2nd Sunday after Epiphany - John 2.1-11 - January 18, 2014
1) “This
beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and
His disciples believed in Him.” What kind of glory did Jesus manifest by
turning one-hundred and eighty gallons of water into choice wine? In the
prologue to his gospel, St. John writes, “And
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as
of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
The glory that Jesus manifests is His glory as the second person of the Holy
Trinity, the Only-Begotten Son of God. By changing water into wine Jesus
accomplishes with a word what would take a winemaker years of toil and patience
to accomplish. He is able to do this because He is the Word of God in human
flesh. He is the same Word by which the heavens and earth were created. He is
the Word spoken by the Father in the beginning which brought everything that is
into existence. It belongs to God alone to create with His Word. Christ
demonstrates that He is of the same essence with the Father by doing just that,
bringing something that is out of something that is not solely by the efficacious
and creative Word. This is the first way that Jesus manifests, that is,
reveals, His true glory as the Only-Begotten Son of God. And at this
manifestation of glory, by changing water into choice wine with only a word,
His disciples believed in Him. For this is the point of every manifestation of
His glory, that He might create faith in the hearts of men.
2) Jesus also manifests His glory as the
Only-Begotten Son of God in how the events that led up to this miracle. Jesus
and His disciples, the five that He has so far gathered in St. John’s Gospel,
attend a wedding feast in which an unthinkable embarrassment happens. They run
out of wine. This may seem like a petty problem for us who are removed from the
situation by time and culture. But this is a great tragedy for the newly
married couple. This lack of wine shows the couple’s poverty. Wine gladdens and
rejoices the heart of man. Wine is a sign of God’s favor and abundance in the
Old Testament. But at beginning of this union of man and wife the joy turns to embarrassment
and the rejoicing turns to murmuring about the couple’s lack. But by this
miracle Jesus manifests His great love for His people. He does not want them to
begin their marriage in shame, dishonor, and with heavy hearts. Jesus wants to
give His people good things! Not only good things, but the best things! So the
water turned to wine is not wine from a box, nor it is the cheapest vintage off
the shelf. It is the choicest wine, so much so that the steward of the feast
tells the Bridegroom, “Every man at the
beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the
inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!” (John 2:10) Jesus wants
to bless this marriage, and every marriage, with joy and gladness. Jesus wants
to bestow such wonderful gifts on His people out of love and sheer grace and
mercy. So He provides for this couple’s utter lack a super abundance of the
choicest wine so that all may rejoice in this union.
3) Christ manifests His glory in these ways,
that He is the Word of God incarnate, “God of God and light of light, very God
of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by
whom all things were made.” He manifests this by the way in which He changed
water into wine. He also manifests His great love for the institution of
marriage between a man and woman and His great love for all His creation, that
He does not want them to live in sorrow and lack but in true joy and gladness of
heart. Faith believes these two things about our Lord and God Jesus Christ,
that He is true God and thus able to provide for us in every lack and every
need, and that our Lord Jesus Christ is favorable disposed to us, that He is
gracious to us and only wants to bestow upon us good things. Faith looks to
Christ to provide in every situation, both temporally and spiritually. By
turning water into wine Jesus wants to strengthen our confidence in Him, that
He is able to do wondrous things for us and that He wants to do wondrous things
for us. This is why Jesus’ mother Mary comes to Him when the lack of wine is
revealed. Mary demonstrates this faith in Christ to us. She only tells Him, “They have no wine.” Jesus will know
what to do and how to accomplish it for everyone’s benefit. Faith never doubts
that Jesus is good and so it bold to bring its petition to Him, trusting that
He will answer in goodness and mercy.
4) And it is right there, at that spot, that
Christ manifests His glory in one final way. Christ is good and gracious and
able to give us abundantly more than we could ever ask. But Christ is also
wanting to instill in us a greater faith than we have now. So He replies to His
mother, “Woman, what does your concern
have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” (John 2:5) Jesus turns His
back on His mother’s petition. It’s as if He had said, “Woman, this is a petty,
small, and earthly concern that has nothing to do with the reason I came into
the world. I have much more important tasks to accomplish than helping a poor
couple out at their wedding. This really isn’t my problem, you deal with it
yourself.” The unbelieving heart will hear this and back away from Jesus. The
doubting heart will be wounded by Jesus’ abrupt and harsh answer. Even the
faithful heart could be taken back by Jesus’ austerity. But Mary presses on.
