Am I Empty or Full?

⁶ Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷ Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.
John 2:6-7

There are some places where it is good to turn up empty and leave full. If you’re a customer, this includes the supermarket, the petrol pump, or a restaurant. There are other places where it is good to turn up full and leave empty. If you’re an athlete, a competitor, or a performer, this includes the arena, the court, or the stage. But which should it be if you’re a believer?

The Sunday on which the Great Lent begins is known as Kothine Sunday and the passage that is selected by the Church to be read as the Holy Gospel St. John 2:1-11. This Sunday is also called Peturtho. The word pethurtho comes from the Syriac root ptr which means ‘go away’ or ‘return from (a banquet). Kothine is used because Cana is called by its other name Kothine in Syriac Bible.

John’s gospel was written about 60 years or so after Jesus’ earthly ministry.  The church has had a long time to think, ponder, and reflect: not just on what Jesus said and did, but on the meaning behind the events and words.   The story of Jesus that comes out is different from the earlier gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke in its style and tone. The gospel according to John is more symbolic than the other three. It is layered deeply, richly.  Almost every word and phrase is chosen. The dots, or the layers, are the stories of Israel’s past.  Each story adds richness, texture, and depth to the story of Jesus that John tells.

At the wedding in Cana Jesus asks the servant to put the water into the six stone water jars. Every house had such jars for the Jewish rites of purification.

You might think that the people would be inconvenienced in some way by this: where were they going to wash themselves to make themselves ritually, ceremonially clean if their purification jars were full of wine?

John asks us to look more deeply at this picture: Jesus found those purification water jars empty.  Nobody was going to be made pure from them.  The quest to keep you in God’s good graces by ritual and ceremony was empty, and failed one.   Jesus first told them to fill the empty purification jars with water, to the brim, and afterwards, he replaced the water with wine; wine of superb quality to drink – perhaps wine from which one could dress the bloody wounds of a victim on the road (Luke 10:20).

The Wedding at Cana is not the story of a once upon a time magic trick.  This is about what Jesus’ coming to earth means at its deepest level.  It means the whole game has changed.

God’s concern is not about ceremony and ritual; God’s concern is to bring his overwhelming presence into the midst of our daily lives.  When it comes, when we hear his words, as we understand what he cares about, as we experience his abundance, we respond with the same extravagance to the hurting, bleeding people around us.

We are the ones with the wine of the kingdom, bursting from our wine-sacks and we are called like the Good Samaritan to bandage the wounds, pour oil and wine on the victims on the side of the path we travel.

This Lenten season can we identify the empty jars in our homes and churches? Let us look into our own lives and see if it’s empty? Let us be filled with Jesus to the brim so that the world may taste the best in us.