434. An Oriental Wedding

An Oriental Wedding

Joh_2:10 : ’93Thou hast kept the good wine until now.’94

If the hard brow ever relaxes, it is at the wedding. The nature cold and unsympathetic thaws out under the glow, and the tears start as we hear the bride’92s dress rustling down the stairs, and the company stands back, and we hear in the timid ’93I will’94 of the twain the sound of a lifetime’92s hopes, and joys, and sorrows. We look steadily at them, but thrice at her to once at him, and say, ’93God bless her, how well she looks!’94 We cry at weddings, but not bitter tears; for when the heart is stirred, and smiles are insipid, and laughter is tame, the heart writes out its joy on the cheek in letters of crystal. Put on the ring! Let it ever be bright, and the round finger it incloses never be shrunken by sorrow. May they get old together, helping each other on in the path of life; and coming up to the marble pillar of the grave and parting, one going this side, and the other going that, may they meet again just beyond it, to find that the marble pillar was only the door-post of heaven. When the wedding is done, and the carriage rolls to the door, and the trunks are heaved to their places, and the door goes shut with a bang, and the driver gathers up the reins, we all come out on the steps and give them three times three for a good starting.

We come today to a wedding. It is in common life. No carriages roll to the door, no costly dress rustles on the carpet, no diamond head-gear, but a marriage in common life’97two plain people having pledged each other, hand and heart, and their friends having come in for congratulation. The joy is not the less because there is no pretension. In each other they find all the future they want. The daisy in the cup on the table may mean as much as a score of artistic garlands fresh from the hothouse. When a daughter goes off from home with nothing but a plain father’92s blessing and a plain mother’92s love, she is missed as much as though she were a princess. It seems hard, after the parents have sheltered her for eighteen years, that in a few short months her affections should have been carried off by another; but mother remembers how it was in her own case when she was young, and so she braces up until the wedding has passed, and the banqueters are gone, and she has a good cry all alone.

We are at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. Jesus and his mother have been invited. It is evident that more people are there than were expected. Either some people have come who were not invited, or more invitations have been sent out than it was supposed would be accepted. Of course there is not enough wine. Nothing is more embarrassing to a housekeeper than a scant supply. Jesus sees the embarrassment, and he comes up immediately to relieve it. He sees standing six water-pots. He orders the servants to fill them with water, then waves his hand over the water, and immediately it is wine’97real wine. Taste of it, and see for yourselves; no logwood in it, no strychnine in it, but first-rate wine. When God makes wine, he makes the very best wine; and one hundred and thirty gallons of it standing around in these water-pots: wine so good that the ruler of the feast tastes it and says, ’93Why, this is really better than anything we have had! Thou has kept the good wine until now.’94 Beautiful miracle! A prize was offered to the person who should write the best essay about the miracle in Cana. Long manuscripts were presented in the competition, but a poet won the prize by just this one line descriptive of the miracle:

The conscious water saw its God, and blushed.

We learn from this miracle, in the first place, that Christ has sympathy with housekeepers. You might have thought that Jesus would have said, ’93I cannot be bothered with this household deficiency of wine. It is not for me, Lord of heaven and earth, to become caterer to this feast. I have vaster things than this to attend to.’94 Not so said Jesus. The wine gave out, and Jesus, by miraculous power, came to the rescue. Does there ever come a scant supply in your household? Have you to make a very close calculation? It is hard work for you to carry on things decently and respectably? If so, don’92t sit down and cry. Don’92t go out and fret; but go to him who stood in the house in Cana of Galilee. Pray in the parlor! Pray in the hall! Pray in the nursery! Pray in the kitchen! Let there be no room in all your house unconsecrated by the voice of prayer. If you have a microscope, put under it one drop of water, and see the insects floating about; and when you see that God makes them, and cares for them, and feeds them, come to the conclusion that he will take care of you and feed you, oh ye of little faith.

