Jesus gives us the good wine of the Gospel

Transcription

1 IN NOMINE JESU Jesus gives us the good wine of the Gospel Grace, Mercy, and Peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The text for the sermon today is the Gospel reading from the second chapter of John which you just heard. Today in the Epiphany season we read and hear the text recording the account of Jesus at the wedding of Cana and the miracle where He turned water into wine. The word Epiphany means an appearance or manifestation; that something is revealed or shown to us. This is precisely what is happening here in the recording of this first miracle in Jesus three-year earthly ministry. The Apostle John reveals to us that Jesus is God and that Jesus demonstrates His divinity with this miracle. This Gospel account begins with a short introduction of the situation where Jesus, His mother, and His disciples are at a wedding feast and something goes wrong. John writes this: 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. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine. 1 Over the past few months there have been a few texts that came up in the Church dealing with weddings. If you were present during some of these services you might recall the extravagant descriptions of the wedding feasts and how they could last many days of nonstop celebrating. A long celebration would mean a lot of food, and a lot of wine. Needing to prepare all of this would not have been a surprise to anyone, so being at a wedding feast where the wine ran out would be a significant social blunder. John s account says this: When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine. And Jesus said to her, Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you. 2 So the wine runs out, and Mary approaches Jesus, tells Him about the wine; He responds to her, and then she commands the servants to follow His instructions. 1 John 2:1-3, ESV. 2 John 2:2-5, ESV. 1

2 There are a lot of things packed into these few short sentences that are worth examining closer. Mary tells Jesus about the wine running out, and in response, He says, Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. At least, this is how it is translated in the ESV, and when we hear it like this in English it actually sounds kind of disrespectful, but that isn t the case at all. When Jesus addresses His mother as Woman, it isn t a term of disrespect. In fact, we see multiple times in the Gospels where someone is addressed as Woman by Jesus in respectful conversation. There are examples such as Jesus talking to the woman at the well, or telling a woman that she is freed from an evil spirit afflicting her, or telling a woman that her accusers are all absent. Perhaps most powerfully of all, we have an example when Jesus, still in the Gospel of John, again looks to His mother and giving John to her in adoption, says, Woman, behold your son and to John, Behold your mother. Jesus doesn t call Mary Mother here, not because of a lack of respect, but because she is His disciple, even if she still is His mother. Here, Jesus is demonstrating His role as the loving God who takes care of His faithful followers; something He will continue to do through His ministry. Now that we understand that Jesus calling His mother woman was not out of disrespect, but love and compassion. As for the next part of Jesus words, the ESV translated it like this: Woman, what does this have to do with me? In English, this sounds like Jesus is saying This isn t my problem, but the more accurate Greek translation would be, What to me, and to you? Jesus isn t saying it is Mary s problem, but rather the opposite. Jesus is saying essentially, I will take care of this, you don t need to worry about it any more, or don t worry, I ve got this. In this statement, Jesus is taking on the burden of responsibility. It wasn t the fault of Jesus that the wine ran out, someone else made a grievous error, but Jesus has taken the responsibility upon Himself Does that sound like a pattern that Jesus might follow? A pattern where someone does something wrong, and they are doomed to suffer the consequences, and Jesus comes in and takes on the burden of that error, and instead provides the solution? The salvation? 2

3 How often do we fail to trust God to take care of things? Isn t it tempting sometimes to feel like we have to be the one in charge, and we have to be the one that sorts out all of our problems in life? Or how about if we sin and think that we can make it up to God on our own by doing good works rather than trusting His work and His forgiveness. An attitude where we fail to trust God because we want to be in charge is sinful. In the same way that Jesus took the responsibility for trouble at the wedding at Cana, Jesus takes the responsibility for our sin, and we must repent and be forgiven. Jesus connects this miracle to that crucifixion which we are called to trust in by the next words he says in this passage. Jesus says My hour has not yet come. 3 Jesus talks about His hour other times in the Gospel of John. In chapters 6 and 7, we are told it was not yet His hour when people tried to seize Him. In chapter 12, we start to see the shift towards the crucifixion as Jesus talks about His hour arriving, and finally, in John 17, Jesus begins His high-priestly prayer with the words Father, the hour has come. Immediately after the prayer He goes to the garden where He is betrayed and arrested. This statement at the wedding at Cana about His hour might seem out-of-place at first, but it fits when we understand that Jesus is preparing the hearers for the hour of His crucifixion and resurrection the greatest miracle and the greatest act of service But I ll get to that in a moment. Please just keep that connection in mind. Jesus has set the stage to point forward to the crucifixion and the Epiphany, the appearance, the manifestation of His divinity. While we keep that in mind, the Gospel of John continues: His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you. 4 Mary demonstrates her faith here with this statement. She trusts God completely to take care of the situation in His own way. She told Jesus about the problem and believes that He, as God, will handle the problem. In the same way, you are free to trust in God to take care of you. By all means, bring your concerns to the Lord in prayer, but then know that God will take care of them, even if we don t know how He will do it, or when. John continues: 3 John 2:4b. 4 John 2:5, ESV. 3

