Chapter 7:

The groom’s and the bride’s wedding day has arrived at Cana. Much has gone into the preparation for these next few days of celebration. The food is ready, the wine is prepared. We can imagine the joy which must’ve been on their hearts. The hope which must’ve filled this couple. Who were they? What was their story? How did Jesus and his mother know them? What were their lives like leading up to this day? These are only questions we can ponder. John doesn’t give us much insight into their lives. Perhaps because John wants every wedding couple to place themselves in this couple’s story.

There is nothing more profound than witnessing a bride and groom journey towards their wedding day. I’ve had the honor to witness a few. One couple comes to mind in particular. It was the couple I met my senior year of college while grabbing lunch with the catholic missionary at the classiest bar near campus. The couple mentioned in chapter one. The couple whom I had so clearly witnessed experience the sleep of Adam and the delight of Eve. The ones who had been sent on a rollercoaster ride in their relationship their final year of college, who became missionaries together, whose daughter I now pray for every day as her Godfather.

So much had happened by the time of this couple’s wedding day. They had been sent on a journey with no clear path ahead at times. A journey which led them to deeper trust in the Father’s love for them. A journey which led them to a deeper love for each other.

On the night before the wedding, myself as one of the ushers of the wedding and some of the groomsmen stayed at an Airbnb with the groom. In talking to him the night before his wedding, you could sense the gratitude which filled his heart, and the nervousness which loomed over him for the next day. This man knew this woman had become the one who would give him new life. He talked of the humility and the quiet joy which he was feeling. This man, like Adam, was sent on a journey looking for a woman. He had found a woman willing to walk by his side. You could tell he knew the gift of his future bride. In the face of a beautiful bride, almost every man who knows he is unworthy; cries.

A Suit That Fits

This possibly was the same gratitude the groom felt at Cana when realizing, for him, Jesus had provided the best wine. The groom at Cana had just experienced the joy of the wedding and then the joy stripped away so quickly when the fruit of his love failed. Imagine the shellshock as he realized his own best efforts to love his bride at the wedding would not be enough. Imagine his shame in realizing he failed to fulfill his obligation to provide.

Did he feel like Adam? In what ways did this failure mirror other failures in his life? Did he freeze in the midst of this failure? Did he try to hide? The celebration may appear to be ongoing, but did the groom hide the failure to those unknowing?

Notice now the New Eve noticing this man’s and his bride’s need. Notice the groom as he sees Jesus, the Divine Bridegroom, acting where he was unable. See Jesus as he helps provide the wine and love the groom can’t provide for his bride on his own. Did the groom possibly see the servants going back and forth, in and out of the house, to fill the jars with water? How did he feel when he saw the free gift of wine Jesus was providing in front of his eyes? Imagine his concerned but trusting patience. Was he able to realize all he could do was watch and let Jesus meet him in his greatest need? Imagine the suspense he felt as he sees the steward’s chalice being filled. What did Jesus do? Was his need answered? Do they at least now have wine?

Now, imagine his utter amazement when the steward credits him, the groom, with the best wine. Imagine his sense of unworthiness to be credited with such an honor. Imagine how grateful he must have felt to feel truly unworthy yet truly blessed by Jesus. Imagine the life this miracle must’ve given his wife. Did she look to her groom with wonder at the gift and provision, he, the groom had given her?

In reality, it wasn’t the groom’s provision which produced the wine. Rather, it was God’s decision. Imagine now the joy on Jesus’s face. He has provided love for and given honor to this couple. In this gifted decision, Jesus has exhausted the servants. For him too, there will be an eventual cost at the exhaustion of his cross.

Yet, in this cost is the joy of the couple before him. Imagine how Jesus looks to the bride. Notice how she sees in her groom the goodness of the love of God. A goodness and love the groom could have never earned without Jesus.

Imagine how possibly Jesus kept this image in his mind as he left the wedding celebration. The image of the love of the bride for her groom made possible by the love of God. This is the very same hope Jesus holds for his own bride, the Church: That she might see in him the source of his love, the one who provides for him, the Father.

“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which you have given me in your love for me before the foundation of the world.” – John 17: 24

The place Jesus desires his disciples to be, is the place of union he has shared with the Father, “before the foundation of the world.” Here, later in the Gospel of John, Jesus is praying for his disciples to experience a life of love in the Father which he has known from the beginning:

“O righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you; and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” – John 17: 25-26

Jesus’s hope for the Church is to see in him, the Divine Bridegroom, the love and life the Father has provided . . . (To Be Continued)