A boy asked if he might sweep the snow from the steps of a house. The lady of the household said, ’93Yes; you seem very poor.’94 He says, ’93I am very poor.’94 She says, ’93Don’92t you sometimes get discouraged, and feel that God is going to let you starve?’94 The lad looked up in the woman’92s face, and said, ’93Do you think God will let me starve when I trust him, and then do the best I can?’94 Enough theology for older people! Trust in God, and do the best you can. Amidst all the worriments of housekeeping, go to him: he will help you control your temper, and supervise your domestics, and entertain your guests, and manage your home economies. There are hundreds of women weak, and nervous, and exhausted with the cares of housekeeping. I commend you to the Lord Jesus Christ as the best adviser and the most efficient aid’97the Lord Jesus who performed his first miracle to relieve a housekeeper.

I learn also from this miracle that Christ does things in abundance. I think a small supply of wine would have made up for the deficiency. I think certainly they must have had enough for half of the guests. One gallon of wine will do; certainly five gallons will be enough; certainly ten. But Jesus goes on, and he gives them thirty gallons, and forty gallons, and fifty gallons, and seventy gallons, and one hundred gallons, and one hundred and thirty gallons of the very best wine. It is just like him! doing everything on the largest and most generous scale. Does Christ, our Creator, go forth to make leaves, he makes them by the whole forest-full; notched like the fern, or silvered like the aspen, or broad like the palm; thickets in the tropics; Oregon forests. Does he go forth to make flowers, he makes plenty of them; they flame from the hedge, they hang from the top of the grapevine in blossoms, they roll in the blue wave of the violets, they toss their white surf into the spir’e6’97enough to put in every child’92s hand a flower, enough to make for every brow a chaplet, enough with beauty to cover up the ghastliness of all the graves. Does he go forth to create water, he pours it out, not by the cupful, but by a river-full, a lake-full, an ocean-full, pouring it out until all the earth has enough to drink, and enough with which to wash.

Does Jesus, our Lord, provide redemption, it is not a little salvation for this one, a little for that, and a little for the other; but enough for all’97’94Whosoever will, let him come.’94 Each man an ocean full for himself. Promises for the young, promises for the old, promises for the lowly, promises for the blind, for the halt, for the outcast, for the abandoned. Pardon for all, comfort for all, mercy for all, heaven for all; not merely a cupful of Gospel supply, but one hundred and thirty gallons. Aye, the tears of godly repentance are all gathered up into God’92s bottle, and some day, standing before the throne, we will lift our cup of delight and ask that it be filled with the wine of heaven; and Jesus, from that bottle of tears, will begin to pour in the cup, and we will cry, ’93Stop, Jesus, we do not want to drink our own tears;’94 and Jesus will say, ’93Know ye not that the tears of earth are the wine of heaven?’94 Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

I remark, further, Jesus does not shadow the joys of others with his own griefs. He might have sat down in that wedding and said, ’93I have so much trouble, so much poverty, so much persecution, and the cross is coming; I will not rejoice, and the gloom of my face and of my sorrows will be cast over all this group.’94 So said not Jesus. He said to himself, ’93Here are two persons starting out in married life. Let it be a joyful occasion. I will hide my own griefs. I will kindle their joy.’94 There are many not so wise as that. I know a household where there are many little children, where for two years the piano has been kept shut because there has been trouble in the house. Alas, for the folly! Parents saying, ’93We will have no Christmas-tree this coming holiday, because there has been trouble in the house. Hush that laughing upstairs! How can there be any joy when there has been so much trouble?’94 And so they make everything consistently doleful, and send their sons and daughters to ruin with the gloom they throw around them. Do you not know those children will have trouble enough of their own after awhile? Be glad they cannot appreciate all yours. Keep back the cup of bitterness from your daughter’92s lips. When your head is down in the grass of Greenwood, poverty may come to her, betrayal to her, bereavement to her. Keep back the sorrows as long as you can. Do you not know that son may, after awhile, have his heart broken. Stand between him and all harm. You may not fight his battles long; fight them while you may. Throw not the chill of your own despondency over his soul; rather be like Jesus, who came to the wedding hiding his own grief and kindling the joys of others. So I have seen the sun, on a dark day, struggling amidst clouds, black, ragged, and portentous, but after awhile the sun, with golden pry, heaved back the blackness; and the sun laughed to the lake, and the lake laughed to the sun, and from horizon to horizon, under the saffron sky, the water was all turned into wine.

