Sermon - Epiphany II 2023 - John 2:1-11

Marriage at Cana, Jan Steen, 1676

Jesus’ glory is to purify His creation.

1. Jesus reveals His glory through His miracles

2. Water for purification is replaced with Jesus’ blood for purification

3. Jesus purifies His creation; in particular: marriage

Moses implored the Lord: “Please show me your glory.” Over a thousand years later God does exactly that: “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory.” This is what we celebrate during this season of Epiphany: Jesus’ glory is “epiphanied,” revealed and made manifest. At the wedding at Cana we learn that Jesus’ glory is to purify His creation. In turning the water into wine we learn that Jesus reveals His glory through His miracles. Moreover, in this particular miracle the water for purification is replaced with Jesus’ blood for purification. Thus Jesus purifies His creation, today He starts with the foundational institution among us: marriage.

Back on Christmas Day we learned what’s meant by God’s glory. God’s glory is His essence and His mighty import of being. So we might describe God’s glory as His gravitas and the revelation of who God is and what God is all about. Since God is infinite, this means that finite man cannot comprehend God’s unfiltered glory. This is why God told Moses that “you cannot see My face, for man shall not see Me and live… you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”

So the Father sent the Son, the Word made flesh. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature.” Thus, the Son is God and the glory of the Lord is revealed to us in Jesus. The infinite glory of God took on the finite nature of man in the person of Jesus Christ so that we who are mortal may behold the immortal God. All of this is so that God’s immortality may be given to us when we are purified of our sins through Him.

When Jesus performed miracles He was making His glory known among man. In other words, Jesus’ miracles are signs that show us who God is and what He is all about. So different miracles show us different things about God. This first miracle that Jesus performed is especially important since it reveals a lot about God. This miracle reveals the primary purpose for which Christ came among us, namely, to purify us from our sins through His blood. So let’s walk through how this miracle shows us that Jesus came to purify us. 

I suppose we probably most often just focus on Jesus turning water into wine, but before that happens we learn a significant detail. “There were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.” These water jars mattered a lot in ancient Israel. 

It had become customary to perform ritual cleansings and washings. We see this throughout the gospels where feet and hands are washed, pots and pans and utensils and couches are all washed and cleansed. This isn’t about germs so much as it is about being ceremonially and religiously clean. These were religious practices which the Jews had adopted, largely since the diaspora when the Israelites were taken captive into Babylon and elsewhere.

These large water jars would’ve been used at the beginning of the wedding feast in order to purify all of the guests and utensils and such things, as is evidenced by the fact that they’re empty and Jesus needs them to be filled up to the brim. These large jars would’ve been used exclusively for this ceremonial washing. So when Jesus turns the water that is in the jars into wine, He “ruins” the jars. They’re not supposed to be used for any other purpose nor filled with anything but water for purification. In reality He doesn’t ruin the jars, He actually makes them better by using them to point towards the greater purification that He has come to bring.

By turning the water into wine we are reminded of what Jesus does on the night when He is betrayed, when His hour has come to redeem His people from their sins. In the upper room Jesus takes a cup of wine and tells them that this cup is now filled with His blood for the forgiveness of sins, and He gives it to them to drink. So the water which becomes wine points us to the wine which becomes blood. That water and blood ultimately points us to Jesus’ pierced side from which “at once there came out blood and water.” Finally: “The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” 

Thus, Jesus told His mother that His hour had not yet come. So Jesus in that moment didn’t deliver His blood for the forgiveness of sins, but in performing this miracle He did point us to His blood which purifies us from all sins. The Jewish purification was an external washing of the body, but Jesus turned that purifying water into something that was internally consumed and thus cleansed the whole body internally. Those Jewish rites of purification gave way to baptism and the Lord’s Supper which don’t merely cleanse the body of dirt, but cleanse the body of sin.

So this miracle of Jesus turning the water into wine reveals God’s glory by showing us that Jesus came to cleanse His people from their sins by shedding His blood upon the cross. Jesus is He who comes to purify our every impurity of body and soul so that we would on the last day enter with Him into the eternal heavenly marriage feast of the Lamb and His bride. So even the wedding feast that Jesus attended reveals God’s glory and shows us what God is preparing for us.

Jesus performs this Epiphany at a marriage feast in order to show us that Jesus came to purify His creation. The one institution that God established at creation, before the fall into sin, is marriage. Marriage is the cornerstone, the foundation, the lynch pin, upon which God’s creation is built. God created Adam and Eve and taught them what they needed to know. But after that every human being has been procreated and taught through the union of one man and one woman. God declared that this union was to be confined between one man with one woman. This lifelong union is what is called marriage. Through marriage children are procreated, the word of God is handed down from one generation to the next, and people are given to care for each other.

So in a way marriage is iconic of all of this creation because it is the one institution upon which all the rest of civilization is built. Thus, when Jesus manifested His glory in this miracle at a wedding, He shows us that He has come to purify His whole creation, and specifically He starts at our basic foundation: marriage and the family.

Here it is worth noting that marriage has been targeted by the devil so frequently throughout history. Looking at the Old Testament polygamy and adultery were rampant. By Jesus’ time, and still in our time, divorce is a serious issue. By the early middle ages marriage was despised and remaining unmarried was considered holier than marriage. Today couples often live together before they’re married, many are engaged in fornication and pornography, and worst of all marriage has been rendered meaningless by permitting sodomite pairs to call themselves married.

Recognizing the sorry state of marriage, we see the necessity of Jesus performing His first purifying miracle at a wedding feast. Jesus came to purify us who have been made so filthy in this world through our own sins and the sins of others. Jesus knows where we have our greatest struggles and where Satan most often attacks us: marriage and the family. So Jesus honors and purifies marriage. Things don’t look so good when we observe the state of our nation and our homes, thus Jesus enters right into our filthy lives and purifies us with His blood. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us of all our sins, even and especially in our homes.