Epiphany 2
Jn
2:1-11
1/18/26
A number of years ago we had an
emergency on a Sunday morning. As many of you will remember, at that time we
had an early and a late service. After
the early service, it was necessary to reset the altar to prepare for the
Lord’s Supper to be celebrated at the second service.
A congregation member was doing this
in the normal fashion when she realized that we had run out of wine. There was no way to purchase more on a Sunday
morning. Our house is less than a minute drive from church, and so Amy went
home and grabbed the bottle that we had there. Between the wine that remained
in the cruet and the wine in the bottle from our house we had enough to get by.
Like many congregations, we use
Mogen David Concord wine for communion. This is characterized as a sweet wine.
The only wine we had at home was a Cabernet Sauvignon, which is of course a dry
wine. The combination of those two wines produced a taste that was just nasty.
We did indeed have wine for celebrating the Sacrament using the chalice, but it
was definitely not good wine.
In our Gospel lesson this morning we
learn that Jesus was at a wedding where they also ran out of wine. However, in
that setting Christ works his first miracle as he turns water into wine. And in
this case he provides wine that is better than the wine that had run out.
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.” The Gospel of John does not narrate the
baptism of Jesus that we observed last Sunday. However, it does provide
information about some of the things that happened while Jesus was south in
Judea being baptized by John.
John announced that the baptism of Jesus had been the event when he knew for sure who Jesus was. He declared, “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
We learn that some of Jesus’
disciples had been first associated with John – people like Andrew, Peter, and
Philip. Now, Jesus had returned to
Galilee and his disciples were there with him. Cana is about six miles from
Nazareth, and Mary had been invited to a wedding there. We are told that Jesus
and his disciples were also invited.
A wedding is a joyous occasion. It
is also a source of tension because those involved want everything to be just
right. My niece will be getting married this coming summer and so we are
getting a first hand look at all of the preparations and decisions that have to
be made. When you have invested all of
that time, effort, and money in a wedding, you want the special day to go
perfectly.
Things did not go perfectly
at Cana. As the celebration progressed,
they ran out of wine. Now to be sure, many of us like wine. But wine had an
even bigger role in first century Jewish culture than anything we have
experienced. To run out of wine at a
wedding was a social disaster of the first magnitude.
Mary and Jesus had been invited to a
wedding at a different village six miles away. This probably indicates that
there was a family connection. Mary was concerned about this situation. And she
brought the matter to Jesus.
She told our Lord that they had run
out of wine. However, his response seems
surprising. He said, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My
hour has not yet come.” Jesus asked why
this was a concern for him as he framed his purpose as the hour that was to
come.
The reference to his “hour” signals
that we are to understand what Jesus does here in light of his death. Twice in
John’s Gospel we learn that opponents are unable to seize Jesus “because his
hour had not yet come.” It is only at
Holy Week that Jesus’ hour arrived. He 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.”
Mary had turned to Jesus and he
seemed to have rebuffed her. But her trust in Christ did not waiver. She said
to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Here Mary is a model for us, just as she is when the angel Gabriel
announced that she would bear the Christ. At that time she trusted and believed
God’s Word that was going to change her life. Now, she seems to be rejected and
ignored by Jesus. But she does not cease to trust that Christ is able to
address the problem. In fact, she tells the servants to carry out whatever
direction Jesus provides.
John tells us that there were six
stone water jars present at the wedding for the Jewish rites of
purification. These were large vessels
holding twenty to thirty gallons. Christ had the servants fill the jars. Then he
told the servants to draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.
You have to wonder what the servants
thought about this task. Why would you take water to the master of the feast to
taste? Yet what the master of the feast tasted was not water, but instead wine
because Jesus had worked the miracle of turning the water into wine. And in
fact 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.”
In the Gospels we learn about many
different miracles that Jesus performed. He heals the sick, gives sight to the
blind, and raises the dead. But the
Church places this miracle before us on the Second Sunday after Epiphany
because of the words at the end of our text: “This, the first of his signs,
Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his
disciples believed in him.”
John describes Jesus’ miracle as a
sign. In this Gospel Jesus’ miracles are signs that call forth faith. They
reveal who Jesus is. John tells us that
the signs manifest Christ’s glory. This
is language that resonates with the theme of the season of Epiphany – the
appearing of Christ and his saving work.
This statement about glory calls us back to the Gospel
lesson for Christmas Day. There John begins his Gospel by saying about the Son
of God: “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.” After describing how the Son – the Word – made creation, John then
went on to say: “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 Old Testament, the glory of
God was his perceptible presence at the tabernacle and then temple. John tells
us that the Son of God became flesh – that in the incarnation God became man
without ceasing to be God. And then he adds that the apostles have seen his
glory.
In our text, John calls Jesus’
miracle a sign, and says that by this miracle Jesus revealed his glory. On the surface that makes sense. Christ turns
water into wine. He works a miracle that only God can do. Certainly, this
reveals his glory as the Son of God.
But John is leading us to understand
that Christ revealed his glory in a very specific – and unexpected way. In our
text we see Jesus speaking to Mary as he addresses her as “woman.” Mary is not
seen again in the Gospel until chapter nineteen when hanging on the cross
Jesus says to her about the disciple whom he loved: “Woman, behold, your son!”
The
miracle of turning water into wine is sign. It reveals Christ’s glory. And like
all of the signs it points to the manner in which Christ will reveal his glory on
the cross. Jesus said during Holy Week, “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 Christ reveals his saving glory by dying on the
cross. That is the hour when he is glorified. Our Lord 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 the chapter before our text we learn that after John
had baptized Jesus, he saw Christ coming toward him and said, “Behold, the
Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Later he called Andrew’s attention to Jesus
by again identifying him the Lamb of God.
Jesus called sin slavery. He said, “Truly, truly, I say
to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does
not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son
sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Christ set us free from sin by his
death on the cross.
We were
unable to free ourselves. Conceived in sin, we continue to live in sin. Indeed, we spoke the verse from John’s first
letter at the beginning of the service when we said: “If anyone says that he
has no sin he deceives himself and the truth is not in him.”
But Christ
was our Passover lamb. In Exodus the
Israelites killed the Passover lamb and marked their residences with its blood.
The blood of the lamb caused God’s judgment to pass over the Israelites as they
were spared death. The shedding of Jesus’ blood in death has caused God’s
judgment to pass over us. Because of Christ’s death for us we are not condemned
for our sin. Instead, we are forgiven
before God and so have eternal life. The next chapter of the Gospel says,
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
Jesus
said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes
him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment,
but has passed from death to life.”
Then he added, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and
is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and
those who hear will live.” We have life through faith in Christ because on
the third day God raised Jesus from the dead. This is life that we have now –
life with God that death cannot end.
And it is life that will continue when Christ raises up our bodies on the Last
Day.
In 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.” Jesus’
miracles are signs that reveal his glory. They point us to Jesus and his saving
glory of the cross.
John says
at the end of chapter twenty, “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 Holy Spirit has called us to faith. And
now we continue to see the signs that reveal Jesus’ saving glory in the
Scriptures. It is this Spirit given word
which sustains us in faith.
So take
the time this week to read God’s Word each day.
There the Spirit reveals the saving glory of the cross – the cross on
which the Lamb of God was slain who takes away the sin of thew world. There the
Spirit reveals the risen Lord in whom we have the assurance of eternal life. As
Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes
him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment,
but has passed from death to life.”
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