I learn from this miracle that Christ is not impatient with the luxuries of life. It was not necessary that they should have that wine. Hundreds of people have been married without any wine. We do not read that any of the other provisions fell short. When Christ made the wine, it was not a necessity, but a positive luxury. I do not believe that he wants us to eat graham bread, and sleep on hard mattresses, unless we like them best. I think, if circumstances will allow, we have a right to the luxuries of dress, the luxuries of diet, and the luxuries of residence. There is no more religion in an old coat than in a new one. We can serve God drawn by golden-plated harness as certainly as when we go afoot. Jesus Christ will dwell with us under a frescoed ceiling as well as under a thatched roof; and when you can get wine made out of water, drink as much of it as you can.

What is the difference between a Chinese mud-hovel and an American house? What is the difference between the rough bear skins of the Siberian boor and the outfit of an American gentleman? No difference, except that which the Gospel of Christ, directly or indirectly, has caused. When Christ shall have vanquished all the world, I suppose every house will be a mansion, and every garment a robe, and every horse an arch-necked courser, and every carriage a glittering vehicle, and every man a king, and every woman a queen, and the whole earth a paradise; the glories of the natural world harmonizing with the glories of the material world, until the very bells of the horses shall ring with the praises of the Lord.

I learn, further, from this miracle, that Christ has no impatience with festal joy, otherwise he would not have accepted the invitation to that wedding. He certainly would not have done that which increased the hilarity. There may have been many in that room who were happy, but there was not one of them that did so much for the joy of the wedding party as Christ himself. He was the chief of the banqueters. When the wine gave out, he supplied it; and so, I take it, he will not deny us the joys that are positively festal. I think the children of God have more right to laugh than any other people, and to clap their hands as loudly. There is not a single joy denied them that is given to any other people. Christianity does not clip the wings of the soul. Religion does not frost the flowers. What is Christianity? I take it to be, simply, a proclamation from the throne of God of emancipation for all the enslaved; and if a man accepts the terms of that proclamation, and becomes free, has he not a right to be merry? Suppose a father has an elegant mansion and large grounds. To whom will he give the first privilege of these grounds? Will he say, ’93My children, you must not walk through these paths, or sit down under these trees, or pluck this fruit. These are for outsiders. They may walk in them.’94 No father would say anything like that. He would say, ’93The first privileges in all the grounds, and all of my house, shall be for my own children.’94 And yet men try to make us believe that God’92s children are on the limits, and the chief refreshments and enjoyments of life are for outsiders and not for his own children. It is stark atheism. There is no innocent beverage too rich for God’92s child to drink, there is no robe too costly for him to wear. There is no hilarity too great for him to indulge in, and no house too splendid for him to live in. He has a right to the joys of earth; he shall have a right to the joys of heaven. Though tribulation and trial and hardship may come unto him, let him rejoice. ’93Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and again I say, rejoice.’94

I remark, again, that Christ comes to us in the hour of our extremity. He knew the wine was giving out before there was any embarrassment or mortification. Why did he not perform the miracle sooner? Why wait until it was all gone, and no help could come from any source, and then come in and perform the miracle? This is Christ’92s way; and when he did come in, at the hour of extremity, he made first-rate wine, so that they cried out, ’93Thou hast kept the good wine until now.’94 Jesus in the hour of extremity! He seems to prefer that hour.

