I remind you that we engaged in this activity as a result of our discussion of the Wedding Feast at Cana. Jesus and his mother were there, weddings lasting around a week in duration during the time of Jesus, and the wine was running out after only three days. Running out of wine would have brought all kinds of dishonour to the family of the bride, so Mary looked to her son to do something. Jesus, feeling that the right time to start sharing his understanding of the power of God had not yet come, replied that it really wasn't his affair. Mary, not to let her son off the hook, simply told the servants to do whatever Jesus said.
This is where I think the brilliance of Jesus shines through. He never even touched the wine, the containers it was in, or entered into the process at all. He told the servants to fill some very large jugs that were present for other reasons, with water. He told one of the servants to take a dipper of water to the wine steward. When the wine steward tasted it, he was impressed with the quality of the wine.
No hocus pocus! No magic! He chose ordinary everyday elements to use for this miracle. He had servants do the work. He also connected very strong symbolism to the entire process. Jesus often uses images of water in his stories. Water is part of all of us. Water also represents us in our everyday existence. Water represents the "mundane." Wine represents the "spirit." Wine is us as we are infused by the spirit. Wine become the reflection of our spiritual selves. By choosing everyday elements, by having the work done by everyday people, by not touching the process himself, Jesus lets us know that nurturing our spiritual beings can be something we do for ourselves.
So Jesus can do this in Kairos - the opportune time, the necessary time. As we looked at our process, we needed time - Chronos - linear time. So as we entered into our individual journeys from water to wine, we made the wine. Saturday, we bottled it. Here are some photos of the process we followed during the bottling. If you want to see the earlier wine making, have a look at the October blog entries.
Washing the bottles
Filling them with the wine
Inserting corks
Designing a Label
The final Product!
