John's Overture

John's Overture
Rev. Stephen Milton
January 19, 2025

Do you ever go to musicals? Like the ones downtown? Wicked? Come from Away? The Lion King? Or perhaps Jukebox musicals are more your thing, like Mamma Mia or Jersey Boys. Musicals are an art form where what characters feel is communicated in song. If someone falls in love, they’re going to sing about it. If they’re worried, they will break out into song. Feelings become music in musicals. And to get people in the mood for a musical, the musicians often start the show with an overture. In the old days, these lasted 8-10 minutes. Now they are often just a couple minutes.   Overtures introduce the major musical themes that we will hear in the rest of the show. It’s like a medley of the musical’s best tunes. It’s a good way for the musicians to warm up. It also gives the audience a chance to get settled, and get in the mood for a night of wonderful music. The overture foreshadows everything that is to come.

Today’s scripture reading is an overture. It is the famous story of how Jesus turned water into wine at a village wedding. Next to walking on the water, it is probably Jesus’ most famous miracle. We tend to see it as proof that Jesus is from God, since he has these miraculous powers to change matter from one form into another. And that is pretty impressive. Once you hear this story, it’s hard to forget. But John doesn’t place this miracle story near the beginning of the gospel just to impress us. He has it here so he can foreshadow the themes that will show up in the rest of his gospel. This is his overture.

It's a brilliant piece of writing because the scene seems so normal and vivid. Back in this time, weddings were a big deal. The mortality rates for adults and children were so high that it was imperative that families have babies if the family name and line was to survive. So, every wedding was a matter of survival, and a cause for celebration. The town of Cana wasn’t a big place, so chances are, everyone in the village was invited. Mary and Jesus were from Nazareth, and Cana was about 7 kilometers away. So, a two hour walk, not a big deal back then. Mary may have had family in the village, so she was invited. Jesus was already there starting his ministry. So, they go to the wedding like everyone else.

But as we know, this wedding has a problem. The wine has run out. Mary asks Jesus to do something about it. Jesus replies, “ Woman, how is this my problem? My hour has not yet come.” That’s a strange thing to say. “My hour has not yet come?” What hour? Jesus appears to be saying, “Mother, it is too soon for me to work miracles.” So, the text is already asking us to think ahead, that this wedding is no longer just about itself, but about Jesus’ calling as the Messiah. Which he seems to be nervous about starting. This is the first theme in this overture: that Jesus has a date with destiny. 

Jesus walks over to several clay jars , and tells the servants to fill them with water. John makes a point of telling us that these jars are the same kind they use in the temple when people wash themselves to be purified before making sacrifices. So, these jars are meant to remind us of the temple in Jerusalem, the heart of the Jewish religion. It is the place believers come with animals to be sacrificed, every day. A place where there is lots of red blood. But John knows, and we readers know, that this temple was destroyed by the Romans forty years after this wedding. So, the way John describes these jars, he is invoking the memory of a lost temple, a bittersweet theme in his overture.

Now the story gets to most interesting part, as Jesus performs his first miracle. He instructs the servants to fill the jars with water. Then he does the impossible, he turns the water into wine. If this is an overture, there would be a mystical, mysterious theme here. This is the same Jesus who will walk on water, and who will tell the woman at the well that he is the living water. And in John’s Gospel, Jesus will refer to himself as the true vine. So, he will describe himself as both water and wine. And of course in the last supper, Jesus tells his followers to remember him each time they drink wine. 

And if all of that is not enough to make the point, there is what happens on the cross.

 In John’s Gospel, a Roman soldier slices a hole in his side. We are told that “one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.” (John 19:34). Jesus is made of both water, and blood, or symbolically, water and wine. The human and the divine, intertwined, the Word and the flesh. 

So, when Jesus turns water into wine, John’s overture swells with all these foreshadowings of how Jesus himself is both water and wine, divine and human. 

But the overture isn’t over yet. The master of the banquet is given a sample of the new wine. He calls the bridegroom over and asks why have you saved the best wine for last? Neither of these men know that this is wine Jesus has created, but the servants know. That in itself is a nice touch – with this new faith, it will be the humble who will catch on first, not the proud people in charge. 

But the bigger point is that if Jesus is the new wine, then this new faith He brings will be better than what came before. And at the time when this was written, what came before, the Jewish faith, was in disarray. The temple had been destroyed, and it appeared that the Jewish faith might end. Its wine had run out. Now, we know that is not what happened. But John is writing this around 20 years after the temple was destroyed, so it may seem to him that Judaism’s time is over, its wine run out. It is time for some new, better wine. This idea has been the inspiration for a lot of anti-Semitism by Christians later on. What later Christians forgot, or didn’t want to recognize, is that the jewish faith recovered, to become a thriving faith in its own right. It was not replaced, but joined by this new faith Christianity. 

Now, in this whole story, you may have noticed that something – someone- is missing. We’ve met wedding guests, we’ve met servants, we’ve heard from the master of the banquet. We’ve even met the groom, the man who is getting married on this day. But someone is missing: the bride. John doesn’t mention her at all. She is obviously more important than the servants. But she is invisible. Why?

We might think that this is a sign of John’s sexism, only the men matter. But we should remember that Mary is the one who starts this story. And later, Jesus will have his longest discussion with anyone in the gospels with the woman at the well. John knows how to write women’s parts. But in this wedding story,  the bride is nowhere to be found. She’s not part of this overture.

Unless…. Unless she is. One chapter after this wedding story, John the Baptist will refer to Jesus as the bridegroom, while he, John,  is just the best man. (John 3:29) Well, if Jesus is the bridegroom, then who, symbolically, is the bride? I can give you a hint. She’s here right now. Do you see her? I do. It’s all of you. The church, the community of believers in Jesus Christ. We’re the bride who Jesus marries. The church will become known as the bride of Christ. That’s why John doesn’t mention her in the wedding at Cana, because she is already there as us, the people who read this story. We are the ones getting married to Jesus. During his ministry, those three short years he did miracles and preached, he was visible, but the church was invisible because it didn’t exist yet. But after he goes back to heaven, we, the bride become visible, and Christ becomes invisible. Water turns into wine.

In our overture, this is where notes from the wedding theme would  be played, but with a mystical air. But think of it: John’s overture to the beginning of our faith is not a dull dirge, but a happy wedding, where people are enjoying wine. Our faith is one where people are encouraged to enjoy themselves, to be joyful, to sing, to dance, to laugh. That is what union with God is meant to be like. What a wonderful scene to use as an overture to our faith.

And so, each Sunday, we come here as Christ’s bride, to attend this wedding of God and humanity. And we are still singing and laughing. We come together like a village, with people of all ages, sharing our life with each other. We are a chosen family, a chosen village, united by our understanding that life is for living and enjoying. Our wish, our prayer, is that all people can enjoy this life, so we share our gifts with strangers to help them live well, too. We have been given the new wine, and there is more than enough.

And like a village wedding, there is community and laughter, people saying hello, and of course, there is music and singing. So much wonderful music and singing. And today, we recognize the great talents and wonderful gifts of one of our singers, our lead soprano, Kimberly Briggs. For 27 years, she has been singing at this village wedding. We have been blessed to have her among us, as a soprano, as a friend, as a teacher and leader. And today we would like to celebrate her gifts and thank her as she retires from the choir. And to do that, the choir and congregation have, like a village wedding, gathered some friends from far and wide to offer their best wishes.  

So, let my message today not end, but be an overture to our celebration to Kim’s gifts to this congregation. For when it comes to faith, our story never ends, the love goes on and on.

Amen.