How to Turn Water into Wine

In this episode I look at the famous story of Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee and interpret it as an expression of nonduality. It is symbolic of the transformation from seeing this world as duality to seeing it as nonduality. This story is a symbolic reenactment of the creation story with Jesus playing the role of the Source or Word of creation. John 2:1-11 

Transcript

How to Turn Water into Wine

The Gospel of John is a proclamation of the gospel of nonduality. Today we are going to look at the famous story of Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. It is a much-loved story. I refer to it in every wedding I officiate at. It is the first of seven signs that Jesus does in the Gospel of John. 

Jesus’ family and disciples were invited to a wedding in Cana of Galilee. We are not told whose wedding it is, although it is safe to assume that it was a relative of Jesus. Jesus’ mother seems to have a role in making sure the event goes off well, which means that it was likely a relative on Mary’s side of the family - probably a cousin of Jesus. 

The wedding is going fine when all of a sudden the wine runs out. Obviously bad planning, which does not reflect well on Mary or her family. Jesus’ mother hurries over to Jesus saying, “They have no wine.” Jesus responds in a manner that sounds rather rude, saying, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 

Christian interpreters spend a lot of time trying to excuse Jesus for what appears to be a rebuff of his mom. A good Jewish boy would not treat his mom rudely, we are told by these preachers. Especially when this Jewish boy is Jesus. But the reality is that Jesus is expressing impatience. After all he was human! Mary, knowing her son will help, says to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

We are told that there are six large water jars normally used for ritual purification before eating, each jar able to hold twenty or thirty gallons of water. Jesus instructs the servants to fill them with water and draw off some of the contents and bring it to the master of the feast. The Master of the Feast is an honorary position held by one of the invited guests, normally an important relative, who serves as a sort of master of ceremonies. He tastes it and immediately calls the groom, and says to him. “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

This story is normally interpreted as a miracle story used to introduce us to Jesus’ miraculous powers. But it is actually a symbolic proclamation of Jesus as the Source of the Universe and the Origin of All and our connection to that. This story points us to the opening words of the Gospel of John, which describes Jesus as the Word which was with God and was God and through whom everything was made that was made. 

This story of turning water to wine is a symbolic reenactment of the creation story with Jesus playing the role of the Creator. If you remember the creation story of Genesis, you will recall that it starts with the earth covered with water, and the Spirit hovering over the face of the deep. God turns this watery chaos into cosmos with a word. 

Here is Jesus as the Word doing the same sort of thing. With a word he is turning the chaos of a wedding that ran out of wine, which would have been a social disaster and disgrace for this family that they never would have lived down, into a memorable event that is still repeated 2000 year later.

There are also echoes of the Flood Story, which was a recreation of the world through watery chaos. If you remember the story of Noah’s flood, the first thing that Noah does after the flood is plant a vineyard and make wine. This story of Jesus turning water into wine is meant to echo these Old Testament stories of creation and recreation. To Greek and Roman ears this story would also have overtones of Dionysus, also called Bacchus. In Rome he is known as Liber Pater, (the Free Father), the Greco-Roman god of freedom and wine and celebration and joy.

Most important as we interpret this as nondualism is that Jesus is pictured as the Divine Source from which all things originate. Christ is free to remake the world, as symbolized by turning water into wine. We are free in the same way. The physical world is not as fixed as we think it is. To a great extent it is a product of perception. Jesus was changing the way people were perceiving. 

Jesus was not a traveling magician. Jesus is not a wizard saying a magic spell over jars of water like a first century Harry Potter. He doesn’t lay his hands on the jars and ask for a miracle like some TV evangelistic doing a fake healing. All he does is tell the servants to fill the jars with water and bring some to the master of the feast, who then declares it to be the best wine he ever tasted. Everyone agrees. 

Jesus was opening people’s eyes and taste buds to a different way of perceiving. This was the wedding of a poor family that was cutting costs and hoping it would be enough to have a decent wedding. They were feeling poor and Jesus changed that into abundance! “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God,” he said. That is the miracle. That is what this story is communicating. Jesus changed the way the people saw themselves and reality that day. Life became wine instead of water. 

It is symbolic of the transformation from seeing this world as duality to seeing it as nonduality. To see this story as nothing more than a physical miracle would make this into a parlor trick and Jesus into a sideshow performer. This is something much more fundamental. This is spiritual transformation. It is about seeing the world in a new way. Jesus was giving them a glimpse into the nature of reality and human nature.  

Our world is not what people perceive it to be. We peer out at the universe through five little pinholes called physical senses and process it through our tiny monkey brains and think we know the real world! How egotistical! Indian spirituality calls this world maya or illusion. Our brains deceive us. This demonstrated in the news daily in bizarre conspiracy theories like QAnon and Pizzagate and fake news that people believe in political circles today. People convince themselves of all sorts of things that aren’t true. 

Humanity has convinced itself that it is lost in need of liberation and salvation. We see our lives as suffering. We perceive ourselves to be miserable sinners in bondage to sin and under the judgment of a wrathful deity who is going to send most of humanity into hell if they don’t conform to certain religious demands. That becomes our psychological and spiritual reality. We think that we need to be liberated or freed or saved. So we concoct elaborate religious systems or beliefs and rituals to save ourselves from the prisons of our own making. These become our emotional and psychological reality. 

The truth is that we are free. To see that we are free is to wake up. As Jesus says later in this gospel, “When the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” We are free. We are saved. We are enlightened. There is nothing we have to do or believe. 

The problem is that our minds believe that we are not free. So we search for freedom and salvation and enlightenment. We think we are time bound physical creatures that are born and live a few years and then die. That is not what we are. We are not born and do not die. We are eternal. We are the Source that can turn water into wine. That is what Jesus knew about himself and tried to communicate to us. 

Jesus perceived himself to be that Eternal One. He proclaimed that we are that and can know that. This is eternal life. This is what the Gospel of John is about. That is what the seven I AM statements of Jesus communicate. This is what the seven signs of the Gospel of John point to. This first sign of turning water into wine is the first of the signs pointing to this truth.