Ben had been preparing long and hard for this moment.
Before him lay the first course of what he expected to be many. This first course was itself a plentiful affair consisting of a plate strewn with tasty delights, all sorts of cheese and meats and salads, accompanied by bread and washed down with various juices or fizzy drinks (considered a luxury in these parts!).
Ben knew what Romanian weddings were like, so he had spent a few days beforehand intentionally eating less than he was accustomed to, not to mention refraining from eating breakfast that morning. So, now he was ready. In fact, he was probably too ready and found himself tucking more heartily into this first course than he would really have wanted.
Once people were finishing off these first delights, the waiters began collecting up the plates and after a short break, it was time for the second course. This time it was fried fish and what was locally known as Mamaliga, otherwise called Polenta in English, which to the uninitiated is boiled up cornmeal, making a soft, but firm, bread like food. Pretty good, depending on what you eat it with, fried fish being a good option.
Ben got stuck into this course as it was one of his favourites and did a good job of polishing it off. By this stage, he was starting to feel a bit full, but he wasn’t too worried. After all, he had trained well and one more course and a bit of cake was well within his stomach’s reaches.
Sure enough, after some tomfoolery on behalf of the wedding’s organisers, consisting of different games such as the blindfolded bride guessing her husband’s tie by feeling a selection of ties adorned around the necks of various wedding guests and the classic ask the bride and groom about the tasks of their marriage, and get each one to raise a knife or fork to indicate who they are expecting to fulfil said tasks (wipe the children clean or take out the rubbish, being examples of tasks that often produce telling differences of opinion), the third course appeared. Ben had been expecting a sturdy piece of meat, but it was actually sarmale, stuffed cabbage rolls that many a Balkan country likes to include among their national foods. Despite his surprise Ben got started on them as a way of celebrating the fact that the wedding games had passed and not just passed but passed without incident.
Once he had finished off his plate of sarmale, Ben was feeling decidedly full. He wasn’t the sort of person to leave anything to waste, so he made sure he ate up every morsel. It was certainly now the time for some exercise, so he was glad that some of the other wedding guests suggested going out for a walk. They wandered aimlessly around the surround area for a while before heading back to the wedding feast. Ben was starting to feel just about ready for some cake. Alas, he had underestimated the wedding organisers.
As Ben entered the wedding hall again, he started to feel uneasy. There was something going on and it didn’t seem like people getting ready to cut cake. He approached his place and as he did so, a sinking feeling came over him. There was a plate awaiting him on the table and it looked like it was full of something, but it didn’t look like cake. Getting closer, the contents of the dish before came into focus. It was a large slice of meat accompanied by some rather tasty looking potatoes. How could Ben have made such a mistake? The sarmale that he had gobbled down, thinking that was the last of the savoury dishes, was just a precursor to the icing on the cake, except that this was a very fleshy cake! Ben had miscalculated things wildly. Instead, of sitting down to enjoy the best part of the meal, he was now confronted with the challenge of imbibing a fourth course that was beyond what he had prepared for. Ben couldn’t let it go to waste though.
Summoning all his strength, he got started. He began filling all the nooks and crannies of his stomach with this unexpected fourth course. He did a surprisingly good job and thanks to gritty determination he managed to get it all down. Hurrah, it was over! Or so he thought.
After a musical interlude and then some more meaningful games (his table had written the Bride and groom a romantic poem using the words fence, torch, bee, rubber duck and chewing gum) the pièce de résistance arrived, although sadly for Ben it was actually only the pre-pièce de résistance; desert.
Plates were brought full of all sorts of cake. None of them looked like wedding cake though, which was what alerted Ben to be cautious. Indeed, in spite of his rather bulging belly, he was tempted to dabble with gluttony, but refrained. He nibbled at a few of the sweet delights on offer but didn’t consume too much. Once bitten, twice shy.
