When Jesus keeps the wine flowing at the wedding party, we get a chance to adjust our expectations in a surprising way.
“Everyone serves the good wine first”.
The famous story of Jesus turning water into wine ends in a surprising triumph. One that feels a lot like Jesus is a guy who wants to keep the party going. But it also brings with it a reversal of expectations.
The steward’s expectations were pretty sound. Anyone who has spent time with people when they’re drinking knows why you don’t serve the good stuff second.
They are less likely to appreciate it.
When you’ve been drinking, your senses are messed up. Chances are, you aren’t really tasting it as much as just drinking it anyway.
But this also works in the other direction, too.
Sometimes we really appreciate that first drink. Especially when we know it is the good stuff. Wine snobbery allows us to appreciate the experience of indulgence more than the indulging itself.
From this view, passing out the good stuff to someone who can’t appreciate it means we’re giving something good to someone who can’t appreciate it (like we can). So we see this as a kind of double-waste. We’re wasting good wine on bad people.
Being a snob allows us to appreciate something and condemn others for not appreciating like we do.
This story is about generosity.
It doesn’t just flip over expectations, it flips over that opportunity for snobbery. You might think this is a waste, but he thinks this is generous. He’s giving something good to give something good.
And in cases like this one, none of these people is deserving. There’s no better or worse. It’s people, celebrating. And giving people a chance to enjoy the good stuff is an opportunity offered to everybody. Not just the ones with discerning palates.