“They have no wine.” John 2:3

In Africa, weddings re crucial, fateful, far-reaching, revelatory social events. They are not merely joyful private, personal celebrations, but momentous cosmic communal actions. A marriage binds together the visible and invisible worlds: the extended families or clans of the bride and groom, all their clan ancestors, the invisible living dead, and the yet-to-be-born awaiting entrance into the visible world.

Weddings are also predictive events. Nothing should go wrong during such a pivotal social affair. Everything needs to go right: plenty of happy people, plenty of food, plenty of dancing, plenty of noise. Lavishness, a sign of abundant babies to come, is critical. If something goes wrong, it is more than a regrettable blunder. It is a distressing sign of impending evils.

Ancient Galilee, it turns out, had much in common with contemporary Africa. Things and signs should go just right at a wedding. That’s why I empathize with Mary. The family is at a wedding feast at Cana when she notices that something has gone catastrophically wrong. Filled with dread, Mary tells her son, “They have no wine.”