John 2:6

Now there just happens to be in the vicinity six large jars of stone usually used for purification purposes.  Each jar could hold twenty to thirty gallons each.” John 2:6 EFP

Let’s set the scene again.  Jesus and his entourage are attending a wedding to which they had been invited.  While there they are informed by Jesus’ mother that the wedding wine has run out prematurely.  Jesus informs his well-intentioned mother that he is not called to insignificant matters such as wedding wine services, to which his mother asks the wedding servants to do whatever Jesus is going to ask them to do even after having been told he is not planning on doing anything.  It’s a classic Jewish standoff.  Mary is on the one side; Jesus stands on the other, while the five disciples observe the developments opposite the wedding servants waiting for some instructions.  Who will blink first?

Then John adds a surprising element into the story line: water pots—six water pots, to be exact.  These are not just ordinary water pots.  They are large water pots capable of holding up to thirty gallons; water that would ordinarily be used for ceremonial purification purposes by the Jews.  That sounds solemn, but it really refers to water provided by the hosts for guests to wash their hands or their feet at special events.  The fact that there are six jars and they each hold that much water is probably due to the large number of people attending the wedding.  The implication could be made that the jars are already empty, since John says the jars “could hold twenty to thirty gallons apiece.”  Now what?

John sets up the next scene with a totally random and apparently unrelated reference to six large empty jars.  The jars have already served their purpose; they just are just there set aside and somewhat abandoned after they had completed the task for which they had been acquired.  There is nothing for them to do but line the wall.  Have you ever felt like an old, empty, abandoned, and apparently used-up or even useless jar?  I know I sometimes feel helpless during a crisis; I sense my usefulness waning; I feel abandoned as a relic from a time when energy abounded and hope sprung eternal.  Now occasionally I wonder when the fall season of my life arrived.  Then John’s words resonate in my mind, “then there were six jars…”  I am not alone.  There are others like me who share my condition and status in the continuum of life.  There we are.  We may be set aside, but we’re still in the story!  And as long as we are in the story with Jesus in the vicinity, something amazing can happen at any moment, even to old and marginalized water pots! Hallelujah!