Last of the Summer Wine?

Jesus leaves the best ’til last! We need to remember that when the heat is on, fruit seems hard to come by, the bones are tired, and you perhaps question why you are in ministry at all – whether you are a full-time minister, or a sold-out lay member of a church that brings more trouble than triumph.

Jesus came to a wedding in Cana in Galilee, very early on in his ministry (John 2:1-11). The high expectations and joy of a wedding reflect the kind of expectation many of us enter ministry with: the joy of spending your whole life studying God’s word, shepherding His people, and seeing the gospel come alive in people’s hearts. What could be better than that?

But then you hit a wall. A very hard wall. The honeymoon period ends early, pastoral problems are huge, preaching feels dry as dust, and previously unspoken differences emerge in the leadership about ‘how to do church’. Like wine running out at a wedding, we feel ministry wasn’t meant to be like this. But maybe it is!

Jewish wedding feasts lasted close to a week, and running out of wine was considered deeply embarrassing. Jesus’ mother tried to nudge Him into action. ‘Woman, why do you involve me?’ (John 2:4) was Jesus’ rather terse response: ‘My hour has not yet come.’ In the theology of John, Jesus’ hour is the cross, and He felt this village wedding was too early to go public. When you are going through a troubled spell in ministry, the hardest bit is when it feels as if Jesus Himself is disinterested.

Your prayers seem to hit the ceiling rather than nudging Him into action. And why does He need nudging anyway? Has He not promised to be ‘an ever-present help in times of trouble’? But, in John 2, Mary did not take ‘no’ for an answer, even from the King of Glory – a reminder to us to keep praying when heaven seems like brass.

Then comes the miracle. It is noteworthy that the six stone jars Jesus asked to be filled with water were used for Jewish ceremonies. Jesus had come to turn the stale water of Jewish religion into the new wine of the Kingdom!

But the real punchline of the account comes when the master of the banquet gets a taste: ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now’ (John 2:10). That’s exactly what Jesus promises you, whether you are feeling encouraged right now, or so frustrated you want to throw in the towel, thinking ‘it’s not meant be like this’.

The truth is, it is meant to be like this! The joy and expectation of serving Christ will, for everyone at some stage, become stale, wearisome, frustrating, even dangerous. We can have our characters maligned, endure personal and family trials, go through long spells of seeing no fruit for our labours, and have whole seasons where our walk with the Lord feels barren.

And it’s at those moments we need to remember that Jesus is leaving the best ’til last. He will turn your shame into glory, like the hosts of the wedding feast. You will drink with Him anew in His Father’s kingdom, and the perseverance you have shown in days of deepest trial will result in ‘praise, glory and honour when Christ is revealed’ (1 Peter 1:7) He saves the best ’til last.

Kingdom wine is sweeter than anything this world has to offer. But we won’t be able to taste it fully until the race is run, the tears have been shed, and we stand with Him in glory. Hang in there! In your darkest day of ministry, remember ‘it is meant to be this way’. You have to carry a cross before you wear a crown. But the final wine will taste all the sweeter, because you drank something of Jesus’ own bitter cup along the way.

Ministry looks like this: ‘I have fought the good fight, I have run the race, I have kept the faith. There is now in store for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that Day.’ (2 Tim. 4:7-8) In other words, He leaves the best ’til last!

Jeremy McQuoid is the teaching pastor at Deeside Christian Fellowship in Aberdeen, an FIEC affiliated church. He is also Chairman of trustees at Keswick Ministries.