When Wine Flows Like Water

How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! … You give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. —Psalm 36:7-9

In the small Portuguese town of São Lourenço do Bairro, on a quiet Sunday morning in 2023, residents were stunned when they looked out their windows and saw a river of wine flowing through the narrow streets.

For almost an hour, the burgundy river flooded gutters, splashed homes, and stained the road as it flowed through the town. Confused residents later learned that nearly 600,000 gallons of wine—enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool—had burst from two storage tanks at the Levira distillery, sitting on a hill above the town. The spill was so massive that it triggered an environmental alert. Fortunately, the deluge was diverted into a nearby field before it could flow into the Cértima River. For days afterward, videos went viral as news outlets from all over the world reported on the river of good-quality wine.

Three years earlier, on the morning of March 4, 2020, in Castelvetro di Modena, Italy, residents were surprised when sparkling red wine came pouring out of their faucets and shower heads. The nearby Cantina Settecani winery quickly apologized in a Facebook post explaining that a malfunctioning valve in the bottling line caused decrease in pressure in a large storage silo, resulting in wine penetrating the water line and running through faucets in about 20 nearby homes.

Videos posted online showed some residents concerned about the contaminated water supply, but others delighted in the mishap, filling empty wine bottles and calling the incident “a dream come true.”

During Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Christ. After marveling at the wonder of God’s generosity, the Gospel writers are eager to fast-forward to the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. Starting Jan. 6, the liturgical calendar ushers the church into the season of Epiphany. The word Epiphany means “to bring to light,” and Epiphany is the third liturgical season in a row with light as its main theme. In Advent we long for the light, at Christmas we revel in it, and throughout Epiphany we see by it.

Because Epiphany features light as revelation, the lectionary situates three important stories near the start of the season that function like a trifocal lens: the Magi from the east, the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, and the wedding feast in Cana. These three gospel stories bring clarity to our blurry understanding of Jesus’ identity and mission as we often find ourselves (along with the crowds) confused by his teaching and blinded by his powerful miracles.

All three focal stories are worthy of attention, but only the gospel of John tells the story of the wedding feast in Cana and places it prominently as the first of seven signs.

John 2 opens with a scene that feels familiar and contemporary: a small-town wedding. After a few narrative strokes, John quickly concentrates our attention on an unfolding catastrophe: running out of wine. Anticipating the couple’s embarrassment and shame, Mary steps in and tells her son Jesus to do something about the emerging crisis. Then the focus turns to six stone water jars.

At this moment in Jewish history, serious attention was being given to meticulous Torah adherence. The Torah (the first five books of the Bible) contains important laws that God gives his people to set them apart as holy and beloved. Over time, Israel’s spiritual leaders teased out a total of 613 laws from the Torah and then invented additional smaller rules to safeguard people from breaking them. To preserve purity in God’s presence, the Pharisees dictated rules not in the Torah, such as washing hands, cups, pitchers, and kettles at mealtimes (Mark 7:1-4). What we see at the wedding are six stone jars holding water for washing so that everyone could maintain purity as they were eating and drinking.

Throughout the gospels, the Pharisees are upset when Jesus breaks these rules, and Jesus rebukes them for the heavy burden of excessive rules they placed on the shoulders of the people (Matt. 23). So the significance of Jesus turning the ritual water for cleansing into high-quality wine for a wedding celebration cannot be understated.

The most obvious connection is to draw a straight line from Cana to Calvary. We don’t feel the punch in the same way the original readers would have, but the miracle at Cana is a powerful and pointed critique of Israel’s leaders, who taught that through meticulous external adherence to rules they could achieve and maintain cleanliness, outside and in.

The miracle of changing water into wine points to what Jesus is going to do on the cross: pour out his blood to cleanse us thoroughly from our sins.

An equally significant connection, though not as immediately obvious, is the announcement and inauguration of a new age. All seven signs in the gospel of John are unique, light-filled revelations, but together they reveal the same bright epiphany that shines powerfully in this first sign: In and through Jesus, the love, healing, and wholeness of God’s kingdom is now abundantly flowing and available to anyone who desires to dip their cup and drink. It’s just as Isaiah 55:1 prophesied: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters. … Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”

Now the promise given to Abraham, flowing through David, and pouring into Christ to overflowing is spilling out into the streets to bless the nations with the riches of God’s grace.

In 2018, in a small village in Wales, a large tanker truck overturned and spilled 7,000 gallons of milk into the local river. Social media posts showed the creamy river cascading over rocks as it coursed through the town. There were no lasting environmental effects, so afterward some had fun with the absurdity of the situation. “All we needed was a giant bowl of cornflakes and it would have been perfect,” one person posted online. Another person saw a religious parallel and wrote, “All we need is honey next and it’s totally biblical.”

In the biblical imagination, honey, milk, and wine are all symbols of abundance. Yet some Christians don’t know what to do with a miracle of Jesus resulting in such an absurd amount of fine wine, especially when the guests have already been drinking. The key to understanding this story is found in an easy-to-miss phrase right at the beginning: “On the third day.”

With these four words, John plants a seed of resurrection hope, both in the story of Jesus and in the story of those who put their faith in Christ. That seed points to another celebration when those who belong to Jesus are raised from the dead. With hearts overflowing with gratitude, they will be seated at the wedding feast of the Lamb (Rev. 19:6-9) and raise a glass to praise the Lord for his goodness (Ps. 116:12-13).

On that day, dreams will come true when God saves the best for last. Heaven’s silos will burst open, and the wine of God’s fulfilled kingdom will stream through every street and showerhead, just as Joel 3:18 says: “In that day the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk.”