In a famous 1970s television commercial, legendary movie actor and director Orson Welles held up a glass of wine. While Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony played in the background, Welles declared in his deep bass voice, speaking on behalf of a winemaker: “We will sell no wine before its time.”
Wine making takes time, from planting, growing and pruning the vines to picking the grapes and crushing them, followed by the complicated processes of fermentation, filtration and bottling, not to mention marketing, which is where Orson Welles came in. Vinification, the process of wine making, is an extended ordeal.
Like wine making, the Gospel of John’s account of Jesus at the wedding in Cana is all about timing. When Jesus’ mother told him that the wine had run out, he said in his reply, “My hour has not yet come.”