She tells the servants at the feast, “Whatever
He says to you, do it.” (John 2:5) So Mary teaches faith to our hearts.
Mary does not let Jesus’ brusque answer drive her away from Him or deter her
faith. She outright ignores His short answer and faith moves on, ever clinging
to Jesus because faith knows that Jesus is good and gracious, that He is able
to help and that He wants to give good things to us. Faith does not relent when
Jesus says, “What does this have to do with me?” Faith does not retreat from
Jesus, thinking that Jesus may NOT be good and gracious and willing to help.
Faith does not pack its backs and go home because faith can ONLY see Jesus as
good and gracious, able and willing to help.
5) Then Jesus relents. It is at this point,
when Jesus, through His mother Mary, has taught us the nature of faith, that He
goes on to do His first sign and reveal His glory. He does not reveal His glory
first and then teach us faith. That sort of faith would whither at the first
cloud in the sky obscuring God’s goodness. That sort of faith would shrink back
when the glory was later hidden beneath Christ’s lowliness and suffering. Faith
ought never to be based on the miracle or on the sign, for sometimes miracles
and signs don’t happen, or we do not see then for what they truly are. Faith can only rest upon Jesus, who He is and
His goodness and favor. This is why is impossible to one of Christ’s Christians
without believing He is, as Thomas would later call Him, “My Lord and My God.” (John 20:28). If Jesus is not God then He is
not able to do anything you ask, nor is it ever godly and proper to ask
anything of anyone who is not God Himself. In fact that would be idolatry. This
is also why it is most difficult to pray when we feel that God has abandoned
us, that Christ has turned His mercy away from us so that the light of His
countenance has ceased. Faith can only believe that Christ is God Himself and
that Christ is only good and merciful. So Christ manifests His glory in this:
that He wants to be known as God incarnate and wants to be looked upon only as
good and gracious.
6) It is at this point that we find ourselves
so often. We see our great lack. A great need of body or soul drives us to pray
to the Lord for we know that what we have been taught is true, that “The LORD is merciful and
gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.” (Psalm 103:8) The Lord promises to hear our prayers when He says through
the prophet David, “Call upon Me in the
day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” (Psalm 50:15) Jesus tells us in His
Word, “Ask, and
it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to
you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who
knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8) Yet when we approach Jesus with
our lack and the petitions of our hearts, so often we feel as if He will not
answer us. In prayer it can often seem as if Jesus is turning away from us,
saying, “What does your concern have to
do with me?” When prayer goes seemingly unanswered for days, weeks, or
years, we may be driven to think on our own worthiness to pray. There the Devil
wants to show us our sins and declare us unworthy to ask anything of God
through Christ. When after prayer we do not feel the peace of God, what are we
to do? We not to doubt, trusting our feelings of sin, unworthiness, or feelings
that God has turned His face from us. This is not what He teaches us to do at the
wedding in Cana. He teaches us that faith clings to Him all the more. Dr.
Luther preached this about this text, “We honor God as good and gracious, even
if he acts and speaks otherwise. For in this way feeling is killed, and the old
man perishes, so that nothing but faith in God’s goodness remains, and no
feeling. For here you see how his mother retains a free faith and holds it for
as an example to us. She is certain that he will be gracious, although she does
not feel it. She is certain also that she feels otherwise than she believes.
Therefore she freely leaves and commends all to his goodness, and fixes for him
neither time nor place, neither manner nor measure, neither person nor name. He
is to act when is pleases him. If not in the midst of the feast, then at the
end of it, or after the feast. My defeat I will swallow, his scorning me, letting
me stand in disgrace before all the guests, speaking so unkindly to me, causing
us all to blush for shame. He acts tart, but he is sweet I know. Let us proceed
in the same way, then we are true Christians.”[1]
7) Dear
Christians, Christ manifests His glory to you in these six stone water pots,
the glory that is His as the Only-Begotten Son of God who is able to help you
and willing to give you aid. Do not trust your feelings, which come and go, wax
and wane, shift and switch. Trust the Word of God and all the promises therein,
and place your confidence only in the Word made flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ,
that He is good and gracious. He is Lord and God, and He is gracious Lord and
God. Amen.