In a Christian home, in Poland, great poverty had come, and on the weekday the man was obliged to move out of the house with his whole family. That night he knelt, with his family, and prayed to God. While they were kneeling in prayer, there was a tap on the window pane. They opened the window, and there was a raven that the family had fed and trained, and it had in its bill a ring all set with precious stones, which was found out to be a ring belonging to the royal family. It was taken up to the king’92s residence, and for the honesty of the man in bringing it back he had a house given to him and a garden and a farm. Who was it that sent the raven tapping on the window? The same God that sent the raven to feed Elijah by the brook Cherith. Christ in the hour of extremity!

You mourned over your sins. You could not find the way out. You sat down and said, ’93God will not be merciful. He has cast me off;’94 but in that, the darkest hour of your history, light broke from the throne, and Jesus said, ’93O wanderer, come home. I have seen all thy sorrows. In this, the hour of thy extremity, I offer thee pardon and everlasting life!’94

Trouble came. You were almost torn to pieces by that trouble. You braced yourself up against it. You said, ’93I will be a stoic, and will not care;’94 but before you had got through making the resolution, it broke down under you. You felt that all your resources were gone, and then Jesus came. ’93In the fourth watch of the night,’94 the Bible says, ’93Jesus came walking on the sea.’94 Why did he not come in the first watch? or in the second watch? or the third watch? I do not know. He came in the fourth, and gave deliverance to his disciples. Jesus in the last extremity! I wonder if it will be so in our very last extremity. We shall fall suddenly sick, and doctors will come, but in vain. We will try the anodynes, and the stimulants, and the bathings, but all in vain. Something will say, ’93You must go.’94 No one to hold us back, but the hands of eternity stretched out to pull us on. What then? Jesus will come to us, and as we say, ’93Lord Jesus, I am afraid of that water; I cannot wade through to the other side,’94 he will say, ’93Take hold of my arm;’94 and we will take hold of his arm, and then he will put his foot in the surf of the wave, taking us on down deeper, deeper, deeper, and our soul will cry, ’93All thy waves and billows have gone over me.’94 They cover the feet, come to the knee, pass the girdle, and come to the head, and our soul cries out, ’93Lord Jesus Christ, I cannot hold thine arm any longer!’94 Then Jesus will turn around, throw both his arms about us, and set us on the beach, far beyond the tossing of the billow. Jesus in the last extremity!

That wedding scene is almost gone now. The wedding-ring has been lost, the tankards have been broken, the house is down; but Jesus invites us to a grander wedding. You know the Bible says that the church is the Lamb’92s wife; and the Lord will after awhile come to fetch her home. There will be gleaming of torches in the sky, and the trumpets of God will ravish the air with their music; and Jesus will stretch out his hand, and the church, robed in white, will put aside her veil, and look up into the face of her Lord the king, and the bridegroom will say to the bride, ’93Thou hast been faithful through all these years! The mansion is ready! Come home! Thou art fair, my love!’94 and then he shall put upon her brow the crown of dominion, and the table will be spread, and it will reach across the skies, and the mighty ones of heaven will come in, garlanded with beauty and striking their cymbals; and the bridegroom and bride will stand at the head of the table, and the banqueters, looking up, will wonder and admire, and say, ’93That is Jesus, the bridegroom! But the scar on his brow is covered with the coronet, and the stab in his side is covered with a robe!’94 and ’93That is the bride! the weariness of her earthly woe lost in the flush of this wedding triumph!’94 There will be wine enough at that wedding; not coming up from the poisoned vats of earth, but the vineyards of God will contribute their ripest clusters, and the cups and the tankards will blush to the brim with the heavenly vintage, and then all the banqueters will drink standing. Esther, having come up from the Bacchanalian revelry of Ahasuerus, where his many lords feasted, will be there. And the Queen of Sheba, from the banquet of Solomon, will be there. And the mother of Jesus, from the wedding in Cana, will be there. And they all will agree that the earthly feasting was poor compared with that. Then, lifting their chalices in that holy light, they shall cry to the Lord of the feast, ’93Thou hast kept the good wine until now!’94

Autor: T. De Witt Talmage