It proved wise as, after a closing address by the groom (thanks for coming and making the day so special – Ben had done his bit with some insightfully poetic lines comparing love to chewing gum’s ability to mend rubber ducks that have been pierced by aggressive bees), the actual, definitively final, cherry on the cake that had been the day’s tour de force through the cuisine of Moldova was revealed, the wedding cake!
It was an extravagant affair as one might expected after such a lavish and full meal. Four tiers and we are talking Camp Nou proportions here. The bride and groom cut the first slice, after which the waiters and waitresses had their work cut out, slicing up the rest and delivering it to the arguably not-so-eagerly awaiting wedding guests.
For Ben it was definitely a mixed blessing. He loved cake, but not after four rounds of the finest Moldovan cuisine that had already been complemented by a fine selection of sweet things. He sighed, nibbled a little and then surreptitiously wrapped the rest in a couple of serviettes and slipped it into his pocket, although slipped would be a bit understated as there was so much he had to give it a good stuff to get it all in.
The Bible also famously talks about a wedding. This is to be found in John chapter 2. Here we find Jesus in a town called Cana in Galilee, Jesus’ native area of Israel. He and His disciples, as well as His mother have been invited and are no doubting enjoying the occasion when a problem occurs; the wine runs out. This might not seem the end of the world to us, but, just as a lack of food at a Moldovan or Romanian wedding would be a disaster, it was a big problem in ancient Israel. Something that was important to them in their culture to be present at the wedding was now missing. This could potentially have had repercussions.
Aside from spoiling the party, for many years to come this would be remembered as the wedding where the wine ran out. This in turn could easily have caused tension in this new family. In any case, we can imagine how the bride and her family would now feel about her new husband and their new son-in-law as he hadn’t been able to take care of this important detail of the couple’s big day.
However, there is a light and hope in this situation. Whatever mistakes had been made; one wise thing that had been done was that the couple had included Jesus in their wedding plans. His presence there ultimately leads to a solution.
His initial response to the problem is unclear, but Mary, His mother, obviously has faith in Him to sort things out because she tells the servants (John 2:5):
‘Do whatever he tells you.’
And indeed they do, even though what He asks of them is not very practical or logical. They are asked to go and fill six stone jars with water (a bit of a task seeing as each held up to 120 litres and presumably they didn’t have water on tap) and then take it to the master of the banquet (even though they knew it was water). Their obedience shows a certain faith on their behalf in Jesus as well.
The upshoot of this obedient faith is that the water turns into wine and when the master of the banquet tastes it, he’s impressed. As a result, he calls the bridegroom to himself. The bridegroom was probably expecting a telling off. However, not only does he not receive the criticism that he deserves, not to mention the ruined wedding and its consequences, but he actually receives something good in exchange. Alongside the fact that they now have the wine they need to bring the wedding to a successful conclusion; the master of the banquet praises him (John 2:10):
‘Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.’
This is a beautiful picture of God’s grace. The fact that although each of us has done things wrong, that deserve shame and bad consequences, in His grace, when He intervenes in our lives, Jesus actually changes things around. This means that we no longer need to live ashamed of what we have done because Jesus has taken the shame upon Himself and we also don’t need to fear the consequences as Jesus has also suffered those on the cross. Instead we can look forward to a new, abundant life like a wedding celebration filled with the best wine (or the tastiest sarmale!)
As Ben was heading home from the wedding, he reflected on everything that had been there. It was fine, but with one less course of food it would have been excellent. He brought this issue up with one of the fellow wedding guests that was travelling in the bus home with him.
‘That was a nice wedding. There’s one thing I don’t understand though.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Well, why did we have the plate of sarmale? It seems like things would have been fine without it. The starter, fish and meat finished off with desert and wedding cake were all great and more than sufficient.’
‘Yes, well actually, that was the original menu, but you see, there were guests at this wedding who had come all the way from America and so they wouldn’t say afterwards, ‘we came all the way from America and you didn’t give us sarmale’, the couple decided at the last moment to include the extra course with sarmale.’
Ben reclined on his seat and turned his head to stare out the window. Somethings just weren’t for English people to understand.