[Propertalk] 2 Epiphany - Jan. 17, 2010 - Sermon quotes - Part 5

[Joe Parrish]

...it is the only wedding in the New Testament; and then the action doesn't really take place at the wedding, but at the wedding reception. There are no wedding ceremonies in the Bible.
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So treasure the gifts that God gives you. It might not be immediately apparent, as it was at Cana, but when God gives you something, it is the very highest quality-and I assure you that He didn't get it off the bargain rack, it comes custom-made, special order, with all the options, and at a high cost. You should be more grateful, perhaps.

http://www.kencollins.com/jesus-09.htm

Kenneth W. Collins 
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Catholics and Protestants strongly disagree on this matter. Catholic scholars, consistent with their exaggerated view of Mary's importance, are convinced that she uses her influence on Jesus to get Him to do what He would not otherwise have done.96 The text seems to tell us just the opposite. Jesus reminds her that she is just a woman, and that He, as God, cannot comply with her wishes if and when they are not in "His time."
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We would have to agree that these stone waterpots would be heavy when empty, and even heavier yet when full (the weight of the water alone in a full pot would be about 200 pounds).

http://bible.org/seriespage/first-sign-jesus-turns-water-wine-john-21-11

Robert Deffinbaugh 
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The story then relates the changing of water into wine, and we recall the wine that is used at the Lord's Table. Another clue is 6 jars (not 7, the perfect number, which will be the number of "signs" in this gospel). Only 6 jars, the number for imperfection, held the water that would be used "for the Jewish rites of purification." 
This change from water to wine, then, is really about Jesus' identity as the One who initiated the transition from Judaism to Christianity.

http://www.env-steward.com/lectionary/lectc/c-ep2-g.htm

John Gibbs, 1998
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Here in the realm where death still appears at every wedding and sits silently through our feasts, we continue sharing the wine that Cana's guest brings to our table. Sometimes that wine is sweet and wondrous beyond all imagination. At other times the wine proves sour. We sip it from a sponge like those that the hospice people bring for times when the lips dry up and crack.

Both drinks, however, come from the same cup, the one we share with the Bridegroom who takes us as his own for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, and in whose arms we shall rest when death comes to close off all our other stories. Accordingly, we dress even now in wedding attire. We drink his wine and give our hearts away in the breathtaking risk of believing--a form of falling in love, really.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_36_117/ai_68866509/

Frederick Niedner, 2000
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Many scholars have put an emphasis upon the number of jars, "six," which represented an unfulfilled state in the time of Jesus. The number "six" conveyed a message. Judaism lacked its Messiah and the Kingdom he represented. Jesus used the jars (representing the tradition of Judaism) to reveal a taste of God's kingdom. In this sense, Jesus completed and transformed the traditions of Judaism. His action completed what was missing.
The water turned wine has many meanings. God's kingdom was to be a feast with endless wine and merriment. Water has a baptism motif, while wine is Eucharistic. Both foreshadow the water and blood (wine) that flow from Jesus' side at his death. 


http://www.word-sunday.com/Files/c/2-c/A-2-c.html

Larry Broding
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For example, when Jesus' mother reminds him that the wine has run out at the wedding, Jesus says, seemingly irrelevantly, "my hour has not yet come" (2:4). But once we combine this with other statements, such as in 7:6 ("My time has not yet come, but your time is always here..."), and 7:8 ("Go to the festival yourselves. I am not going to this festival, for my time has not yet come") or the narrator's comments in 8:20 ("He spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury of the temple, but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come"), we see that the proper time is the hinge on which the ministry of Jesus turns. Thus, when Jesus says, "The hour has come..." (12:23) or when the narrator says, "Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world..." (13:1), we know that the wheels of time have fallen into place. The Fourth Gospel's focus on time not yet ripe and time fulfilled helps set the stage for our reflections today on how to be alert to our proper "times."

http://www.drbilllong.com/Lectionary/John2II.html

William R. Long, 2007
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This is a sign of the abundance of God's love for us.
It is also a sign that reveals the engagement of God in the intimate and joyful fabric of human life.  The God of Jesus is not utilitarian, not prudish, and certainly not mean-spirited or disapproving.

After all, a utilitarian, grudging God would have told them to make do with water. 

http://gospelforgays.com/?p=673&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+GospelForGays+(Gospel+For+Gays)

Jeremiah Bartram, 2010
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