Epiphany 2
Jn
2:1-11
1/15/17
On a normal day, at some point after
4:00 p.m., I have a glass of wine. By then
I am home from work and any homework that needed assistance or checking has
been completed. It’s not yet time to
start thinking about dinner and any assistance that I need to provide in
helping to get things ready. Instead,
for twenty or thirty minutes I can sit down and relax. I enjoy sipping a glass of wine while
catching up on the news, looking at social media or browsing through a train
book.
I used to drink white wines, but
along the way – I think it was about ten years ago when we arrived in Marion –
I shifted to red wines. I enjoy a
Merlot, or a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Shiraz.
One thing that has not changed is that I drink relatively inexpensive
wine. We usually buy the large 1.5 liter
bottle, and I am not going to pay over $12 for it.
Now I am certainly no wine
connoisseur. I am perfectly content
drinking the wine that we buy. But once
in awhile I get a chance to drink something better. My parents have similar, reasonable
purchasing habits when it comes to wine.
However, when there are special family occasions, like when everyone is
home for Thanksgiving, they like to splurge and buy something better than
normal.
It doesn’t happen very often, but on
those occasions when I get to drink more expensive wine, I am reminded that
there really is a difference. Better
wine tastes … better. In this case, it
is more expensive for a reason. And I have
found that it would be really easy to
get used to drinking it if finances allowed.
As it is, we will stay with the $10 to $12 1.5 liter bottle and focus
instead on sending our kids to college.
In the Gospel lesson for the Second
Sunday after the Epiphany the man in charge of a wedding feast tastes some wine
that has been brought to him. He
recognizes that this is good wine – better
than what had been served thus far in a wedding feast that was well under
way. This is a source of great surprise
to him because the best wine has not been served until everyone has already
drunk freely. Yet he doesn’t even know
the real surprise. The wine itself is part of sign that is
revealing the glory of the Son of God who has become flesh and is dwelling in
this world.
We
are in the season of Epiphany. The word
“Epiphany” is derived from a Greek word that means “to appear.” During Epiphany, we are celebrating the fact
that the saving glory of God appeared in our world through the incarnation of
the Son of God, Jesus Christ. As I
described in my newsletter article this month, originally four events were
often viewed together as appearances – “epiphanies” – of this saving
glory. The early Church grouped together
the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, the visit by the magi, the baptism of Jesus
and the miracle of turning water into wine at Cana. Continuing in this tradition,
three of those were mentioned in our processional hymn this morning – “Songs of
Thankfulness and Praise.”
We celebrated Christmas on Dec.
25. On Jan. 6 we celebrated Epiphany –
the visit by the magi to the Christ child.
And then last Sunday we celebrated the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan
River. Today, we take up the fourth of
these, the miracle at Cana.
We learn in the Gospel lesson that
there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee.
Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been
invited. While they were there, disaster
struck the celebration – the people putting on the wedding feast realized that
they had run out of wine.
This summer Brittany Drury will be
getting married. Imagine how all those
involved in the wedding would feel if they realized that they didn’t have
enough champagne for all of the guests at the wedding reception to take part in
the traditional toasts. They would
certainly be upset and somewhat embarrassed.
Yet the situation at Cana was a far more embarrassing and humiliating
event because of the importance of the wedding feast and the expectations about
celebrations in the ancient world – there had to be wine.
Jesus’ mother said to Jesus, “They
have no wine.” Mary knew who Jesus was
and that he would help. Yet Jesus replied,
“Woman, what does this have to do with me?
My hour has not yet come.” The tone of Jesus’ answer probably surprises
us. But the thing we really need to pay
attention to is the reference to his “hour.”
In John’s Gospel, the “hour” is when
Jesus is crucified. Jesus is carrying
out the saving mission given to him by the Father, and this mission is following
a specific timetable. On several
occasions we learn about how people want to seize Jesus in anger, yet each time
they are unable to do so because John tells us, “his hour had not yet
come.” It is not yet Jesus’ hour. But we soon learn that the event at the
wedding in Cana points forward to this hour.
