2.1 No Wine Before Its Time
Listen to the blog
The primary objective of this blog is to confront my genuine thoughts and beliefs and document this journey for my grandchildren and future generations, hoping it may benefit them someday. There is no persuasion intended but rather to learn to express my thoughts aloud.It's a combination of journaling, therapy, and prayer, sometimes abstract and personal. My hope is it helps you. I used John's account of his friend Jesus to stimulate my thinking. A full explanation is available in the introduction - 1.0 When Faith Becomes Collateral Damage. All previous sections are available on my personal blog page.
This Story Required a Second Look
COGITATION. It's an unpleasant-sounding word with an air of rough and tumble. Even though it means “the action of thinking deeply about something; contemplation,” I get the image of wrestling with an unclear thought until someone submits. Either the clear meaning arises, or the thinker moves on. The first time I wrestled with the following story, I had to "tap out" and move on, but when I returned to it, some meaning began to come into view. This section is a little longer than usual and sometimes becomes a bit like a bible study as I search for the proper context. Please spend a few minutes in the ring with it and see what you think.
Chapter 2 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to me and to you? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the person in charge of the banquet.” So they took it. 9 When the person in charge tasted the water that had become wine and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), that person called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee and revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
If your initial reaction is to wonder, "How did he turn water into wine?" then it's time to pause. Trust me, that question is an exit ramp with no return.
Similarly, asking, "Did he really turn water into wine?" doesn’t get us anywhere. That might be why Matthew, Mark, and Luke didn't mention this most popular Bible story. Only John offers it up for our cogitation.
I stared at these 11 verses for several hours with the deep-seated belief that there was something in there that John wanted me to see. At first, it was as if I were holding the first few pieces of a puzzle with no idea how they fit together. Slowly but surely, my imagination began to cobble together a picture with not one but two reasonable themes: timing and the upside-down nature of Jesus’ new future. In this section, we'll explore both of these themes.
A Teacher and a Visionary with a Worldwide Idea Shift
In reviewing John's story, I had already become convinced that Jesus is the most influential teacher the world has ever known, but he was more than that. The primary role of a modern day teacher is to focus on the past and explain how things became the way they are. Alternatively, Jesus focused on the future, teaching how things could, should, and would be. This made him a teacher and a visionary. Like Bill Gates with Microsoft, Steve Jobs with Apple, and Larry Page with Google, Jesus knew his vision would change how we do things – it would eventually change the world!
“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next 10. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.”
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
“If you’re changing the world, you’re working on important things. You’re excited to get up in the morning.”
Just as these men dared to shift everyone’s ideas about computers, Jesus’ driving passion was to re-frame every man's “thinking about” and “relationship with” the creator of the universe. He was proposing and modeling a "worldwide idea shift”* that said, “Heaven is not “up there” to be experienced “then” but “right here” to be experienced “right now!” And, “Your Creator’s role is not to do things for you but to do things in and through you.” The result: the character of this loving creator would be on display throughout the world.
Jesus knew this shift would be challenging for any man and impossible in his own strength. Affirmations or rituals alone would not work. It would require a new way of thinking, one that was “born anew” from the simple recognition of the creator’s spirit dwelling within himself. (Talk about an idea shift! Think of looking in the mirror, seeing some of your mother's or father's features, and recognizing their DNA is within you. Eureka!) The shift meant that man would have to learn to respond to internal cues from his consciousness, not external ones from circumstances. Just like the inventions of Gates, Jobs, and Page, Jesus’ "new way of thinking" would change how man lived and worked daily.
What Does a Radical New Vision Require?
Once I became clear on Jesus’ role as a visionary and his vision, I began to see the first theme of this passage arise in the steam of my coffee, as a hologram in the early morning mist slightly above the swamp of my confusion. Timing. For any man’s vision to become a reality, several things must be in place: energy, the right circumstances, opportunities, people, connections, and an almost “divine timing.” It seems like a miracle when these factors align and fall into place.
When they don't fall into place, as Bill Thomas would say, "When it's right, it's right. When it's not, it's a lot of hard work.” At this wedding, Jesus understood the critical element of timing was not in place and said, “My hour has not yet come.”
“My hour has not yet come.”
Jesus was on the brink of creating the future. He had a part to play in his tomorrow and was teaching me I have a role in creating my future. I do not have to be the victim of someone else’s circumstances or an insignificant actor in someone else’s play. Each of us has a starring role in our vision. That is an Idea Shift!
This creative act does not begin with acion but stillness and solitude, listening for our own inner voice, and allowing a future vision to come into focus. As it does, it’s natural to want things to happen now - to see tomorrow today. That's why John thought it essential to show us that even Jesus had to wait for the right timing. Tomorrow will come, just as today is yesterday’s future.
“We will sell no wine before its time." - Paul Masson.
