John 2:1-11 (Epiphany 2C)
St. John’s, Galveston (1/19/2025)
Rev. Alan Taylor
 
+ In Nomine Jesu +
 
Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
 
The message this morning is based on the Gospel reading you heard a few moments ago from John, chapter 2. Jesus attended a wedding feast where He worked the first of His miracles, the changing of water into wine. Some modern commentators on the Bible are perplexed, if not embarrassed, by this incident. They suggest that Jesus’ miracle of turning water into wine is somewhat beneath His dignity as the Son of God. It seems odd to them, I suppose, that Jesus should choose to work the first of His miracles at a wedding celebration and that that miracle should be something as indulgent, and perhaps even unnecessary, as turning water into wine, so that the guests at the wedding feast could drink their fill.
 
In all honesty, at least at first glance, it does seem a bit odd that Jesus turned water into wine for His first recorded miracle. I mean, it’s hard to imagine God, in the heavenly council, deciding on a miracle to introduce the Savior to the world, saying, I know, Jesus will attend a wedding and when the wine runs out and the people are panicked, He’ll turn water into wine. Yes, that’s it! That’s what I’ll do! Certainly, with this miracle, as with all of the miracles that Jesus worked, His power to change the forces, even the laws of nature, is on display which provides testimony to the fact that He is God in the flesh. Still, what are we to make of this, our Lord’s first recorded miracle?
 
The event in John 2, took place at a wedding feast, and it involved some jars of water that Jesus later turned into wine. In these three things, the wedding feast, the water, and the wine, we find three motifs that are central to the Scriptures and, ultimately to our relationship with God.

The union of Jesus and His bride, the Church, is a theme that runs throughout the Bible. You’ll find it mentioned in the Book of Isaiah, in the Gospels, in the Letters of St. Paul, and finally, in the Book of Revelation. Jesus came into the world to claim His bride. He doesn’t claim her though because of her inherent worth, or even because of her beauty. Rather, He claims her because of His tremendous love with which He loved her. When all things are fulfilled, Jesus will come to claim His bride, for whom He gave Himself. “I saw the holy city (say the Book of Revelation), new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Here, it would be fitting for us to turn our attention for a moment to the stone water pots that were at the wedding feast in Cana that day. John tells us there were six of them, each one containing twenty or thirty gallons of water. He gives us another detail though about the pots of water. They were there for the “rite of the purification of the Jews.” In other words, the jars of water would be used in the Jewish rite of purification, a ceremonial cleansing, or washing, a baptism, if you will, not just of hands, but of utensils, and cups and bowls and anything else that was to be used in the feast for a sacred purpose.

People in the early church frequently interpreted Christian Baptism as a nuptial in which Christ weds an unworthy bride. Chrysostom, an early church father who was known as the “silver tongued preacher of the church,” once preached to his congregation about marriage and the rite of purification, or baptism. He said, “Come, then, let me talk to you as I would speak to a bride about to be led into the holy nuptial chamber. Let me give you, too, a glimpse of the bridegroom’s exceeding wealth and of the ineffable kindness which He shows to His bride. Let me point out to her the sordid past from which she is escaping and the glorious future she is about to enjoy.… He does not have her come to Him as His bride because He has longed for her beauty, or the bloom of her body. On the contrary, the bride He has brought into the nuptial chamber is deformed and ugly, thoroughly and shamefully sordid, and, practically, wallowing in the very mire of her sins.”
 
With that understanding of the Christian rite of Holy Baptism and of the Jewish rite of purification, the setting of the wedding feast for Jesus’ first miracle is significant. It reveals that through the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the marriage of God and the new Israel, that is, of Christ and of those cleansed in his blood, has commenced. The ancient rite of purification has been overshadowed, it has come to it’s fullness in Christian Baptism, for it is there that the groom bestows His love on His bride, cleansing her from her past, and setting before her a bright and glorious future as the beloved of God.

And so, the water for the rite of purification, essentially of washing, came to it’s fulfillment in Holy Baptism. But the miracle at the wedding feast was yet take place. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “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.”

So, what do think, does this miracle and the master’s response simply teach us that Jesus makes better wine than anyone else? Perhaps you’ve heard it said before that, “when you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” The saying suggests that hammers tend to do what they were designed to do. That is, they hit things! In a similar vein, it has been suggested that Lutherans will find the Lord’s Supper in many parts of the Scriptures, simply because they view the Lord’s Supper as such an integral part of their faith as the children of God. Be that as it may, it would do us well this morning to pay particular attention to this miracle, and particularly to the master of the feasts description of the wine that Jesus created.

“You have kept the good wine (said the master of the feast) until now.” In Holy Baptism, Jesus claimed His bride. No longer would the description of her penned by Chrysostom apply. No longer could she be said to be “deformed and ugly, thoroughly and shamefully sordid, and, practically, wallowing in the very mire of her sins,” for in Holy Baptism the forgiveness of sins won for her by Jesus on the cross was laid upon her. Thus, the Prophet Isaiah wrote, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.”

And yet, she would live beneath the cross of her beloved for a time. All the while, she would be nurtured in His love for her, through the wine of the feast, the good wine, indeed, the blood of the Lamb. As Jesus says, “drink of it all of you, this cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

Thus, the good wine nurtures and strengthens the bride as she makes her pilgrimage through this life. And she waits for that last great day. As the Apostle John wrote, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
 
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
 
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
 
+ Soli Deo Gloria +