Epiphany 2
Jn
2:1-11
1/14/18
When my parents came for Christmas
they brought wine. They brought several
bottles of a nice Merlot to enjoy during the long weekend they were going to be
here. They brought a bottle of a really nice Merlot to enjoy on Christmas
Day. They also brought some Gewürztraminer
from a winery in
Bloomington, IN that they know is Amy’s favorite, and that her brother likes to
drink.
It was, of course, wonderful to have
the family together during Christmas.
The food was great, and the wine flowed.
I can only agree with the psalmist who praised God when he wrote, “You cause the grass to grow for the
livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from
the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man.”
We enjoyed
our time together as the nice Merlot and Gewürztraminer
disappeared. We celebrated Christmas Day as the bottle of really nice Merlot was emptied. Before it was time for my parents to go, all
the good wine was gone. And so we had to
move on to the wine that I had in the house – a Shiraz that was certainly
nothing special when compared with the wine that had preceded it.
As the
master of the feast in the Gospel lesson today notes, that is the way people
usually do things. When we get together
for special occasions – occasions of joy and celebration – we bring out the
good wine and drink it first. Only if or
when that is gone, do we move on to drinking the lesser stuff. But because
Jesus is present at the wedding and reveals his glory for the first time in a
miracle, things don’t go as they normally do.
Our text
begins by telling us, “On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee,
and the mother of Jesus was there.
Jesus
also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.” Jesus and his disciples attended a wedding
with Mary, and while they were there a social disaster occurred: the wedding
celebration ran out of wine. Now many of
us like wine. But in the first century
Mediterranean world, wine played a far greater role than anything we have
experienced. The prospect of running out
wine at a wedding celebration threatened social humiliation.
Mary became
aware of the problem, and she brought it to Jesus. We learn that when the wine ran out said to
him, “They have no wine.” At first glance, Jesus’ response seems puzzling. He said to her, “Woman, what does this have
to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” He seemed to have rebuffed her. But
Mary was not turned away. Instead his
mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Jesus’
statement about “his hour” in the Gospel of John signals to us that what is going
to happen here is about more than wine.
On several occasions opponents want to seize and harm Jesus but they
aren’t able to do because, we are told, “his hour had not yet come.” After our Lord had entered Jerusalem on Palm
Sunday he said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it
remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” And then he added, “Now is
my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But
for this purpose I have come to this hour.”
The miracle
that we see in the Gospel lesson can only be understood when it is seen in relation to Jesus’ death. This
becomes all the more clear at the end our text.
Jesus had the servants fill six large stone jars with water. He told them to draw some out and take it to
the man in charge of the feast. We
learn, “When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did
not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew),
the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves
the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But
you have kept the good wine until now.’”
Then John
tells us, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and
manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” John calls this miracle the first of Jesus’
signs. In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ signs call
people to faith as they reveal Jesus’ glory.
The glory John speaks of in our text is Jesus’ divine status as the Son
of God. In the first chapter – the
Gospel lesson for Christmas Day – John told us that the Word who was in the
beginning and made the world, “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.”
In the incarnation the glory of
Yahweh dwelt bodily in Jesus Christ in order to save us. That glory was present
in the midst of God’s people. Jesus’ miracles begin to reveal this glory. But
they also direct us toward a surprising realization. We learn that Jesus’ glory is revealed on the
cross, and that all of his signs point to the 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.” Then
John adds, “He said this to show – literally ‘to sign’- by what kind of death
he was going to die.” Paradoxically,
Jesus’ glory is revealed in the humiliation of the cross. Jesus’ miracles – his signs – point to the
revelation of his saving glory in the suffering of the cross and resurrection
from the dead.
Jesus’ miracles – his signs – reveal
his glory. John says at the end of our
text that this first sign revealed his glory, “And his disciples believed in
him.” The signs called forth faith.
Later in this chapter John says, “many believed in his name, observing
his signs he was doing.”
And isn’t that what we want Jesus to
do today? We want him to do something
that will shut up the disparaging critics of our culture. But that is not the way it works. The signs point to the cross. They call forth
faith in the One who revealed his glory by dying.
And so even the miraculous signs could be rejected. Jesus said to the crowed that followed him
after the feeding of the five thousand, “Truly,
truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because
you ate your fill of the loaves.” John
tells us about the culmination of Jesus’ ministry during Holy Week, “Though
he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.” And this was after Jesus had raised Lazareth from the dead!
Jesus has given us signs that are no
less powerful … and no less rejectable.
At the end of the Gospel, John 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.” Through the inspired Gospel we see Jesus’
signs – signs that call forth and sustain faith in the Lord. They call forth saving
faith in the One who rose from the dead – the One who will raise us from the
dead. Jesus declared, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who
looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise
him up on the last day.”
Yet just as in Jesus’ day, they are
also signs that can be rejected. People
refuse to engage the witness of Jesus’ resurrection because they think the
virtue of this age is that “people are free to question” – which means they are
free to choose what they want to be true. The Gospel of the risen Lord is rejected
because people say they “don’t need religion.” We see it all the time. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is shared and
rejected.
This is discouraging. It is not what we want to happen. But we must return to the fact that Jesus’
signs remain the same. They could be
rejected in unbelief then, and they can still be rejected in that way now. But more importantly for us, they revealed Jesus’
glory and called forth faith then, and they
still do so now.
This morning in the inspired words
of the Gospel lesson we see the sign of Jesus turning water into wine. It is a sign that reveals Jesus’ glory. It sustains us in faith – faith that the Holy
Spirit have given to us. As the sign
points to Jesus’ death and resurrection it draws us back to our Lord’s love for
us. And it also sends out to reveal our
Lord through love for those who share the same faith. Jesus said at the Last Supper, “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.”
In the
Gospel lesson today, Jesus turns water into wine as a sign that reveals his
glory and calls forth faith. Our Lord’s
signs continue this morning. They
continue in the reading and preaching of the Gospel lesson. And they also continue to involve wine. Yet now, Jesus takes bread and wine and works
the miracle of giving us his true body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. Jesus’ words of promise about the Sacrament
continue to call forth faith – faith in Jesus as the crucified and risen Lord;
faith in the presence of his body and blood in, with and under bread and wine
for us. The Sacrament reveals Jesus’ saving glory. This is a glory that gives
us eternal life now. It is a glory that
we will know on the Last Day. For Jesus said: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks
my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
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