The Wine Always Runs Out

 In John 2, we read about Jesus turning water into wine. We all know how it goes: the party starts going south real quick, Mary asks Jesus to intervene to save the bridal couple's shame, Jesus steps in and BAM best wine ever! 

Now, being someone who has neither gotten married nor even slightly enjoyed or desired wine, this story has the potential to miss the mark. But the one point we can all absolutely relate to on every level is that the wine always runs out. 

Sure, it will look different for each of us, but for all of us, at some stage and in some way, things will turn south and the good party times will start to dry up. People change. Plans don't work out. We let ourselves down. The bank balance leaks out. The roof leaks in the rain. Our grace for our boss/spouse/children/neighbour also leaks out of our flawed, broken barrel. As Jeremiah said in 2v13, we are broken cisterns that can hold no water. The wine always runs out.  

That's the bad news. But the good news is that Jesus makes the best wine. 

Jesus can take the average and depleted and make it not only better but abundantly so. As Paul Miller, reflecting on this says, “When Jesus shows up to a party, it doesn’t just keep going. It gets better.”

Beyond that, Jesus points us to the best wedding reception the world will ever know. It'll make the Royal weddings look cheap and boring. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb where communion remembering Jesus' work will become a literal feast in the very presence of Jesus, paid for with His own body and blood (aka the best wine). It's the banquet that every delicious meal we’ve ever tasted is but a shadow of. It is the reception every one of our lonely hearts longs for. 

The cheap and nasty box wine of all the earthly things we put our hope will always run out. But at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the wine never runs out because Jesus the Lamb IS the Wine. And He promises to be with us forever. Once again, He is keeping the best wine until last. 

Truly, our cup does overflow. It overflows with the wine of Jesus’s neverending grace to us.