Epiphany
2
Jn
2:1-11
1/14/24
This
past summer my niece was married. It
was, as you would expect, a big family event.
The wedding was lovely and the reception was a fun affair. Things went well.
However,
that does not mean there was an absence of stress. As part of the family I saw all the behind
the scenes preparations and activities. I saw the pressure that was there for
things to go well. A woman has
expectations and dreams about what she wants her wedding to be like. Parents want the day to be special for their
daughter.
There are so many different aspects
that go into a wedding. There is food for the wedding rehearsal dinner. There are the flowers for the wedding and
wedding reception. There is the dress
for the bride and bride maids. There are the tuxes for the groom and the rest
of the wedding party. There are the details of the wedding ceremony
itself. There is the food and the timing
of the wedding reception. There is the
music and the d.j. There are many moving
pieces, and those involved want them all to be just right.
In our Gospel lesson this morning we
hear about a wedding where things definitely did not go just right. Instead, there was a disaster as the wedding
party ran out of wine. However, Jesus
was there and this provided the occasion when our Lord performed his first
miracle that John tells us about. In
this miracle, Jesus revealed his glory.
Our text begins by telling us that on the third day there was a wedding
at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus was also invited to the wedding along
with his disciples. Weddings are great
social events, and this one was no exception.
People had been invited from surrounding towns.
However, at the
marriage feast things did not go well.
The wine ran out. Now we like
wine, but wine played a larger role in the first century world than it does in
ours. A diluted version was consumed as
a regular drink. And for celebrations,
wine was essential. It was associated
with the joy of the occasion. To run out
of wine at a wedding would be the greatest possible embarrassment for the
family.
When the wine
ran out, Mary said to Jesus, “They have no wine.” Mary knew about the unique
status of her son. She obviously
believed that he could do something about it.
However, Jesus replied, “Woman, what does this have to do with
me? My hour has not yet come.”
We are probably
surprised by Jesus’ reaction. It doesn’t
sound very helpful. However, in the word
“hour” we learn that what is happening here is about more than wine. In John’s Gospel we learn twice that those
opposed to Jesus were unable to seize him “because his hour had not yet
come.” Jesus’ hour is the time of his
death – the time when he accomplishes the mission that the Father had given to
him. During Holy Week Jesus said, “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.”
Jesus
would carry out his work in his own timing.
Mary trusted our Lord and so she said to the servants, “Do whatever he
tells you.” We learn that there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish
rites of purification. They each held twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the
jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.
Next Jesus said
to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” They
took it to him and he tasted the water that had now become wine. Not knowing where it came from, the master of
the feast called the bridegroom and 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.” Jesus had turned
the water into wine – and not just wine but very good wine. 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
Jesus’ miracle a sign. He tells us that it revealed Jesus’ glory. We hear about this miracle on the Second
Sunday after the Epiphany. The word
Epiphany means “to appear.”
At Christmas we celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ as the Son of God entered
into the world. During Epiphany we see that Christ’s glory began to be seen in
the world. He began to be revealed as
the One who had come to bring God’s salvation.
John said about
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.” In the incarnation of
Jesus Christ God’s glory was revealed.
John tells us that the miracle was a sign by which Christ began to do
this.
John
narrates seven signs that Jesus performed.
The signs reveal Jesus’ glory.
But the signs point us to the paradoxical way in which our Lord finally
did this. At the beginning of Holy Week
Jesus said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” As he made his way to the Garden of
Gethsemane he said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son, that the Son
may glorify you.”
Jesus’ hour is the hour of his
death. Jesus is glorified by his
death. He reveals his glory by dying on
the cross. Our Lord 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.
The sight of a
man dying on a cross did not look glorious.
But it is in this paradox that God revealed his saving glory. This was Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world. This was God
giving his Son into death in order to save us.
As John tells us in his first letter, “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all
sin.”
This revelation of God’s saving
glory is good news for us. It is because
we are sinners who need forgiveness. John
warns us in his first letter, “Do not love the
world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of
the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the desires of the
flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from
the Father but is from the world.” These things infect our lives. We are turned away toward the desires of the
flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and pride in possessions. We are enticed by the world into the way of
sin.
Jesus was
glorified on the cross. His saving glory was revealed as he died for us. But Jesus’ glorification did not end
there. John says about the events of
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.” Jesus’ glorification continued as he rose
from the dead.
This too was a sign by which Jesus
revealed his glory. When Jesus had
cleansed the temple the Jews said
to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered
them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Jesus was speaking about the temple of his
body. Jesus lay down his life, and on
the third day he took it up again.
Jesus’ signs
revealed his glory. They revealed the saving glory of the One who would die on
the cross for us and then rose from the dead.
John says that Jesus’ disciples saw the sign and believed in him. The
sign called forth faith.
We continue to see Jesus’
signs. We see them in Holy
Scripture. Our Lord promised the
disciples that the Holy Spirit would be at work in them. He said, “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.” He promised that like the Spirit they would
bear witness about Jesus. Jesus said, “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.”
We receive the Spirit’s witness through the words of John’s
Gospel. We behold the sign of Jesus
turning water into wine as he reveals his glory. We see Jesus glorified as he dies on the
cross to give us forgiveness. We see
Jesus glorified as he takes up his life again in the resurrection.
Through these signs the Spirit
sustains us in faith. John says near the
end of his 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.” The signs
narrated in Scripture are the Spirit’s means of creating and nurturing saving
faith in Jesus Christ.
The Spirit gives us faith and life
as we see the crucified and risen Lord. He
shares God’s love with us. John said in
his first letter, “In this the
love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the
world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we
have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love
one another.”
God loved us by sending his Son into the world to suffer
death in order to take away our sins. This
love now prompts you to love those around you.
It moves you to support others who are in need. It causes you to put the needs of others
ahead of your own. It leads you to serve
others as you become the means by which God’s love passes through you and on to
those around you.
In our Gospel lesson this morning Jesus turns water into
wine. He works a miracle which John
tells us is a sign that reveals his glory.
Our Lord’s miracles reveal the saving glory of Christ who was in the
world. They point to the glory that was
revealed as Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead. Through this action Christ has won us
forgiveness and life. Now the Spirit
uses the signs of Jesus’ miracles to give us faith as we continue to see his
glory. He sustains us as we look forward
to the final revelation of Christ’s glory on the Last Day.
No comments:
Post a Comment