Second Sunday after the Epiphay
January 17, 2010
Jesus Steals the Show
John 2:1-11
The Party is Saved
Wedding at Cana
On the Second Sunday of Epiphany we move from water to wine. From the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan to his first miracle at a wedding feast.
And we have been to enough weddings to appreciate the problem. The guests drank more wine than was expected. The wine supply was totally depleted.
And the wedding was headed to disaster. There is no quicker way to ruin a good party than to shut down the bar.
And so, Mary called her son aside and laid on him the problem, “They have no wine.”
And despite an off-putting response, “Woman, what concern is that to you and me? My hour has not yet come,” Jesus comes through anyhow.
The party is saved. And 120 gallons of water are turned into vintage wine.
Wouldn’t It Be Great If…
And wouldn’t it be great if Jesus were around like that today to solve all our problems for us?
Just think how handy he would be to have at parties to get us out of a fix when we underestimate the food and drink.
Or, better still what he could do to solve the problems of world hunger and the terrible shortages of food and drink around the globe. Jesus would be pretty handy to have in Haiti right now.
And look what Jesus could do for all the contaminated waters of the planet Earth including our own Lake Erie. Why, he could turn them into Chardonnay and Cabernet, of course! Except for in Milwaukee and Saint Louis where he would turn them into a tasty brew.
And imagine how many marriages would be saved is Jesus were around to zap away the problems which drive married folks apart.
The First of the Signs
But more is going on at Cana than Jesus getting a newly wedded couple out of an embarrassing fix.
This is the first of the signs that Jesus did to manifest his glory. The first. And the disciples believed in him. It was the first public step that led Jesus to his “hour”: his being lifted up upon the cross that was to become his throne of glory.
Jesus is not interested in band-aid solutions or magic tricks. Jesus is not a fix-it man who comes calling at our door at our command.
He is the Savior of the world whose coming has an “hour” and a purpose—to get to the root causes of sin and death which plague us all.
This Miracle Would Ring Some Bells
God would save the party
One has to be immersed in the Old Testament to understand what is going on. The miraculous appearance of abundant vintage wine would have rung some bells for the disciples—some wedding bells.
For that is precisely what the prophets said would happen in the days of fulfillment.
God would appear. God would take his people as a husband takes a bride. God would love them. Care for them. Provide for them.
And there would be a wedding feast—a joyous party!—with gourmet food and an abundant supply of the finest wine. You can read of it in Isaiah 25 and in Isaiah 62, which is our First Reading for today.
And it is exactly what Jesus says elsewhere in so many of his parables: “The kingdom of heaven is like a marriage feast.”
And here it was happening at Cana…at this wedding…an abundant supply of the finest wine. A sign of God’s wedding. A sign of God’s coming to repair a marriage which had been broken.
For do not let us forget, this is part of our history, too!
A Broken Marriage
God had married his people through the Ten Commandments and through the solemn vows spoken at Mount Sinai.
But the marriage soon went sour and the luscious wine of marriage immediately ran out. God’s people rebelled…and disobeyed.
And for many pious Jews the occupation of their land by Rome was a painful sign of Israel’s unfaithfulness and of just how many of the Jewish people longed for the “time of wine” to flow.”
And many engaged in Jewish rites of purification to keep themselves ready for the coming of their God.
A Marriage Saved through Jesus Christ
But here it was happening at this wedding. Wine, the very best wine.
It rang a bell for those who saw and who believed. A close, loving relationship with God is restored, not through the Jewish rites of purification, but through the saving work of Jesus Christ.
No doubt they understood it better when his “hour” finally came. No doubt they understood it better when Jesus died the death that brings us back to God and mends the fracture lines of a broken marriage.
Seen best in Holy Communion
No doubt they understood it better when Jesus took a cup of wine and said just hours before his death, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
But here it was. Happening already. Christ’s saving power breaking through into this wedding, this plain ordinary wedding, saving this marriage from disaster.
And that is the whole point of it. God’s saving power of the future has come down to earth through the ministry of Jesus Christ to break into our everyday.
Mary did not know “how” it would happen. She did not tell her son how to do his business—like we do in so many of our prayers.
She did not even grow discouraged where her son icily put her off. She simply laid the problem on his heart. And told the hired help to do whatever he commanded.
And in the very end, her faith in him was not in vain.
The Lesson to Be Learned
I don’t know what lesson you want to draw from this story for today.
To early Jewish Christians it probably explained why the Jewish rites of purification were no longer needed or necessary, but that certainly doesn’t mean much to us anymore today. We never engaged in those water rites of purification.
Personally, I think this story is telling us that we should drink more wine and less water (including those watered-down American beers!).
And that we Christians should only drink the finest wines because that is what we will drink with Christ in heaven. Life is just too short to drink bad wine.
But if you need a more “religious” lesson, perhaps it is this—that the saving work of Jesus Christ breaks through into our everyday and into our disasters big and small.
And that perhaps we can see that best when we are regular participants at this meal and gather around this cup of wine and have our eyes focused on the marriage feast to come.
From water to wine. From baptism to the Holy Communion and the Eucharistic Meal. From the washing of our sins in Holy Baptism to God’s great heavenly feast. That is the movement of Christian ministry and mission…and of the Christian life.
© 2010 Pastor Paul Jaster