This Week: Epiphany 2C
Gospel: John 2:1-11
The wedding feast at Cana is one of the most recognizable stories in the church. It is famously the episode where Jesus turns water into wine. It is honored as Jesus’s first miracle. And the story has a lot of interesting things to focus on that aren’t about that.
There are class dimensions, a challenging vision of hospitality and generosity, and even that strange relationship between mother and son in which Mary seems to believe Jesus can do this incredible thing.
There is also the matter of Jesus’s apprehension in performing a miracle here — and Mary’s sort of forcing him to do it by spilling the beans. I’m not entirely sure what to make of all of that.
The question each week isn’t just what is interesting or what is important, but a question of what it is we most need to hear. And to that degree, I find the notions of class, economics, and generosity most essential — and why I most often turn to them when this story comes up in the lectionary. Not because I want to talk about money or wealth, but because it is the part of this story we most need to hear about.
I suspect that for many in church, there is great sympathy for the host in this story. That they are throwing a great big party to celebrate the wedding of their child, and we can sympathize with the desire to entertain and the knowledge that feeding all of those people is extremely expensive.
And feeding people is expected. We can’t skimp on it, either. For so many people in our culture, this is an essential reality, whether we live in a traditional family or not.
What Jesus does is subvert everyone’s expectations — even ours! Because I don’t we are supposed to have that much sympathy for the host. So much that we miss what he has done wrong.
Nor are we to see this without considering the face-saving Jesus offers him. That Jesus is generous to the man and to his guests. There is no “deserving” here. It isn’t about Mess Around and Find Out. The host is a cheapskate and God isn’t.
In this way, it should be not surprising at all that the host and his guests are oblivious to this teaching. The people it is for, the people who need to witness it, are the people having to work while the guests are celebrating. Not because work is the virtuous part, but because work prevents them from participating in the joyous celebration. And in knowing what Jesus is up to here, they can find joy in that witness.
Is this the best example of class struggle and the economics of Jesus? No. But there are several messages here that can be so alien to the American context in particular. And to consider them here is to challenge our expectations anew.