4 Now 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. And he said to them, Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. So they took it. 5 This is a LOT of water, and this means a LOT of wine. The quantity of wine alone shows Jesus abundant provision. When the wine stops, the party will soon follow. So if providing 180 desperately-needed gallons wasn t enough, we then learn about the quality of the wine as well. John s account continues: 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 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. 6 This is the moment when it all comes together. This is the Epiphany; the manifestation of God, The Divine one, and this also paints a portrait for the ministry of Christ! Please consider three points; three things that happened in this account. First: Water just got turned into wine. That s impossible, at least that s impossible by natural standards. With this one act, Jesus has just proven that He is God by doing something that can only be done by God. Second: This wine is amazing. This isn t just some last-minute replacement wine, but this is the best wine that anyone there had ever had. It is also ALMOST the best wine they would ever have here on earth. Jesus has just single-handedly saved the bacon of the master of this feast, and saved the honor of this bridegroom who was responsible for the party. Not only did Jesus provide, but he provided ABUNDANTLY, He went above and beyond anything that nature or the power of man could provide. Third: This wine, this best wine, completely eclipses the wine at the beginning of the feast, the wine that everyone assumed was the best wine. As amazing as this event is of itself, however, it pales in comparison to the bigger event that it points forward to. Earlier in the sermon, I told you to try to remember what Jesus said about His hour, and how it had not yet come. To bring everything into perspective, think about that hour of Christ 5 John 2:6-8, ESV. 6 John 2:9-10, ESV. 4

5 again, and how we can see it in light of this miracle at Cana. With this in mind, consider those three points I just mentioned about the miracle at Cana. First: Water got turned into wine. That breaks all the laws of nature, we might call it impossible. Do you know what else is impossible? The death of God. That is what happens in the hour of Christ. Here at the beginning of Jesus three-year earthly ministry, Jesus reveals His divinity and compassion with a supernatural miracle. At the end of those three years when God dies on the cross and the One Who dies returns to life three days later, we have an even greater miracle; a miracle that pays for your sin and promises your resurrection. Second: The wine is amazing. The blessings of Christ are amazing. Someone was in need of the wine; it was his fault that he messed up and he was going to face the consequences, but Jesus not only saved him from the consequences but provided more and better than he could have even imagined. In the same way, we sin, we are set up for damnation for our sins, and not only does Jesus free us from those consequences, but He gives us His righteousness on top of our forgiveness. He gives us the eternal blessings as well as the blessings of daily bread and abundance. Third: The new wine completely eclipses the older wine; the best is saved for last. Everyone assumed the old wine was the best, but this new wine completely blows that stuff out of the water; no pun intended. God, in love, gave us The Law to follow, and it was a good system. It was designed by a good God with good intentions, and made of good commands, but because of our sin, we failed to satisfy the demands of that law. So just like the one who doesn t buy sufficient wine at the beginning of the feast, we cannot and have not sufficiently followed the law, and as a result we would suffer. This is when Christ gives us the new wine of the Gospel. It isn t that the old wine of The Law was bad, but this new wine of the Gospel is so much better. Not only is it sweet and perfect, but it is abundant in the blessings, not only sufficient, but more-than-sufficient. I may not know much about wine, but I can say for certain that some wine is just better than other wine. The wine at the wedding feast of Cana was surely amazing, but even that wouldn t be the best wine the disciples would drink on earth. John says this: 5

6 The master of the feast called the bridegroom 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. 7 Jesus is the ultimate Bridegroom and He is the one who supplies the good wine. At the beginning of His three-year earthly ministry, Jesus performs this miracle at Cana and provides good wine, literally. But at the end of those three years on earth, Jesus follows the pattern of saving the better wine for later. He provides for the disciples, and for all Christians; for you today, the wine that is the New Covenant in His Blood. This wine, along with the bread, is present with us as the Lord s blood and body in the Eucharist. As amazing as the wine at Cana was, it is nothing compared to the wine of the Sacrament of the Altar that grants us faith and forgiveness of sins. Ultimately the hour will come for Christ to return again in glory. Then we will be brought to the great wedding feast with the perfect Bridegroom. We will receive the wedding gifts: unending, unimaginable outpourings of God s blessings for us. Until then, we are free to recall that Christ has taken responsibility for our shortcomings, forgiven us, placed His righteousness upon us, supplied us with abundance, and through the good wine of the Gospel, promises to continue to bless us throughout eternity with Him. And now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. 2nd Sunday of Epiphany (Historic One-year series) Psalm 67; Exodus 33:12-23; Ephesians 5:22-33; John 2:1-11 January 20, 2019 Vicar Isaac Wirtz Soli Deo Gloria 7 John 2:9b-10, ESV. 6