a more tolerant and less religious region of the country, you’re probably thinking a dry county means they don’t get much rain, or they have a “dry sense of humor.” Well you would be wrong. A “dry county” means NO ALCOHOL can be served in restaurants, or sold in stores. Period.

Recently, Marshall County, KY had an election on whether alcohol could be served in restaurants and sold in stores. Reality check: I know this is 2012 but this was a big deal, and there were signs in yards everywhere, “I vote DRY,” “Vote NO, Keep Our County DRY,” “Vote YES.” The “No’s” which were opposed to the “evils” of alcohol were driven primarily by the local churches. Now, sadly, this tells you something about many of the churches in Marshall County (almost one on every corner) where the worst sin in the Bible is consumption of alcohol, as opposed to gluttony ( a leading factor in obesity which is an epidemic here in the South ).   churches).

Recently I was reading about the first miracle that Jesus ever performed: The miracle of turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana. Among all of Jesus’ miracles in the Bible, this is probably Bible-belt pastors’ least favorite and most ignored. I suspect that in many Bible-belt churches, this miracle is never preached or taught because they don't know what to do with this miracle which is "pro" alcohol, "pro" drinking real wine.

For a while I attended a church with a pastor who was a recovering alcoholic. He never addressed this miracle in John 2. However, in every other sermon, he would interject something regarding the sin of drinking and alcohol, one time inferring that if you had been to a bar the night before, you needed to come forward and meet Jesus. In other words, being at a bar was the sure sign that you were an unbeliever and far removed from the Lord. This pastor never distinguished between drinking alcohol and being drunk. For him the sin was not drunkenness, but alcohol itself, which is not biblical.

Historically, God’s people have enjoyed alcohol:

• When a young Christian woman in Europe was to be married, they would get together and form a bridal ale for her. The men in the church brewed the ale.
• John Calvin, one of the greatest pastors and Bible commentators, he had in his compensation package that he would get 250 gal. of wine for his duties as a pastor.  Martin Luther's wife, Catherine, was a classically-trained certified brewer of ale.
• When the Puritans landed, did they erect the first permanent bldg. as a church or a brewery? They erected a brewery.
• Martin Luther said that "Do you suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused? Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall then should we abolish and prohibit women? The answer is "No." Some people worship the stars...should we pluck them out of the sky?

Alcohol prohibition came out of feminism. Around the turn of the century, there was a great increase in liberal Christianity and feminism. Those things coalesced into the temperance movement. This was the reason for the origination of grape juice, created in 1869 by a Methodist pastor, Rev. Welch, who didn't want to serve alcohol anymore.

One of the reasons that women's movement fought so hard to get rid of pubs was because it was the center of a social movement--a gathering place. Those pubs were largely male-dominated, and there was a fight to get rid of the pubs and shut them down.

If you have been raised in a legalistic “King James Only” church, you've been told that when the Bible says wine, it doesn't mean wine--well, what does it mean? When the Bible says wine, it means wine and when it says God, it means God and when it says "hell", it means hell. The Bible speaks of wine frequently and every time it does, it means wine. The Bible says "Don't get drunk on new wine." How can you get drunk on grape juice?

How often have you been told that the wine in the Bible was “mixed wine,” diluted with very little alcoholic content? Mixed wine in Isaiah 1:22 is condemned because they were watering down the wine to “rip” people off.  Wines mixed with fruit, spices were dessert wines. Numbers 6:3 speaks of strong drink and also grape juice. So if the Bible has a word for grape juice and a word for wine, then when it says wine in the Bible, it means WINE, not grape juice.

In my next post, we’ll look more closely at Jesus’ first miracle and the implications of this miracle for us today, and what it tells us about God,

Does God abstain from alcohol? Would He vote "no" or "yes"? The answer may surprise you!