Jesus did, in fact, take an interest
in the situation. He had servant fill
six large stone jars with water. Then he
told them to draw some and to take it to the master of the feast. When he tasted it, the water had been turned
into wine. And in fact, it was better
wine than had been served thus far at the wedding!
Then at the end of our text John
adds this crucial statement: “This,
the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory.
And his disciples believed in him.” John
calls the event a “sign” and says that it manifested Jesus’ glory.
John has
begun his Gospel by saying about Jesus, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father,
full of grace and truth. John tells us
that Jesus is God in the flesh. He is
true God, begotten of his Father from all eternity, and is also true man, born
of the virgin Mary. In this miracle and
others that follow Jesus begins to reveal his glory. He begins to reveal who he is. And he moves towards the goal of his mission
when he will be glorified. As Jesus said
during Holy Week, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”
In John’s
Gospel Jesus’ glorification occurs in his crucifixion. But it is not limited to this. Instead, it includes the cross, enters the
tomb, and then leads out of the tomb in the resurrection and on to the Father
in the ascension. So John can say about the event of the entrance to Jerusalem
on Palm Sunday, “His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they
remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to
him.”
John
describes the miracle at Cana as the first sign that Jesus did – a sign whereby
he manifested his glory. We begin to
learn here that Jesus’ saving glory is fully revealed at the hour of his
crucifixion. During Holy Week Jesus said, “Now is the judgment of this world;
now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from
the earth, will draw all people to myself." And then John tells us, “He
said this to show” – literally, “to sign” – “by what kind of death he was going
to die.”
Jesus did
this because we live in a world of darkness.
He did it because we were trapped in this darkness – a darkness of sin
and death. Our Lord said, “I
have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not
remain in darkness.” Jesus offered himself
on the cross as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And then he rose on the third day as the One
who is the resurrection and the life.
In his death and resurrection Jesus
has been glorified as the One who gives forgiveness and eternal life. John tells us that the miracle at Cana was
the first sign that revealed his saving glory.
You and I weren’t there to see it.
But John wants us to know that we are not therefore cut off from this
revelation. Instead at the end of his
Gospel he writes, “Now
Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not
written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his
name.”
We see the
signs that evoke and support faith in the words of John’s Gospel. In fact, it is the Spirit who reveals Jesus’
glory to us through these words. Jesus
said to the disciples, “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from
the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear
witness about me. And you also will bear
witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.”
Jesus
worked a miracle at a wedding feast that involved wine as he manifested his
saving glory. And now Jesus continues to
work a miracle in our midst that uses wine – a miracle that points to the
marriage feast of the Lamb in his kingdom which has no end. He uses bread and wine in the Sacrament of
the Altar to give us his true body and blood, given and shed for you. He
reveals his saving glory – he gives you the benefits of his cross here and now
so that you will also share in the glory of his resurrection on the Last
Day. As Jesus said, “For whoever eats my
flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the Last
Day.”
This is
what Jesus is doing through his Means of Grace. This is what Jesus wants to do. Yet for this to happen, it is something that
must be used. It is something that must
be received. Only in this way do we
receive the signs that reveal Jesus’ saving glory. Only in this way are we sustained in faith
that leads to eternal life.
And only in
this way can we be what Jesus intends for us to be because of him. At the Last Supper Jesus washed his
disciples’ feet and then he said, “You
call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed
your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you
also should do just as I have done to you.”
Jesus loved and served us so that we
can love and serve others because of him.
He said, “A
new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved
you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you
are my disciples, if you have love for one another." You don’t have to
look in order to find the people you are to love and serve. They are right next to you in these
pews. They are right next to you at the
dinner table at home. Their head is on the pillow right next to you in bed each
night.
Jesus works
a miracle this morning in our Gospel lesson. He turns water into wine – a sign
that manifests his glory. It is a sign
that points to his death and resurrection for you. And now in Word and
Sacrament the he continues to give you signs – signs that reveal his saving
glory here and now as he gives you forgiveness and eternal life.
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