The phenomenon of wow

phenomenon   • noun (pl. phenomena) 1 a fact or situation that is observed to exist or happen, especially one whose cause is in question. 2 Philosophy the object of a person’s perception. 3 a remarkable person or thing.  ORIGIN Greek phainomenon ‘thing appearing to view’. wow informal   • exclamation (also wowee) expressing astonishment or admiration.   • noun a sensational success.   • verb impress and excite greatly. Jesus spoke incendiary truths and did explosive things. He identified the elements of his culture that were contrary to the scandalous message of grace. He would then take them down, not with complex arguments and weighty discourse but with simple acts, mind bending stories, displays of deity and outrageously phenomenal statements. His audiences were told to love the people they hated the most, lay down their stones and leave the adulterous woman alone and touch those who would make them ‘unclean’. They were amazed by a man who would destroy the temple, the very thing that gave them identity as a people. They were perplexed by this Jesus who claimed to be the sibling of Yahweh and then told them He was also The I AM.

Here is the God man who’s first outrageous public act was to ‘reveal his glory’. Not in the temple or in a political forum but at a wedding that He was seemingly only invited to because his mum was. It was there that he seized on an opportunity of huge embarrassment. The wine runs out, not good at any decent party but at a middle eastern wedding 2000 years ago this was significant, something that could have ended in the groom being sued by his new in-laws! 

But Jesus knows that a different kind of wine has also run out, an embarrassment so subtly significant that those drinking it had not even noticed that they were drinking from empty glasses. He knew that wine was symbolic of joy, blessing and celebration. He knew that Isaiah talked about the mountain of the Lord where a feast including ‘well-aged wine’ would be hosted. Or that His people would once again be gathered together and be “radiant over the wine”. And then there is Joel who spoke of a day when the mountains would drips with ‘sweet wine’.

Here He was at a wedding, party in full swing, His Mum knowing that He might be able to help comes to him. And then in words that echo Pharaoh’s to his people in Gen 41:55 she tells those waiting on the wedding party to “do whatever He tells you”. As Joseph had won over Pharaoh with his famine relief program, Jesus was about to paint a prophetic picture of His famine relief program. A famine that saw His people bound up in legalism, regulations and rebellion. The old stale wine had run out and a new vintage was about to be released.

What better vessels to use than those which symbolised the ritual rules and regulations that had welcomed them at the door of their temple worship. The jars used for ritual purification were now being borrowed by the one who was here to offer a way of unparalleled purification. To the brim they were filled, this was no partial fulfillment but a symbol of a time when wine would flow liberally and unrestricted to those who would drink of it. A time when the phenomenon of wow would dawn that the poor wine had all gone and the best wine had been kept until “just the right time”.

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