Breaking Rules: What Would Jesus Do?

Sometimes a miracle needs to be analyzed in more detail. We'll be looking at the wedding of Cana just a little bit more closely, but before we do we need to look at cheeseburgers.

A cheeseburger is probably not a kosher food, as it combines meat and dairy. Unlike a lot of other Jewish traditions, this is one that has more to symbolism rather than practicality. In order to enjoy meat, you need to kill something. There is simply no way around it; in order to enjoy kebabs and sausage, something has to die. This would mean that meat can, in a very real way, represent death. Milk, on the other hand, represents life; given that babies and children tend to prosper when they are fed milk, and that it comes out of mothers, this symbolism was perhaps inevitable.

The separation of meat and dairy is a necessary symbolism, as death and life need to be kept separate. It just works out better that way.

What does this have to do with Cana? Wine and water are also kept separate for basically the same reason: Water was seen as being important to clean things. The Jews, especially in Jesus' era, were constantly washing themselves. Even in the four gospels, there are a number of times were washing someone carries extreme importance, such as Mary Magdalene washing the feet of Jesus, Jesus reprimanding someone for not washing His feet, and Jesus washing the feet of his apostles. So washing was extremely important, and thus keeping water clean was just as important. More to the point, the jars for keeping water were only to be used for water.

So, Jesus has the servants take six of the huge jars for water and has the servants fill them. Not the jars usually used for wine, but he ones used for water. He then turns them into wine, effectively defiling the jars. This wine is then served to the guests, who are surprised by how good it is.

Now, we know this was no mistake. Jesus had argued Mosaic law with rabbis back when He was ten, so we know that Jesus knew the rules. Why did he do this? Because He also had a point to make, and He may as well do then as any other time. It was the same as when Jesus cured the blind man on the Sabbath: The Jews were too dependent on rules just to follow the rules, and we were not worried about why the rules had been established in the first place. Now, He obviously didn't want to say that all the rules needed to be cast down, as He also supported the tax laws in place at the time, and even ate regularly with tax collectors. He just wanted to make the point that if you have no idea why you are following a rule, it may be time to do away with that rule.

Just look at the value of that: This means that if a rule no longer serves its purpose and no one even remembers why it was made in the first place, then we can cast it aside. This is not something to be done without reason, but something that is worth noting. And it is something that we need to note in our personal lives, as we are all bound by rules that we established but now have grown past. Soooo...enjoy that cheeseburger and start looking at what rules you need to cast aside.