+ 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany – January 16th, 2022 +
Series C: Isaiah 62:1-5; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11
Beautiful Savior Lutheran
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Weddings are an occasion for drama…some good. Some bad. Remember that TV show, Bridezillas?!
Well, here in John two, Jesus, the Bridegroom himself, attends a wedding in Cana. And the divine drama of salvation unfolds. It’s the best kind of drama, for it ends not in tears and heartbreak, but eternal joy and holy love.
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.
On the third day of creation, God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” Jesus tells the Jews, “Destroy this temple, and on the third day, I will raise it up again.” In Scripture, God does big things for his people on the third day.
It’s also a destination wedding. Not in Jerusalem, backdropped by the temple. Not in the king’s luxurious ball room. In Cana of Galilee. Lowly, backwoods Galilee. Despised and looked down upon. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light,” the prophet Isaiah said. In the circle of the Gentiles, Galilee of the nations. That’s where Jesus first reveals His glory.
The stage is set for the divine drama. The timing, the place, even the event itself, a wedding – no accident. Long before He attended the wedding at Cana and performed his first miracle, Christ, the second person of the Trinity, was present at the very first wedding way back on the 6th day of creation. Jesus’ presence at the wedding of Cana affirms what happened in Genesis. There, God created and gave marriage as a gift for man and woman to live in together, even before the fall into sin.
Here in John 2, Jesus attends a normal 1st century Jewish wedding, an event many today would consider to be out of touch. A man and woman united in holy marriage before God. The same is true for those of you called to live in God’s gift of marriage. Every day you engage in a sacred act of rebellion against a sinful world that seeks to redefines marriage according to man’s fallen image, instead of God’s holy gift. Our Lord calls us to swim like salmon against the current of this fallen world. In our family life, there’s nothing more counter-cultural, yet nothing more important than this: to strive to raise a Lutheran family. To teach our sons and daughters to grow up and marry good Lutheran and have Lutheran babies and attend a good Lutheran church.
Jesus’ presence at Cana also reveals God’s gracious love towards us. Throughout Scripture, God defines his relationship to us as one of husband and wife. In the OT, YHWH is the groom; Israel is his chosen bride. “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” It’s the same in the NT. Jesus is the bridegroom, and you are his holy, beloved bride.
This is the Biblical backdrop of the wedding at Cana. After all, God loves a good wedding. It’s a joyous occasion. Full of life and celebration. Music, dancing, feasting.
But wait, what’s that? There’s trouble fermenting. The kind of trouble that could lead to big, bad drama. There’s no wine. And it’s not like there was a Safeway or Total Wine down the street. First century Jewish weddings could last for days, sometimes even a week. A Jewish wedding without wine would be like a child’s first birthday without a cake to smash in his face. Unthinkable. Unimaginable. And it was the groom’s responsibility to provide the wine. Only, there’s no wine.
Mary steps in. “They have no wine,” she says to Jesus. And how does Jesus reply? “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”
Sounds odd to our ears, but Jesus isn’t being disrespectful. Quite the opposite. He says the same thing when he’s on the cross giving her into John’s care. “Woman, behold your son.” It’s a title of respect, dignity, not the pejorative some use today.
Jesus gently reminds Mary, “My hour is not yet come.” His hour of His glory is the hour of His death. That’s why Jesus came. Not to fix every little problem, like a wedding party that ran dry, but to die as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And in dying, He takes care of everything else as well. Even this sign – changing washing water into wedding wine – costs Jesus His life. Jesus’ miracles are always signs of who He is and what He has come to do. They always point to the cross.
Mary is confident Jesus will do something. Mary tells the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” These are Mary’s last words recorded in the Scriptures. “Do whatever He tells you.” We do well to heed those words. When it comes to our Lord’s gift of marriage, and the rest of his words too.
Mary is also asking something more of Jesus. Mary’s asking Jesus to assume the role of the bridegroom. To provide the wine. And he does. In abundance. After all, he is the bridegroom come to save his bride the Church. This is just a foretaste of the feast. So Jesus says to the servants, who must have had the most the quizzical, head scratching look on their faces, “Take those six stone jars and fill ‘em to the brim, boys.”
Any way you measure it, that’s a lot of wine. 180 gallons or so. Picture two bath tubs full. And not the cheap stuff either. No two-Buck-Chuck in the Messiah’s wine cellar. The best. “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”
What a beautiful sentence. You have kept the good wine until now! This is how God works. Unexpectedly. Undeservedly. Here in John 2, Jesus takes ordinary water and turns it into the finest wine. He’ll do something even greater when he reveals his glory at his appointed hour on the cross. An ordinary looking death that is your glory, life, and redemption.
Our Lord, our bridegroom does the same for you. He pours out ordinary water and washes away your sin. He uses ordinary words and forgives you. He takes bread and wine and gives you his body and blood. He turns us, ordinary, poor miserable, sinners and makes us his holy, beloved bride.
Now that’s some good – no gracious! – drama. Or, as John says, This, the first of his signs, Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; And His disciples believed in Him. That’s the key phrase. Mary, his disciples, the servants; they trusted Jesus’ word. The miracle was a sign pointing to Jesus. Same for you. All the signs point us to Jesus’ word. It’s Jesus’ word that creates faith in Him and good works for your neighbors. Faith and trust in the Bridegroom, Jesus whose glory is manifested where we least expect it to be…in water and wine at the wedding at Cana…and on the cross in Jerusalem where he is crucified for you…and here at his table.
Come. The table is set. All is ready. The marriage supper of the Lamb awaits. Jesus, our bridegroom and host serves the finest of wine and food in his body and blood. Given and shed for you.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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