No free drinks

In the opening verses of chapter 2 of John's gospel, Jesus turns water into wine for a wedding feast in Cana––the first of his many miracles, and the most Irish of the lot. Mulligan's Joking Jesus unhospitably demands faith as the price of admission to such alcoholic miracles: those who think "that I amn't divine" will "get no free drinks." He goes on to indulge some seemingly gratuitous, but actually quite involved, thoughts about urination.

John Hunt 2025

Painting of the marriage at Cana by Giotto, 14th century, in the Cappella Scrovegni in Padua. Source: Wikimedia Commons.