Sermon - Epiphany II 2020 - John 2:1-11

The first plague that the Lord brought upon Egypt through Moses was to turn the waters of the Nile river into blood. So the first miracle Moses performed was indeed frightening, the thing of which nightmares are made! But the first miracle that Jesus performs is to change water into wine. Jesus’ ministry is not one of frightening terrors, as was Moses’ ministry, but rather quite the opposite. Instead of turning water into blood, Jesus turns water into wine, and as the Psalmist says “wine cheers up the heart of man.” Jesus’ ministry is one of joy and gladness, Jesus comes to cheer the heart of man.

If Jesus’ ministry is one of joy and gladness, then so is the life of the Christian to be one of joy. You see here, Jesus desires that our lives on earth right now would be filled with joy, and He makes that plain and obvious to us in our Gospel. The first miracle Jesus performed wasn’t among the ruling classes, but it’s a miracle done among ordinary people doing ordinary things.

“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 location of this miracle is plain and ordinary. It’s at a wedding feast of some couple who isn’t even named! So in this way, God desires to show us that He wants to be with all of us ordinary folks in all facets of our lives, even in the most basic parts of our lives! 

It’s not a coincidence that God chose a wedding feast at which to perform this miracle. Marriage is the most basic building block of society. When a man and a woman are joined together in holy matrimony, a household is established, usually children are brought forth from this union, children who will grow up and get jobs and get married and start their own families and continue the cycle of society. Within this household the faith is passed down from generation to generation, ethics and morality are established, discipline is maintained, and people are given the opportunity to care for one another. So when Jesus performed His first miracle at a wedding feast, He makes it obvious to us that He blesses marriage, families, and all aspects of our earthly lives. 

What’s more, this first miracle Jesus performed is perhaps not what you would expect. Does He heal a dead person? Does He cure somebody’s terrible disability? Does He forgive someone’s sins? NO! Nothing like what you would expect! What’s the issue? “When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”” So what does Jesus do? He doesn’t rebuke them for drinking too much wine; He doesn’t chastise them for consuming alcohol; no, instead He changes 180 gallons of water into wine.

With this miracle, God shows us that He cares about our lives and our problems, even the ones which maybe seem a bit mundane. If the wine had run out the bridegroom would’ve been embarrassed and ashamed that he hadn’t prepared enough for this wedding. Jesus prevents the man from becoming ashamed, He shows favor and takes the bridegroom’s disgrace. God cares about our lives, about our simple little problems, and He looks upon us with favor and desires to take away our disgrace.

This doesn’t mean that our lives as Christians aren’t still filled with problems. Actually it’s the reverse! Because we’re Christians we will have more problems! We’ve got a target on our foreheads and our hearts: the mark of the cross; Satan sees that mark and aims his fiery darts right at us. Oftentimes the joy of a Christian is disturbed by the water of tribulation and anxiety.

This wedding feast in Cana shows us that our lives will not be devoid of trials and tribulations. Running out of wine might seem like a minor thing to us, but Jewish weddings were all about the weeklong elaborate feast! If you ran out of wine only three days into the feast, well that’s a disaster! The wedding couple would be terribly ashamed for a long time that they really messed up the feast. Instead of being filled with the wine of gladness, they had only turbulent water. Starting your marriage off on such an embarrassing event could prove to be a great trial for the couple as they’re just beginning their lives together.

Likewise today, there are many things that can happen to a couple which drives a wedge between them. In the scheme of things they might seem like minor things, but in the long run those minor things can pile up and do significant damage. In all facets of our lives, lots of little things happen, and while most of them get dealt with and just go away, sometimes they snowball and result in more significant problems. God cares about all of those things. Even the minor insignificant little hiccups we face day to day, our Lord cares about. He has come into our world, He has taken on our flesh, He knows us and our problems. Nothing is so small that God doesn’t care about it.

Granted, sometimes He pushes us to our limits and tests us. Jesus says to His own mother: “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” Sometimes in response to our prayers, Jesus doesn’t yet act. Sometimes He permits troubled waters to enter into our lives, even waters that turn into blood. Sometimes the joy of our hearts seems to dry up and be filled with despair. He takes away our joy from us for a time, so that we would learn to recognize that our joy comes from Him and that we would not get tired of His joy.

Likewise, sometimes in response to our prayers He simply says: “What does this have to do with Me?” Sometimes in our fervent prayers God doesn’t immediately give us the answer we desire. But let us look to the example of faithful Mary, who never doubts that Jesus will answer her prayer. “His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”” She doesn’t walk away dismayed at His response, but she expects Him to act because in faith she trusts Him to be loving and compassionate. 

When God doesn’t immediately help us, let us learn to cling to Christ’s promises in faith even when we at first don’t get the answer we want. Let those feelings of dismay slip away so that we could sink into Christ. When we hear the biting answer of Christ with Mary, let us be patient and know that He will most certainly help. The sadness of this life will soon be filled with the joy of Christ.

Such an exchange between heavenly joy and divine sadness continues for the entire life of a Christian on earth. At times Christ betows wine, at other times only water. But finally someday Jesus our Bridegroom will bring us, His bride, home into eternal life. In that day the words of Revelation will come true: “Let us rejoice and be happy, for the wedding feast of the Lamb has come.” In that day there will be no more sadness, no more troubled waters, no more pain, fighting, and strife. Instead we shall drink deeply from the cup of the Lord in the house of God. Christ saves the best wine until the end, the little bits of joy and gladness we have in this life are but a foretaste.

In our marriages on earth we have a foretaste of the divine marriage of Christ to His bride the church. Heaven shall be for us a neverending wedding feast in which the wine of gladness will never run dry. In that marriage there will be no infidelity, divorce, or fighting, rather our bridegroom shall be eternally faithful. Every earthly marriage of one man and one woman is a picture and a reminder, a foretaste of what’s coming in paradise.

So in the Lord’s Supper, we have here a foretaste of the divine marriage feast. In this wedding feast, the wine of gladness is also the blood of our redemption. From this cup you drink not only joy and gladness, but you drink salvation and life. There is great joy to be had right now dear Christians, this wedding feast is a testament to that fact. God shed His blood for us! God loves us! God cares about our lives right now! He’s saving the best wine for the end. That’s something to smile about. That’s a good reason for us to be joyfully Lutheran.