Weddings and Wine

It's always worthwhile to think and reflect on a passage of the Bible--especially when it seems like something odd is going on.  I was reading John 2.1-11 today and it just struck me as a strange thing.   Jesus' first "sign" according to John is changing water into wine at a wedding feast.   Doing this water to wine deal showed his glory and his disciples believe in him.  Why in the world do water into wine to show your glory and get your disciples to believe in you?   Why not toss out a demon, raise someone from the dead, feed the poor--do something of significance, something that we would consider world  changing--wine doesn't fall into the world changing category, especially when we read between the lines and know that the wine is going to make people even more tipsy than they already are ("...the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, 'Everyone serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then the poor wine.  But you have kept the good wine until now.").  Not that it is an easy thing to change water into wine, but it just seems an odd choice for a first sign to show yourself the Messiah.  

As I was thinking on that my first thought was perhaps it connects with the idea of the goodness of creation and so Jesus turning the water into wine is a plug for creation.  But then I remembered something I learned back in Seminary:  this water to wine thing is all about the age of the Messiah coming.  The book of Amos talks about the dawning of the Messianic age with these words, 

Amos 9:11 “In that day I will restore David’s fallen tent.   I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be,  12 so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name,” declares the LORD, who will do these things. 13 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes.   New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills.  14 I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them.   They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.  

Like Jesus' inaugural address in Luke 4 which begins his ministry, this first sign declares that Jesus is the Messiah and that the messianic age has begun.  It is an age of celebration which includes wine dripping from the mountains.   Jesus brings this wine to a wedding celebration and so declares that he is the Messiah.  Pretty cool.

All of which reminds me: sometimes to get beyond the oddness of New Testament passages we need to remember the pictures of the Old Testament.