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“We will sell no wine before its time." - Paul Masson. 〰️
If I Just Want to be Right, Any Time Will Do
Random thought. If my goal is simply to be right, then timing is less critical. I can merely say what I believe and look for those who might agree. That is an ego trick, a move by the emotions. Much of modern-day faith is about being right and in agreement about our rightness. We adopt creeds and repeat vows and, as safety-seeking creatures, it feels good to be part of a group all saying the same things. As an example, I can remember being in a group of several hundred men singing "How Great Thou Art" and can still experience the warmth of security flowing through me. No matter what we might have believed, the fact that we were all singing the same thing felt good. However, Jesus was not concerned with being right but with revolution. In a revolution, you're not looking for those who agree but those who will follow. He was not forming a choir but a crusade.
Now, Back to the Wedding
Even though the timing at the wedding was unsuitable to say, “Come and follow me," it was the right time for Jesus to give a veiled illustration of his vision of a new future, a new kingdom. Remember, he taught by asking, saying, and doing things that would shock his listeners, causing a slight “crack in their consciousness” and quite a bit of conversation. On this occasion, I can imagine Jesus winking at John and saying, "Let's give them something to talk about." These signals of the "new future" must have been imperceptible to Matthew, Mark, and Luke – but not to John.
Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” The first-century Jewish household had plenty of jars and other vessels for carrying liquids, so why these jars? What about the jars the original wine was in? Why would Jesus deliberately use the jars of purification for celebration? Again, Jesus switched purification to celebration! Even though the crowd had already had enough wine to ease the shock, this must've ricocheted through them like a gunshot, signaling an upset of their religious rituals. Why would he do this? Is celebration somehow supposed to replace purification?
Welcome to the new kingdom where no purification ritual is needed, because there's no longer any clean or unclean. Both clean and unclean will be welcomed and even “blessed” in this world. So would the poor in spirit, the mourners, and the meek. Oh no, were you taught that the beatitudes meant one had to be poor in spirit to go to heaven, or mourn to be comforted, or learn to be meek? I was taught this way, too.
However, Jesus taught that his new future would welcome these people and all others - here and now. No labels of any kind would be used to determine the invitation list!
Jesus was Over Turning the Patron-Client Culture
“Everyone serves the good wine first and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” By making the last wine better than the first, he indicates an upset in the social order and power structure, turning the pyramid upside down. Roman and Jewish societies were part of the Patronage Culture.
“The basic logic of a patronage system is that society is set up like a pyramid, with patrons on top and clients on the bottom. To get ahead, members of society look to secure patrons, individuals higher up in the pyramid than they are. The client will offer their loyalty, services, and public praise to the patron who will in turn secure the material goods or connections that the client is looking for.””
Later, Jesus would say,"
The first shall be last, and the last shall be first" in this new future. Now, the merciful, the peacemakers, and the pure in heart will not be at the back of the line behind the elite, religious, and powerful. There will be no line! Only circles where everyone is equidistant. When one taps into and operates out of "divine consciousness,” no one is better or more acceptable than another, and you have just stepped over into Jesus’ new future, the kingdom of heaven. Here and now. Now, that's good news!
Here are some points to consider. When you have daydreamed about a “perfect world," has there been any social hierarchy? (I’ve had some in which I was on top of the pyramid and everyone else below, but that’s just my ego.) Any rich or poor? Also, notice that children don't recognize any social order. Additionally, past efforts to organize any utopian society have always had some element of equality. Our founding fathers said, “All men are created equal." Something deep within us (more profound than the ego) knows this is true.
At this wedding, Jesus understood the people’s consciousness had not been appropriately prepared. They were deeply entrenched in their survival of the fittest world and patronage culture where only the clean were allowed in, the elite were at the front of the line, and “might makes right.” All is not lost, though. “His disciples believed in him." The disciples, whose consciousness had been prepared, picked up on the signs and strengthened their belief in him.
A New Way of Living that Provides Peace and Joy
By allowing myself to get sidetracked into arguments about whether Jesus did turn water into wine, I have missed these vital “first signs” of the ministry of Jesus. However, John included them early in his story to provide context, to show his readers what was coming, and to decode the Creator’s original intention for our society. This message is already written within our being’s DNA, and if we get quiet and focus on this vision, we will experience this "new future" slipping into our present - day by day. We will begin to see how we can (a) remove the labels that we place on people, (b) release our need to control and manipulate, (c) revoke our sense of entitlement, (d) repeal our need to have the latest, biggest, and best, and (e) refocus on “the least of these.” "But what's in it for me," I hear my Darwinian self asking. The reply I hear in the silence is, “Only the peace and joy my sacred soul seeks.”
Walk Slowly by Danna Foulds
It only takes a reminder to breathe,
a moment to be still, and just like that,
something in me settles, softens, makes
space for imperfection. The harsh voice
of judgment drops to a whisper and I
remember again that life isn’t a relay
race; that we will all cross the finish
line; that waking up to life is what we
were born for. As many times as I forget,
catch myself charging forward
without even knowing where I’m going,
that many times I can make the choice
to stop, to breathe, and be, and walk
slowly into the mystery
(*) Worldwide Idea Shift comes from Dallas Willard's book Renovation of the Heart.
In the next section, we will focus on more overturning – literal overturning.
