John 2:3-9 “When the wine was gone, Jesus mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’ ‘Dear woman,’ why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied. My time has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ Nearby stood six stone jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water,’ so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.’ They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine.”

We treat weddings like they are a big deal. We plan them for months, or even years. We spend tens of thousands of dollars to put one on. The cost of the average wedding today, minus the honeymoon, is over $25,000.

With all that investment, we want it to go just right. As a pastor, I have often reminded the bride and the groom before the wedding that something is likely to go wrong on their big day. It’s okay. Their guests will still enjoy themselves, and they will still be married when it is all over.

My sister’s wedding reception was interrupted by tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. They took out the power. We finished the evening by candlelight, and there could be no DJ or dance. But she is still happily married twenty years later.

So far as I know, no glitch in a ceremony or reception has ever been responsible for mass starvation, or turned some disease into a global epidemic, or caused the outbreak of a deadly war. This, too, shall pass.

Running out of wine at the wedding Jesus attended in Cana was not the end of the world. The bride and groom might have felt some embarrassment, but if they finished the feast serving water, no one would have been hurt. They would still be married at the end of the day.

The relatively minor nature of their problem did not stop Jesus, however, from addressing their need. He came into our world and shared our lives to take care of much bigger problems than this. Sin has taken the life of every human who ever lived. Those who die in their sins, apart from God’s grace and forgiveness, will be banished to hell forever. Billions of souls need salvation. Jesus came to address this need by trading his life for ours at the cross, paying our entire debt, rising from the dead, and giving salvation as a free gift of God’s grace. That was a big deal.

But that’s not where his interest in us ends. He cares about even the little things. Without making a scene, he quietly created about a hundred and twenty gallons of wine so that this young man and young woman’s big day could continue with no embarrassment. The gift was so big that it may have stocked their wine cellar for some time to come. This little gesture of love didn’t save the world. It just saved their day. It shows us a Savior who is interested in addressing all kinds of needs.

That is not to suggest he gives us anything we ask for, like some of the TV preachers claim. It does assure us that Jesus cares about even the small details of our lives, and he addresses our needs in the way he knows will serve us best.