Word for Today

Celebrating Backward

From Isaiah 62:

and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,

so shall your God rejoice over you. 

From Psalm 36:

⁷How priceless is your ^| love, O God!

All people take refuge under the shadow ^| of your wings.

⁸They feast upon the abundance ^| of your house;

you give them drink from the river of ^| your delights.

From John 2:

⁹When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom  ¹⁰and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now."

In the touching and tragic movie "Life Is Beautiful" directed and starred-in by Roberto Begnini, A Jewish man woos a woman away from an arrogant suitor, eventually marrying her and having a son. The movie is set in the middle of the Nazi regime. Life becomes less and less beautiful as the movie progresses, and the man begins to rely on his comedic imagination to protect especially his son.

The family is interned in a concentration camp where his antics continue despite the risks. Games and jokes are plenty even when food and living conditions (including the chance of hope) are not. The movie ends after the man's death. American forces were approaching the concentration camp to liberate them, and the guards were chaotically shutting everything down. The man hid his son in a box (calling it a game) while he sought out the boy's mother, was caught and killed at the last moment before liberators came onto the scene.

This movie helps me to remember that we can "celebrate backward". In other words, we can taste the heavenly feast with every meal. We can practice the peaceable kingdom of God with every act of forgiveness and reconciliation. We can Claim the end of death with every burial. We can even be liberated from our own prisons by means of joy.

In the wedding at Cana, the best wine was served last instead of first. It was a backward celebration. It was enough of a difference that the chief steward noticed immediately. It was a sign, that the celebrating backward is happening in Jesus, the Word of God, "through whom all things were made" (John 1).

What are you doing to celebrate backward? The promise of God makes it possible for you!

Pastor James Aalgaard
St. Paul Lutheran Church
541.889.9349

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