Epiphany 2
Jn
2:1-11
1/19/20
Now I already knew that Shelly
Schiff is really wonderful person. She is a committed Lutheran. She is intelligent, kind and caring, and it
is enjoyable to be around her. Shelly is a great wife and mother for the Schiff
family.
But she took things to a whole new
level two summers ago and surely earned “Wife of the Year” honors as she
encouraged Josh to go to Israel for several weeks for an archaeological dig and
travel in the Holy Land. It wasn’t going
to cost the family anything, because it was a funded experience available
through the seminary. However, it did
mean that she was going to have to single handedly keep things running for
their family while Josh was gone.
Despite the extra stress it would
mean for her, she encouraged Josh to take advantage of this once in a lifetime
opportunity. And as it turned out we were
also the beneficiaries of Shelly’s action, because when the Schiff family was
back to visit, Josh did a great presentation sharing what he has seen and
learned during his time in Israel.
I mention this because the dig Josh
worked on was right in the vicinity of Cana in Galilee – the location of the
events in our text this morning. And the
focus of the archaeological work was a location where they made the waters jars
that are mentioned in our text. It’s
basically certain that the jars in our text were made in the location where
Josh was involved in the dig, and he showed us a picture of what these jars
looked like.
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.”
Cana is located west of the Sea of Galilee, about eight miles from Nazareth and
about sixteen miles from Capernaum. We learn that Mary was at the wedding, and
the Jesus and his disciples were also invited.
The
wedding banquet was, of course, a big part of the wedding celebration. Everyone wants their wedding to go well, with
no major problems or mistakes. But the
families involved in this wedding were not so fortunate. In fact a crisis
of sorts arose because they ran out of wine. This was an oversight that was
embarrassing and threatened to leave a bad impression about the whole event.
John
tells us that when the wine ran out, Mary said to Jesus, “They have no
wine.” Now it seems evident that this statement
by Mary was not just an observation. She said it to Jesus in hopes that he
would do something about the problem.
Our
Lord’s reply at first seems rather brusque.
He said, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour
has not yet come.” Jesus reference to
“his hour” alerts us to the fact that already at this early stage of his
ministry, Jesus’ focus was on purpose for which he had come into the
world. On two occasions opponents are
unable to seize Jesus because we are told, “his hour had not yet come.” Finally, during Holy Week Jesus 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.” In John’s Gospel, our Lord’s reference to
“his hour” alerts us to the fact that this event is to be seen in relation to
Jesus’ cross.
However, Mary
continued to trust that Jesus could, and
would, do something. She told the
servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
John says that there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish
rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. As we know from Josh Schiff’s trip, they had
been made right in the area.
Jesus told the
servants, “Fill the jars with water,” so they filled them to the top. Then he said, “Now draw some out and take it
to the master of the feast.” You have to
wonder what the servants thought about this instruction. But they did it, and
when the master of the feast tasted what they brought, the water had become
wine. In fact, it was wine that was a
better quality than the wine that had been served thus far at the wedding
banquet.
Jesus turned
the water into wine. And 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.” We have
already seen the significant term “hour.”
Now John piles up language in which we see that this miracle is about
more than just saving people from embarrassment at a wedding.
We note three
things. First, John calls the miracle a “sign.”
Second, he says that this miracle – this sign – revealed Jesus glory.
And third, he says that as a result of this sign, the disciple believed in him.
At Christmas we
celebrated the incarnation of the Son of
God. John began this Gospel by
saying, “In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Then he said about the Word
– the Son of God: “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.”
Glory
in the Old Testament was the perceptible presence of Yahweh. John tells us that he and the other apostles
saw this glory in Jesus. And in our
text, we learn that the miracle of turning water into wine was the first sign
that revealed this glory.
John describes the miracle of
turning water into wine as a sign that reveals Jesus’ glory. Jesus reference to
his “hour” has already pointed us toward the cross. And John makes it clear that all of the signs
by Jesus – all of the miracles – pointed forward to the cross for it is was there
that Jesus’ glory was fully revealed. During Holy Week Jesus said, “And I, when I am
lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” And then
John adds, “He said this to show” – literally, to sign by –“what kind of
death he was going to die.”
Jesus’
glory was revealed as he died on the cross.
It is paradoxical. Our Lord’s
most powerful action to save us occurred in the weakness and shame of death on
a cross. He cried out, “It is finished”
as he died. We learn that to confirm he was dead “the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and
at once there came out blood and water.”
Jesus shed his blood on the cross for you, and John tells us in his
first epistle that “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
We do indeed
have sin. We know the ways we put things
first, and God second. We know the ways
we love ourselves more than our neighbor.
We know the ways we hurt and harm others. Because we are sinners, we need the
forgiveness that Jesus has won. And we receive it through faith in the Lord who
died on the cross. Jesus said, “And as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
In
the Gospel lesson, the sign of Jesus turning water into win leads the disciples
to believe in Jesus. At the end of the Gospel John tells us, “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.”
In the Gospel
we see the signs that reveal Jesus’ glory.
We see the signs that point to the great sign of his death on the cross
for the forgiveness of our sins. These
signs call forth faith in Jesus Christ.
They prompt faith which gives life, because the glory revealed in Christ
is about more than just the cross.
In John’s
Gospel, Jesus’ hour and glorification is one upward sweeping movement that
includes Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension. As he introduces the Last
Supper John tells us, “Now before the Feast of the
Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having
loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” After narrating the events of the entrance in
to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, John notes, “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.” It was only after the resurrection that they
understood.
The witness
of the Gospel of John – the signs recorded there – reveal the glory of Jesus.
They reveal the glory of the One who gave himself on the cross as the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world.
They reveal the glory of the One who rose from the dead on the third
day. The reveal the glory of the One who has ascended into heaven.
This glory
is revealed in God’s Word and received in faith. Yet in doing so they call us to us to faith
in Jesus Christ who will reveal his glory for all to see. 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.” For now,
the signs call us to faith in Jesus that gives forgiveness and life. But that faith will bring us to the day when
Jesus’ glory will be seen by all as we rejoice in the resurrection he gives to
us.
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