Epiphany
2
Jn
2:1-11
1/19/25
John
begins his Gospel by saying: “In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that
was made.”
The
apostle refers to the Son of God as the “Word.” He tells us that the Son is
God, and that he was active in the work of creation. Then John expresses what we have just
celebrated at Christmas. He says, “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 the Word – the Son of God – became flesh. The Son of God became flesh – became man –
without ceasing to be God. This happened as Jesus Christ was conceived by the
Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary.
True God and true man he lived in our world.
The
incarnate Son of God was in the world.
John tells us, “we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from
the Father.” In the Old Testament, the
glory of God was the perceptible presence of God. It was the located presence
of God with his people.
John tells us that the apostles have
seen the glory of Jesus Christ – glory as of the only Son from the Father. This
is important because it is through Jesus Christ that God is revealed to
us. John says, “No one has ever seen
God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.”
In our Gospel lesson today, we hear
the first miracle of Jesus narrated by John. We learn that in this miracle
Jesus reveals his glory. He reveals that he is the Son of God as he works the
miracle. But more importantly, the
miracle points to the ultimate way in which Jesus will reveal his saving
glory. It will be revealed by his death
on the cross.
We learn in our text that there was
a wedding at Cana in Galilee. Mary was
there, and Jesus was also invited along with his disciples. At some point during the wedding feast, a
crisis arose. They discovered that the
wine had run out. The psalmist described
God as the giver of wine that makes man’s heart glad. The wedding feast was a time of joy, and it
was assumed that the celebration would be accompanied by wine. To run out of wine would be a great
embarrassment for the family.
So Mary went to Jesus and said to
him, “They have no wine.” In the face of this emergency, she turned to her son
whom she knew to be more than just her son.
However, Jesus’ response to her seems unexpected. He said, “Woman, what
does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”
Jesus’ reference to his “hour”
signals to us that there is more going on here than a simple problem with
wine. In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ hour is
the time of his death. It is the time
when his saving work reaches its culmination. Several times Jesus’ opponents
are unable to seize him because we are told “his hour had not yet come.”
Although on the surface Jesus seemed
to have rebuffed Mary, she did not consider the matter to be concluded. She
continued to have faith that Jesus both could address the situation, and that
he would in fact do so. So she told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Mary’s trust in Jesus was not
misplaced. We learn that there were six
stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification. These were the various washings that were
done in accordance with the Law of Moses, and the interpretation of that law
which was present in Judaism. They were large jars, each holding twenty or
thirty gallons.
Jesus told the servants to fill the
jars with water. They filled them to the
top. Then Jesus gave a very strange
instruction to the servants. He said, “Now draw some out and take it to the
master of the feast.” They must have
been puzzled about why they were being told to take water for him to taste.
They took it to the master of the
feast, and when he tasted it the water had become wine. The servants knew what had happened. However,
the master of the feast did not. He
called the bridegroom to commend him on excellent quality of the wine that was
now going to be served. He said, “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.”
At the end of our text, John says, “This,
the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his
glory. And his disciples believed in him.” The apostle tells us three
important facts. First, he calls Jesus’
miracle a sign. Second, he says that by
this sign Jesus manifested his glory.
Finally, he tells us that the revelation of Jesus’ glory caused the
disciples to believe in him.
Jesus’ miracle was a sign that
revealed his glory. Certainly, it was a
miracle that revealed his glory as the incarnate Son of God. But our Lord’s earlier reference to his “hour”
leads us to recognize that this revealing points forward to the final and
complete way in which Jesus will reveal his glory.
After entering Jerusalem 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.” Jesus said that his glorification would occur
through his death. On Maundy Thursday,
as Jesus headed to the Garden of Gethsemane and the passion that awaited him he
said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.”
Jesus’ miracles are called signs
that reveal his glory. We learn that all of the signs point to the cross. 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.”
Jesus’ death on the cross reveals
his glory because it is there that our Lord accomplishes his saving work for
us. When John the Baptist saw Jesus he declared: “Behold, the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world!”
The Son of God became flesh to be nailed to the cross. Jesus said, “And the bread that I will
give for the life of the world is my flesh.” By his death Jesus has freed us from
sin. John said in his first epistle, “He
is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the
sins of the whole world.”
Jesus reveals his saving glory by
his crucifixion. In itself, the cross
does not look glorious. In fact, it
appears to be quite the opposite.
Bloodied from the scourging he had received, Jesus hangs there
helpless. He dies the death of a
criminal – nailed to a cross for all to see.
He dies in weakness and humiliation.
But the death of Jesus on the cross
was not the end of his saving work.
Jesus said, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I
lay down my life that I may take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it
down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have
authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
On
Easter, Jesus took up his life again. He
rose from the dead. Peter and John found
that the tomb was empty. And then on
that evening the risen Lord appeared in the midst of a locked room and said to
the disciples, “Peace be with you.”
Jesus declared that they had peace because through him their sins were
forgiven. He declared that they had
peace because death has been defeated.
John
says in our text about the miracle at Cana: “This, the first of his signs,
Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his
disciples believed in him.” The apostle
tells us that the sign manifested Christ’s glory and called forth faith in the
disciples.
Like
the disciples, we continue to encounter the signs that manifest Christ’s glory
and call forth faith. We do through the
Gospel of John. The apostle writes near
the end of the Gospel, “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
receive this witness to the signs through the work of the Spirit. Our Lord said that the Father would send the
Helper, the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “These
things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the
Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you
all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
Jesus promised, “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.”
The
Holy Spirit has given us the signs found in the Gospel. They reveal Jesus’
glory to us and call us to faith. All of
the signs point to the great act by which Jesus revealed his glory - his death
on the cross for you and for me. Through
them the Spirit sustains us in faith as we believe and trust in Jesus who died
on the cross for us. Yet faith in Jesus
is also faith in the risen Lord who has conquered death. It is the risen Lord who says to us, “I am
the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he
die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in
me shall never die.”
The
Spirit has called us to faith in the Lord who revealed his glory by dying on
the cross for us. And this death for us
now becomes the pattern for our life. At
the Last Supper, as Jesus prepared to offer himself on the cross, 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.”
The
sacrificial love of Jesus becomes the model for our life. We have been born
again of water and the Spirit. The
Spirit leads us to put the needs of others ahead of our own. Our faith in Christ causes us to serve and
help others. We who have received
Christ’s love now share that love with others by what we do and say.
Today
we hear about how Jesus turned water into wine.
By this sign, Jesus revealed his glory and the disciples believed in
him. This sign pointed to the final and complete revelation of Christ’s glory
that occurred as he died on the cross to give us forgiveness and peace. In his resurrection Jesus has defeated death
as the One who will raise us up on the Last Day. The Spirit shares this sign
with us today through the Gospel as he sustains us with faith in Christ, the
crucified and risen Lord.
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